1900 - Ellen Nellie Stewart

1900 - Ellen 'Nellie' Stewart

July 9, 1900

Taiyuan, Shanxi

Ellen Stewart.

Ellen Mary (better known as ‘Nellie’) Stewart was born on May 11, 1871. Her conversion to Christ followed a vision she experienced while a schoolgirl, when she saw the end of the world and an open heaven. The vision had such an impact on her that she immediately and wholeheartedly gave herself to the Lord Jesus Christ, and never looked back. She wrote to her father, “I think it will always be the turning point of my life; for I am really trying now to serve God. I do find it rather hard sometimes, but I have asked God to help me, and I am sure He will.”[1]

After starting work at a kindergarten, Nellie focused all her energy on the children under her care and had little time to think about the mission fields of the world. Gradually, however, the Holy Spirit impressed upon her the needs of the millions of China who were perishing without having heard the name of Jesus. In 1894, when she was 23, Nellie was offered a position teaching missionary children at Taiyuan. She had never expressed her desire to be a missionary with anyone, and viewed the offer as a confirmation of God’s calling. Her father granted his consent, and before long Nellie was on her way to Taiyuan, where she lived for four-and-a-half years in the home of Dr. and Mrs. E. H. Edwards. The Edwards loved Nellie dearly and came to treat her as one of their own children. The Chinese students she taught also “loved her dearly, all loved her dearly. She gave singing lessons to the Chinese schoolgirls, and for some time devoted her leisure to learning Chinese: this, however, she subsequently gave up, fearing she had not the strength for it as well as her other duties.”[2]

In 1899 Nellie returned home on furlough. The eight months seemed to fly by as she spent time with family and friends, and soon she was on her way back to Taiyuan. The 29-year-old reached Shanxi in May 1900, just before the Boxers slaughtered the missionaries on July 9th. Nellie Saunders was numbered among the slain.