1900 - Ruth Fan

July 31, 1900

Taigu, Shanxi

In 1880 a sweet Chinese girl named Ruth was born into the Fan household at Tongzhou near Beijing. She had several younger brothers, so from an early age Ruth learned how to take care of children as she helped her frail mother. When she was old enough, Ruth was sent to attend the Bridgman Christian School in Beijing. In those days few girls received an education, but Ruth’s mother was determined that her daughter would break the pattern and herald a new dawn for women in the family. Although she was not a naturally gifted student, Ruth worked hard and left no stone unturned in her desire to please God and gain more knowledge of Him. She rose to the top of her class.

Ruth graduated in January 1900. She gave a farewell speech, not realising that she and more than 20 of her classmates were to taste martyrdom later that year. Ruth Fan accepted a job teaching in faraway Shanxi Province, where the school run by Mary Partridge at Li Man village was short-staffed. The whole church in the Taigu area was overjoyed when the 19-year-old teacher arrived. Soon more than 20 Chinese girls enrolled.

Unfortunately, her work in Shanxi was cut off just two months later. When the Boxers attacked Taigu, Ruth took refuge with the missionaries in Taigu. Each night shouting and murderous threats were heard outside the mission gate, but Rowena Bird wrote, “Ruth is as quiet and self-contained as any one could be.”[1] The missionaries decided it was more advantageous to flee into the mountains and Ruth initially went with them, before abandoning the plan and returning to Taigu. She wrote, “These few days since I returned from my flight have been indeed sorrowful. I know certainly that, if the Lord wills that I still live on this earth, there is no one who can harm me. I now commit myself into the Lord’s hands…. May God be with you till we meet again.”[2]

The end came about 2:30 in the afternoon on July 31st. A mob of Boxers used kerosene to burn down the gate of the mission compound. Ruth Fan was one of those inside a small hut with no doors or windows, just a tiny opening in which to get in and out. A soldier climbed onto the roof of the hut, and it collapsed under his weight, revealing the hiding place. The man squealed with unabashed delight. Others rushed over and

“thrust quantities of burning fuel into the room, thus forcing their victims out into the little courtyard…. Not a cry came from the devoted band…. Perhaps, like Stephen, they saw the heavens opened, and the face of Him whom they had followed even to death smiling upon them. Whether they heard his ‘Welcome home’ before the murderers ventured over the wall sword in hand to decapitate them, we do not know.”[3]