Inspired by the Scudder family

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.