1900 - Jane Stevens

July 9, 1900

Taiyuan, Shanxi

Jane Stevens

Jane Stevens first experienced the saving grace of God when she was a little girl. She later wrote, “I was under conviction of sin for days after reading The Life of Wesley. Then I simply took God’s words. I believed that Jesus had died for me, and I praise God that He has never let me doubt since then.”[1]

For five years Stevens worked as a nurse at the Mildmay Nursing Home, serving the sick and elderly in a Christ-like manner. After completing training she was accepted by the China Inland Mission and sailed for the Orient in 1885, where she worked at Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi Province. The extremes of intense summer heat and freezing winters affected her delicate disposition. For much of her 15 years in China she battled illness and loneliness. As a nurse she was accustomed to helping people regain their health, but she herself was frail and frequently sick. When a friend suggested that she might consider returning to the gentler climate of her home country, Stevens replied, “I don’t feel I have yet finished the work God has for me in China…. Perhaps—who knows?—I may be among those allowed to give their lives for the people.”[2]

Jane Stevens never managed to master the Chinese language, finding the vocabulary and pronunciation a constant struggle. For years she could only speak enough to get by. These difficulties did not deter her, and she threw herself into her nursing work, helping thousands of people. On many occasions she prayed God would send her a close friend that she could work with. After returning to China after a furlough in 1893, Stevens was transferred to Huo Xian where she was paired together with a new missionary recruit, Mildred Clarke. The two became best of friends, and Jane’s prayers were answered. Although neither of them enjoyed robust health, they continually encouraged and spurred one another on to good works. During the intense summer heat in 1900 the duo sought respite in Taiyuan. While there, Stevens and Clarke were among the group of missionaries beheaded in the courtyard of Governor Yu Xian. After news of her martyrdom reached England one of Stevens’ former nursing colleagues remembered a message she gave during her visit to England in 1893:

“She spoke of possible martyrdom, and yet returned cheerfully and willingly to her post. [This] made a deep impression on myself and on others who heard her. When the news of the awful massacre reached us, her words and the look of peace and joy which lit up her face as she spoke them, came back to us as a most sacred and blessed memory which we shall ever hold.”[3]

1. Broomhall, Martyred Missionaries of the China Inland Mission, 132.
2. Hefley, By Their Blood, 14.
3. Broomhall, Martyred Missionaries of the China Inland Mission, 133.