1927 - Morris & Ruth Slichter

April 9, 1927

Shizong, Yunnan

During the 1920s China was in a state of lawless upheaval, with mobs and gangs roaming the countryside looking for any opportunity to attack the defenseless. These threats, coupled with the Civil War between the Communists and the Nationalists, meant that missionaries and Chinese believers faced a multi-faceted threat.

In 1927 the Slichter family, who worked with the China Inland Mission at Anshun in Guizhou Province, decided the situation had deteriorated to such an extent that they could no longer remain at their post. Morris Slichter, his wife, their two children John (6) and Ruth (3), and a single female missionary May Craig, set out from Anshun with plans to reach the coast of China by traveling through Yunnan Province. From the coast they hoped to catch a boat to safety in Hong Kong. Their journey appeared to be progressing well as they made their way into Yunnan, traveling under military guard. After passing the town of Luoping they were about ten miles (16 km) from Shizhong on April 9, 1927, when a band of robbers suddenly attacked them. As the first shots were fired the guards sent to protect them suddenly fled, leaving the missionaries unprotected in a rice field. Ignoring the missionaries’ cries for mercy,

“one bandit fired at Mrs. Slichter who was holding her three-year-old daughter Ruth in her arms. The bullet passed through the child’s head and ripped a gash across the mother’s left wrist. Another robber stabbed Mr. Slichter in the back. He fell dead without a sound.”[1]

The two helpless women and six-year-old John were left alone and terrified, facing the murderers by themselves. The bandits raced off in pursuit of the missionaries’ guards and coolies. Struck down with grief and anguish, the survivors sat there dazed. About 30 minutes later the bandits returned and decided to take the two women and child captive, adding more pain to their already horrific ordeal. May Craig recalled that after being taken to a nearby village,

“the body of Mr. Slichter was brought into the village and tossed into a stable. They refused to bring Ruth’s body, but Mrs. Slichter and I succeeded in carrying her thither ourselves. Next morning when we saw Mr. Slichter’s body it had been robbed of all clothing. Under the cruel, unsympathetic and evil gaze of these terrible men and with a little dirty tub, which held still dirtier water, we managed to bathe and reclothe the body and place it, with that of Ruth’s, into a coffin obtained in the village.”[2]

The next morning the bandits forced the two women and young boy to march with them into the rugged mountains, as news had spread that government soldiers were coming to rescue the survivors. For more than a week they scrambled over the hills, “terrible days filled with suspense and terror,”[3] as May Craig later described them.

On April 15th a battle broke out between the bandits and government troops, but the kidnappers managed to flee further into the hills with their hostages. The following day May Craig was released. The men left a letter with her to give to the soldiers, threatening to murder Mrs. Slichter and her son if they would continue their pursuit. About a week later government officials managed to negotiate the release of the exhausted mother and son. They were taken to a hospital where they made a speedy recovery, and were able to leave China soon after. Despite all of her experiences, it was said of Mrs. Slichter, “While she is greatly stunned by the blow…she yields herself uncomplainingly to the will of God, and is trusting Him for all that is to come.”[4]

1. Hefley, By Their Blood, 51-52.
2. “In Peril of Robbers,” China’s Millions (July 1927), 110.
3. “In Peril of Robbers,” 111.
4. “In Peril of Robbers,” 111.