BTC Missionaries taught by Oswald Chambers filled the last Tuesday of the month posts in 2018.
They also captured my interest while I wrote Mrs. Oswald Chambers.
A sign marks the BTC
They’re at the heart of My Utmost for His Highest–because anyone who follows Jesus Christ is by definition a proclaimer of the Gospel.
Many of the readings in My Utmost for His Highest were taken from lectures Oswald gave at the Bible Training College (BTC)–which Oswald and Biddy set up to train missionaries.
Did the college work?
That’s what I explored in 2018.
Thoughts on Chambers-trained missionaries
Oswald Chambers taught thousands of people during his public ministry.
During his last four years in London, through both the BTC and correspondence courses, he taught more than 3000 students.
But 120 students got his particular attention when over the four years of the BTC’s existence they lived in the house with Oswald, Biddy and their daughter Kathleen.
I called them the “BTC Regulars” in my blog posts and traced their lives to China, India, Persia, France, darkest Africa, and simple church work around the globe.
They were the professional missionaries–but not the only ones who shared the Gospel after their Chambers experience.
Many took enormous risks and had great adventures: captured by bandits, disappearing into African jungles and surviving the Judean desert on the way to Jerusalem during WWI.
They worked for the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), helped prostitutes escape sex trafficking, oversaw Sunday schools and ran the parish jumble sales in small English villages.
Everywhere they went, however, they took the Gospel–no matter the dangers.
I often shook my head–where does the courage come to face such challenges?
Meeting the families of missionaries
One of the most heart-warming experiences for me was “meeting” the families of the BTC missionaries.
I never physically met anyone, but they kindly shared emails, stories, and photos.
Most, if not all, had no idea their grandparents, cousins, aunts or uncles had any connection to Oswald Chambers, much less Biddy or My Utmost for His Highest.
Chambers’ teaching notes in his Bible
Finding the church where the Hancocks ministered in the 1940s netted a story someone wrote for their church magazine 60 years ago!
The church secretary actually found members who remembered Reverend Philip Hancock!
But what happened to their family members often was a direct result of those times at the BTC.
Kathleen Chambers never married and while she continued her mother’s work with the Oswald Chambers Publication Association, Ltd, she had no children. Oswald and Biddy’s “line” ended at Kathleen’s death in 1997.
Why are missionaries important?
These BTC missionaries and everyone who reads My Utmost for His Highest and comes away with a great sense of God at work, are the Chambers’ legacy.
They began the BTC to train missionaries for a spiritually lost world.
As the December 17 reading from My Utmost for His Highest explains:
“The creative power of the redemption of God works in the souls of men only through the preaching of the gospel. It is never the sharing of personal experiences that saves people, but the truth of redemption.
“The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).”
For this writer?
I spent plenty of time on “research rabbit trails,” chasing down what became of Chambers’ students.
The stories captured my attention. The BTC missionaries’ lives left me awed by their dedication.
Found the BTC in 2013!
Truly, they accomplished what Oswald and Biddy gave their lives to provide: insight, understanding and a way of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.
Well done, good and faithful students. Many lives, including mine, have been blessed by your work!
Here’s a list of the blog posts about the Bible Training College and the BTC missionaries.
Oswald Chambers and the Bible College Part I
Oswald Chambers and BTC Bible School Part II
Bible School Students and Oswald Chambers Part III
Jimmy Hanson: BTC Regular Jimmy ended up running a mission in London’s East End. He served with the OCPA Ltd. His family still serves in ministry today.
Miss Ashe: BTC Regular Miss Ashe never married and became a social justice warrior in Cairo.
Gladys Ingram Donnithorne: BTC Regular Gladys spent the rest of her life in China with her missionary husband.
Hancock: Phillip and Kathleen: BTC Regulars Phil and Kathleen went to seminary in San Francisco, served in Persia and ended up ministering in British churches.
Eva Spink Pulford: BTC Regular Eva married a soldier she met at Zeitoun, followed him to seminary in London and served in Anglican parishes the rest of her life.
Her son and grandson both became Anglican priests.
Charles Rae Griffin: BTC Regular and Publisher Was the backbone of Biddy’s publishing efforts and served with the OCPA Ltd. The family continues in ministry in England.
The Riley family: BTC Regulars The women never married but one went to China to work with orphans. One of the men became a pastor in Canada and the US. The family remains in ministry.
Isabel Craddock: BTC missionary to India She never married but served blind girls at a school.
Mary Riley: Oswald and Biddy’s friend Never married but remained a close friend of Biddy’s and helped with the OCPA Ltd.
Sam Staniford Went to Africa with C.T. Studd.
Peter Kay: A post-BTC Oswald Chambers student returned to Australia and ran Sunday schools the rest of his life.
Michelle Ule–loved researching all the BTC missionaries and reads My Utmost for His Highest every day.
She’s not related to anybody, but teaches Bible study on Tuesday mornings!
Tweetables
What happened to Oswald Chambers’ students? Did he make a difference? Click to Tweet
The fruit of Oswald Chambers’ teaching: missionaries around the world–and their families. Click to Tweet
What is Oswald Chambers’ lasting impact on the world? Click to Tweet
Thoughts? Reactions? Lurker?