Daily Devotion

“Rudolf Lechler reached Hong Kong in March 1847 with Theodore Hamberg, the first two missionaries the Basel Mission sent to China. He began among the Teochew people, going inland three times between 1848 and 1852 and being forced out by official pressure each time; he then turned to the Hakka and translated the Gospels of Matthew and Luke into their dialect. In 1899, after a fifty-two-year career in China, he and his wife retired to Germany, where he died in 1908. His legacy was the Hakka Christian church.”

Jessie G. Lutz · "The Legacy of Rudolf Christian Friedrich Lechler," International Bulletin of Missionary Research, January 2007

Scripture

Psalm 65:11 You crown the year with your grace; your paths drip with abundance.

Reflection

Missionary Rudolf Lechler spent fifty-two years in China; driven out again and again at first, he gradually took root in the Hakka countryside and left behind a Hakka church. Looking back on such a life, we see God's grace all along the way. In our daily toil, service, or career, we often magnify the difficulties and losses we face, even feeling resentful and complaining. However, those truly upheld by God know how to look beyond the ordinary to see the eternal. They realize that even on seemingly desolate paths and in tears, God silently accompanies and nourishes them. In His plan, giving is not sacrifice, but grace.