“God preserved me so I might tell the story of my life and of God’s goodness to me,” wrote Jeanette Li in her autobiography. And readers might expect her to share stories indicating a life of continual blessing.
They would be wrong.
Jeanette Li (known first as Li Mao Ya, or “Jasmine Bud”), was born in 1899 and grew up in Southeast China with a large extended family of forty-plus people. They lived in hardship and poverty along with most everyone else in the village.
At age six, Jeanette suffered her first trauma—her beloved father died.
Many more ordeals followed, including:
At age 9: Jeanette contracted malaria and received treatment at a mission hospital. One blessing: while there, she and her mother, Taai-So, became Christians.
Perhaps a mission such as this one in central China
When Jeanette was released, they returned home, only to be turned away by their Buddhist family because they’d become Christians. Taai-So and Jeanette returned to the mission and lived there.
Age 10: The mission was closed due to political strife; all their missionary-friends had to leave.
Age 16: Against Jeanette’s will, Taai-So arranged a marriage for Jeanette, in order to provide for her daughter’s future. Jeanette went to live with her husband’s family under the thumb of a domineering mother-in-law.
Age 20: Jeanette bore a son. But her husband was rarely home, first because he was in school, and then because he was hired as a teacher some distance away. Eventually he married someone else.
Age 32: Jeanette left all she knew to live and serve in bitter-cold Manchuria, requiring her to learn a new language and culture. For thirteen years she traveled by cart on unpaved roads, telling people about Jesus.
Age 38: War broke out between China and Japan in 1937, lasting eight years. Millions died in combat or the result of starvation or disease.
Age 47: The Communists warred against the Nationalists in a three-year civil war, resulting in more suffering and the death of another million-plus people.
Jeanette returned to South China, to the mission where she and her mother had lived. Jeanette was questioned many times by Communist Army officials.
Age 50: All foreign missionaries were constrained to leave China as the Communist Party took power. Jeanette assumed responsibility for the mission-orphanage.
Age 51: She suffered imprisonment for seventeen months, accused of being a counter-revolutionary. Jeanette had to sleep on the floor “in a damp cell infested by mosquitoes, with hardly any food”[1].
They forced her to perform hard labor, and interrogated her day and night. she became ill with fever and developed hemorrhaging dysentery. Her captors offered no medical treatment [2].
Some would ask, “Where was God in all this? The poor woman endured such hardship, pain, and unfair treatment!”
Jeanette would have us know that God graciously involved himself throughout her life, blessing her, and bringing her joy:
He was there during the siege of malaria that took Jeanette and her mother to the regional mission. God spared Jeanette’s life and introduced them to Jesus.
When they returned home, God used the family upheaval to lead the two back to the mission. Taai-So obtained employment and they grew in their Christian faith.
God brought good out of the abandonment of Jeanette’s husband, providing the opportunity for her to obtain a teaching certificate. She was able to support her son as a teacher and then as school administrator.
God fulfilled Jeanette’s desire to tell others about Jesus and made it possible for her to serve in Manchuria, teaching in village after village.
God led her to return to South China where he used her to assume leadership of the mission-orphanage, putting to use her skills as educator and administrator.
God sustained Jeanette during her imprisonment as she suffered acute misery with grace, courage, and stamina—a witness to all in the prison of God’s power at work in her life.
God also spared her life as illness and weakness nearly overcame her.
After her release, God provided for her recovery and subsequent missionary-work in Canton.
God bestowed a miraculous escape from Communist China, first to Hong Kong where she ministered to children and refugees, and finally, in 1962, to Los Angeles, California where her son already lived.
Throughout her life, Jeanette was one of those “true saints who [could] wear the mismatched pairing of suffering and joy” [3]. And as a result, she drew attention to Christ.
May we do the same.
Addendum: For six years prior to a fatal stroke, Jeanette ministered in the Chinese community of Los Angeles, told her story at every opportunity, and wrote her autobiography.
[1] https://www.placefortruth.org/blog/jeanette-li-and-her-faith-in-gods-promises
[2] Ibid.
[3] https://jenniferdukeslee.com/on-suffering-and-joy-a-lesson-from-the-garden-tomato/
Other Sources:
Image credits: http://www.commons.wikimedia.org; http://www.getarchive.net (2); http://www.canva.com (2); http://www.freebibleimages.org; http://www.getarchives.net.
From the Inside Out 