Have you heard of the term deputation?
- A person or group appointed to represent another or others; a delegation.
- The act of deputing.
- The state of being deputed.
The concept comes from the 14th century and refers to sending a delegation in place of the actual ruler.
Some used it during the American Civil War when men paid others to go in their place.
You may have heard it in Westerns–“I’m going to deputize you to join us in hunting the scoundrels.”
It’s also a term once used by religious organizations to fund missionaries.
(Other terms include “to raise support, itinerating, home ministry, or home service.”)
Charles and Lettie Cowman’s form of Deputation Tour
During the first two decades of the 20th century, Lettie and Charles Cowman spent many months on deputation tours.
They traveled all over the United States raising money for the Oriental Missionary Society’s (OMS) work in Japan.
Seeking both financial and prayer support, the Cowmans spoke to Christian organizations, churches, and often week-long camp meetings. Travels to England took them to halls run by Pentecostal and prayer ministries.
As the OMS ministry expanded to include Bible schools in Korea and China and to fund the Great Village Campaign, the tours grew in number and length.
Deputation tours took place while home on furlough–time away from the mission field. (The idea was to rest and touch base with family and friends for at least a few months).
But the need to share the Gospel constantly drove Charles Cowman.
While in the United States, he and Lettie may have rested a few weeks, but they soon began traveling by train across the country, west to east, and south to north.
The trips were arduous.
As Bud Kilbourne wrote years later:
Deputation work is not an easy task and we generally finish such a campaign physically undone, but oh, what a joyful work it is as we meet those who clasp our hands and tell us how they have long prayed for and helped the work.”
The Orieintal Missionary Standard October 1929
The deputation tours provided opportunities for missionaries to meet those who supported them and sent them to foreign lands to minister. By supporting missionaries, the “folks back home” did not have to go themselves.
Some people are called to be evangelists, some are not. But just because people may not have those skills, doesn’t mean they couldn’t support those who do.
What was it like for the Cowmans on their deputation tour?
In the early 1900s, the Far East was a mysterious place. The Cowmans liked to wear Japanese clothing to give folks a sense of their lives overseas.
In painting word pictures of their ministry needs and successes, they emphasized the cultural and spiritual differences between Tokyo, Korea, or China compared to the US or England.
As a businessman, Charles Cowman liked numbers. He always carried a map and enjoyed showing his listeners where the ministry was expanding, and how many people attended their Bible Training Institute or teaching ministry.
(They liked to describe the number of consecutive nights they’d held services at a Tokyo hall they rented upon arrival in 1901. The final number: 3000 nights in a row, usually with Juji Nakada preaching).
At camp meetings, Charles usually spoke first, providing details.
Lettie, however, was the star.
Missionaries Edward and Rachel Erny described Lettie on the podium as:
direct, winningly gracious, and charmingly animated. She could take her audience with a word, a gesture.
Quietly, without resorting to histrionics, she could communicate the white-hot fervor of her soul and share the excitement and nobility of their calling. She employed her gifts without apology in the interests of a needy world.”
No Guarantee But God, p. 73
Dressed in her kimono, she sang in a trained soprano voice, “His Love Can Never Fail,” as well as hymns in Japanese.
Along with other missionaries, the Cowman’s deputation tours kept the Bible Training Institutes in Japan, Korea, and China, funded for many years.
Charles Cowman himself, retired from missionary life while on a deputation tour. Sent home exhausted by a physician, he lived as an invalid for seven years. During that time, Lettie wrote Streams in the Desert.
The End Result?
Farmers, housewives, students, businesspeople, church-goers, and folks from all walks of life donated funds in support of sharing the Gospel.
The amount of the donation was not as important as the prayer support.
(Indeed, the way funds arrived right on time was miraculous!)
In 1907, a British woman asked Lettie at a meeting how much it would cost to put the Word of God into a neglected Japanese Village.
Charles Cowman did a rough calculation. He estimated that day an entire Japanese village could be evangelized for about $5. ($140 in 2020).
Groups began to commit just that sum.
And thus began what turned into the Great Village Campaign.
Deputation Tours today
The missionaries I know today spend time contacting people over the Internet, yes, but also in public.
For the three I know well, their first request is for prayer.
They all know, as Oswald Chambers liked to say, “Prayer does not prepare us for the greater work; it is the greater work.”
I appreciate my friends. They’re scattered around the planet presenting the Gospel.
Praying for them, and sending funds from time to time, is the least I can do.
And certainly, God is pleased that His teachings go out to all with ears to hear. Thanks be to God.
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