The Early Days of Darlene Deibler

I recently began reading a book called Evidence Not Seen, by Darlene Deibler. She and her husband Russel were missionaries to the Pacific Islands, with a burden specifically for New Guinea. They arrived on the island of Java in 1938, on their first wedding anniversary. Shortly after arriving in Java, Russel was sent from the mission post to explore the heart of New Guinea and return with valuable information about the native people and the innermost parts of the island, which were both unfamiliar to the modern world. Later he would establish a mission post of his own for himself and Darlene, who would eventually join him. Here are some of the accounts regarding their establishment in New Guinea.

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In February word came that Russell would be arriving from Manokwari [home from his three month long expedition]...When the steamer eased into port at Macassar, I was nearly bursting with excitement. Positioned at the front of those gathered to greet disembarking passengers, I was totally dismayed when I saw a gaunt wasted stranger...When I heard his voice, I knew it was Russell, but the voice shouldn't belong to this emaciated stranger [he had lost more than sixty pounds]. I quickly looked down, not wanting him to see my uneasiness. My shyness amused him, but the shock I felt, thinking of what he must have suffered, was with me for days.

He walked with considerable pain, and once back at the house, when he removed his shoes and socks, I knew why. There was no skin on his insteps, the balls of his feet, or any of his toes. He had a serious, advanced case of jungle rot. Dr Jaffray immediately sent for a doctor, who came to the house to examine Russell's feet. Turning to me, he said "Do you see this tissue that is sloughing off? Each morning take tweezers and tear off every layer until you reach the raw, throbbing flesh. Don't apply the ointment that I'm giving you until that rotting tissue is removed. This will be very painful, but there is no other way to get the fungus that has caused Mr Deibler's condition."

One morning Dr Jaffray walked into the bedroom and saw me tearing the dead tissue off Russell's feet, the blood and pus running. A wave of nausea passed over his face; then he turned and without a word abruptly left the room. He closeted himself in his bedroom, and when I called him at noon, he said he would not be out for lunch. About four that afternoon, he walked out and laid a manuscript on the table in front of me. I picked it up and read the editorial for our field magazine, The Pioneer.

"This morning I looked at the bleeding feet of a missionary, saw his wife tending them, saw the blood and pus running from them and thought to myself, "What a nauseating sight that is!" But, as I walked from the room, the Lord kept saying to me, "Oh, but to Me they are beautiful feet!" Then I remembered--"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings."--good tidings to men and women like those in New Guinea who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. Someday it will all be over. Someday the tired, bleeding feet of the missionaries will for the last time cross those limestone mountains. Someday for the last time they will go down into one of those newly discovered valleys. Someday for the last time they will speak the message of redemption through Jesus Christ our Lord. Someday that last one will turn to Jesus. Then the clouds will part asunder and our Saviour will be there."

Reverently, I laid the manuscript on the table and lifted my tear-filled eyes toward the east. I knew that soon I would join the long line of intrepid missionary pioneers who had walked into the unknown to life up His ensign on the mountains and lay a claim for the Lord.

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Not long after recovering from his exploration, Russell was sent on his second expedition. This time he was to establish connections with the indigenous tribal people and begin building the mission post for himself and Darlene. This second account tells of Darlene's eventual call to join Russell in New Guinea, ending their separation which had lasted more than seven months.

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"Lord," I prayed, "If those people are ever to believe and understand about You, women will have to go there." The moment I spoke those words, an assurance filled me. God spoke clearly in the silence. I threw Russell's letter into the air and yelled, "I'm going to New Guinea!" Scooping up the pages, I dashed out to find Dr Jaffray. "Dr Jaffray, I'm going to New Guinea!" "Lassie, I've known that for several days. I also had a letter from Russell giving his consent for you to go by trail. I've been waiting for the Lord to show you."

Dr Jaffray and Margaret took me to the ship on January 23, 1940. Our belongings, packed as if by a seasoned professional, were stored below deck in the cargo hull. Dr Jaffray commended me into God's care; then he said, "Remember, Lassie, for centuries the enemy has held these people in darkness. You will now experience satanic opposition such as you have never known. Until Russell's first trip, no one had ever invaded his territory to challenge him, but don't be afraid, for he is a defeated foe, undone by Calvary. Never forget that greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world."

Departure Message

Women's Missions in China, Part 3

"First to go to the women of the Northwest, three months' journey up the Han River, Emily King was the first also to be called Home in May 1881. But before her brief course ended, she had the joy of seeing no fewer than eighteen women baptized in confession of their faith in Christ. Dying of typhoid fever in the city of Hanchung, this it was that raised her above the grief of leaving her husband desolate and their little one motherless. The Man of Sorrows was seeing of "the travail of his soul" among those for whom He had waited long--and she, too, was satisfied. No one understood better than Mr. Taylor the cost at which such work was done; no one followed it with more unfailing prayer.

"I cannot tell you how glad my heart is [he wrote to his mother in the midst of much trial] to see the work extending and consolidating in the remote parts of China. It is worth living for and worth dying for."

*Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret, page 216

Stay Alive, Melissa Yakes

Here is Melissa's summary of the song as it appears on her blog:

"This song is about Jesus preparing His disciples before His crucifixion and ascension. The "stay alive" is referring to your heart not growing cold."

For other similar songs visit her channel at: www.youtube.com/melissayakes

Women's Missions in China, Part 2

"For nearly two months past," Mrs. Nichol wrote from Chung-king, "I have seen some hundreds of women daily. Our house has been like a fair." More than once she fainted from weariness in the midst of her guests--the only white woman in a province of some sixty millions of people--returning to consciousness to find the women fanning her, full of affection and concern. One lady, who cared for her like a mother, would send round her own sedan chair with an urgent request for Mrs. Nichol to return in it immediately. The most comfortable bed in her own apartment was waiting, and sending out all the younger women she would sit down herself to fan the weary visitor till she fell asleep. Then an inviting dinner was prepared, and on no account was Mrs. Nichol allowed to leave until she had a proper meal.

That was the surprise that everywhere awaited the first women who went--the people were glad to see them, were eager often, to hear their message, showing not only natural curiosity but real heart sympathy. And how soon it began to tell--this living and preaching Christ so openly! By the end of the second year after missionary women came on the scene, the pioneers were rejoicing in sixty or seventy converts gathered into little churches in the far inland provinces."

*Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret, pages 215-216

Women's Missions in China, Part 1

The following story is taken from Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret. At this point in the book many men serving in the China Inland Mission were entering into engagement and marriage. Hudson Taylor was very cautious in his consent to this because he knew from experience what these young couples would have to face. Mr. Taylor's first wife Maria spent very little time traveling with him. The majority of her time was spent at the mission headquarters caring for their family, before she lost her life to illness. Mr. Taylor's second wife Jane, the focus of this account, would later become a pioneer for women's missions in China.

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"Six millions of people in North China were facing starvation, in a province in which there were no missionaries save a few Inland Mission pioneers. Children were dying in thousands and young girls being sold into slavery and carried away in troops to cities farther south. Mr. Taylor had come home [to England] burdened with the awful condition and was doing all in his power to forward relief work. Funds were available for the rescue of children, but where was the woman who could go to that stricken province to undertake the work? No white woman had ever been beyond the mountains that separated Shansi from the coast, and to get there meant a two weeks' journey by mule-litter, over dangerous roads, with miserable inns at night.

Yet is was for this undertaking that Mr. and Mrs. Taylor separated when he had been home only a few months. A little worn notebook recalls the experiences through which her faith was strengthened as she waited upon God to know whether or not the call was really from Him. But once she did know, not even the sacrifice involved for Mr. Taylor, whose suggestion it had been, held her back. Two little ones of her own, four older children and an adopted daughter made a young family of seven to leave behind. How were they to be cared for? All her hard questions she brought to God, and He not only answered them, meeting every need as it arose, but gave grace for the parting and all the difficult, dangerous work in China.

After that, it was easier for Mr. Taylor to let other women join the front ranks, when his own wife had led the way. And part of his reward when they were reunited, a year later was to have her with him in China as, in province after province of the interior, women's work quietly opened up."

*Chapter 17, Wider Overflow, pages 214-215