I just finished reading “Dr. Ida,” the life story of Ida
Scudder who served in India for 50 years as a missionary doctor. Why did I let this book sit on my library
shelves so long before I opened it? What
a treasure!
Dr. Ida was a third generation missionary. Her grandfather, Dr. John Scudder, Sr., was a
physician in New York. One day he picked
up a booklet lying on the table at the home of one of his patients. His interest was picqued by “Conversion of
the World or the Claims of the 600 million…”
God convicted his heart and he went to Ceylon first and later to India
as a missionary. His eight children all
followed in his steps, the six sons becoming missionary doctors and all serving
in medical missions in India.
Ida was the daughter of the youngest Scudder son. She lived in India till she was five, and
they were very tough years as a great famine left a trail of death. Young Ida hated the helpless feeling of
seeing so many die without being able to help them. She vowed she would never be a missionary and
never return to India. She built a
carefree, social life in the U.S. until when she was a young woman, her mother
fell ill in India and needed her as a caregiver. Vowing that she would stay only until her
mother was better, Ida returned to India.
One night a Hindu man knocked at her door, urgently seeking
help for his fourteen-year old young wife who was in great distress in
childbirth. He wanted Ida to come, but
she was no doctor and no midwife. The
man refused help from her father. He
could not accept the shame of another man looking upon his wife.
Later that night a Muslim man knocked on her door with a
similar request. Like the Hindu man, he
turned away, accepting that his young wife must die rather than be seen by a
man.
Again the same night another Hindu man knocked with the same
problem. He went away sad, saying that
his wife must die rather than be seen by a man.
The next morning Ida received news that all three of the
young wives had died during the night.
But this time, she was not a helpless child who could do nothing to alieve
their suffering. This time, the message
was clear and she knew it was from God.
She must return to the U.S., but not to an easy, social life. She must become a doctor and return to India
as a missionary. God had shown her a great need, and He had shown her how she
could meet it.
Dr. Ida returned after medical training. She started a one room clinic which grew to
become Vellore Christian Medical Center, the biggest and best-known hospital
and medical training college in all of India.
Ida died in 1960, but the hospital she founded continues, treating over
a million patients every year, all in the name of Christ.
Dr. John Scudder’s eight children were not the only ones to
follow in his steps. In four generations
of the Scudder family, 42 family members became missionaries, giving over 1,100
years of combined missionary service, mostly to India but also to several
countries of the Middle East, and to Ceylon, Tanzania, and Japan.
Lord, I invite You to work in our family according to Your
will, causing our descendants to choose paths that make an eternal difference
for your Kingdom, just as You did for Dr. John Scudder.
Lord, I, too, am a writer as part of the ministry to which
You have called me. I invite You to help
me write things that will help call, encourage and strengthen new generations
of missionaries, just as You used that little booklet, Conversion of the World,
to accomplish such great things.
Do it, Jesus! Amen.
