1931 - Jack Vinson

November 4, 1931

Lianyungang, Jiangsu

John Walker Vinson, commonly known as Jack, was a much-loved Presbyterian missionary. Born at Winnsboro, South Carolina on December 28, 1880, his family moved to Sherman, Texas, when he was a small boy. It was while attending Austin College that Vinson first gained a vision for missions. He volunteered to serve in Africa, but by the time he graduated from college three years later there was an urgent need for new workers in China, so he wilingly agreed to go there instead. Vinson arrived in China on February 4, 1907, and was assigned to Suqian in northern Jiangsu Province.

The 26-year-old had finally arrived at the place of his calling, and he soon buckled down to study the language. An unexpected distraction came along, however. A lovely young single lady, Jeanie Junkin, had also recently arrived in China and was studying at the same mission station. Vinson was too shy to express his feelings for Jeanie verbally, so every evening after seeing her he would return home and write love letters to her. He finally found enough courage to ask for her hand in marriage, to which she joyously consented. They were married in April 1908, and the following year they moved to Haizhou.

Life for the newlyweds was not all bliss. Jack developed a chronic illness which plagued him for the remainder of his life. In early 1917 he was confined to bed for ten weeks with a sickness. He was transported 350 miles (567 km) to Shanghai for treatment, arriving after an arduous week-long journey.

Jeanie also suffered a series of illnesses. She gave birth to six children, but only three survived while three others died before reaching adulthood. After two baby boys, William and Dickie, died, Jeanie wrote:

“We can only be quiet before our Maker, and trust Him to do with us and ours what He will, knowing that He cannot make any mistake, and loves us and the precious little ones better than we can conceive…. I pray that this may in some way be used to make us more fruitful here in this place full of those with sorrow—especially for their babies—with no hope whatever.”[1]

In the fall of 1919 the couple’s poor health necessitated them returning to America for a time of refreshment and medical treatment. Jeanie wrote from aboard the ship taking them across the Pacific: “Mr. Vinson suffers constantly, and gets little good out of his food, as he loses two out of three meals. But one would never know from him anything about it, for he grits his teeth, and goes about as usual, ready for a joke with anyone!”[2]

A few years later their eldest son, Eben, also passed away after suffering from an undiagnosed disease for many months. Despite these severe heartaches the worst was yet to come for Jack Vinson. After giving birth to a daughter in 1923, Jeanie became thinner and weaker, eventually passing into eternity on March 25, 1923. The grieving missionary tried to retain a positive outlook. He told family members,

“We are trying not to take a gloomy view of her death. I have talked it over with the boys, and they understand so well. We speak of Mother as though she had but just slipped into the next room. Indeed I think that she is near us, for I cannot think that heaven is a far away place. The way though is lonely. I miss her at every turn. Miss her love, her counsel…. She was a sweet, gentle mother to her boys. Her heart’s desire was for a little daughter. She was given one of the dearest and most precious of little girls, but her baby is never to know her love and care.”[3]

Faced with the choice of remaining in China as a widower with three children, or returning to America, Vinson chose the former, and threw himself into the work with as much energy as he could muster. When his health permitted, he traveled widely to the churches and mission stations throughout the region, encouraging the Chinese believers and missionaries. He also served as the principal of the Boys’ School at Haizhou.

In November 1931, during a time of great lawlessness and anarchy in China, Vinson was captured by bandits while visiting one of his favourite churches at Yangjiaji village, 18 miles (29 km) from Lianyungang, northern Jiangsu Province. The missionaries considered the village safe as it was surrounded by a high wall and protected by a garrison of 100 government troops. One Saturday night more than 600 bandits overwhelmed the soldiers, looted everything they could lay their hands on, raped young women and girls, and took about 150 people hostage, including Jack Vinson who was still dressed in his pyjamas. By the next day, November 4th, government militia were in hot pursuit of the bandits. When they caught up with the group the bandits, scared of their impending fate, offered Vinson his freedom if he would talk to the troops and persuade them to withdraw. Before agreeing to this, Vinson demanded the release of all Chinese captives. The bandits “refused and tried to shoot their way out. In the melee many bandits were killed, and the survivors fled with Vinson.”[4]

The daughter of a Chinese pastor was one of the captives resucued by the Chinese troops. She recalled hearing a bandit threaten to kill Vinson. The man shouted, “I’m going to kill you. Aren’t you afraid?” The missionary calmly replied, “Kill me, if you wish. I will go straight to God.” They reached a stream with muddy banks that made it difficult to cross. Vinson was struggling to keep up because of a recent appendectomy, and he “fell on his face in exhaustion. The head bandit called back to his men to leave him there, but instead they shot him and brutally beheaded him.”[5]

Jack Vinson was the first Southern Presbyterian martyr in China. His decapitated body was found by missionary Edward Currie, who buried his colleague in a small cemetery at Liangyungang. The bullet that ended the 50-year-old Vinson’s life did not end his ministry. Vinson’s three children—who completed their education in America under the care of an aunt—all later became missionaries. The twin boys, Chal and Jack, served in China, while daughter Jean and her husband Bob Urquhart were a missionaries in Korea.

One of Jack Vinson’s coworkers, E. H. Hamilton, was inspired by his courageous testimony and pened a poem that became famous throughout the China missionary community and around the world, and was later quoted by John Stam just prior to his martyrdom in 1934:

AFRAID?

Afraid? Of what?

To feel the spirit’s glad release?

To pass from pain to perfect peace?

The strife and strain of life to cease?

Afraid?—of that?

Afraid to see the Saviour’s face?

To hear His welcome, and to trace

The glory gleam from wounds of grace?

Afraid?—of that?

A flash—a crash—a pierced heart;

Darkness—light—O heaven’s art!

A wound of his counterpart!

Afraid? of that?

To do by death what life could not —

Baptize with blood a stony plot,

Till souls shall blossom from the spot?

Afraid? of that?

1. Hamilton, I Am Not Afraid!, 7.
2. E. H. Hamilton, I Am Not Afraid! The Story of John W. Vinson, Christian Martyr in China (Nashville, Tennessee: Board of World Mission, 1936), 6.
3. Hamilton, I Am Not Afraid!, 8.
4. Hefley, By Their Blood, 55.
5. Fortosis, Boxers to Bandits, 129.