Eric Liddell’s fiery chariots --HIRD

by Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird

How often does a Chinese-born missionary to China become the subject of an academy award-winning movie? The people of China see Eric Liddell as their first Olympic gold medalist, even recently unveiling a statue of him. His daughter, Patricia Liddell, commented, “My father was multi-faceted, he didn’t just appeal to religious people. He was born in China, he worked in China, he died in China. He’s their Olympic hero.”

In the movie, Chariots of Fire, he is shown running for the glory of God in the 1924 Olympics. Known as the ‘Flying Scotsman’, he famously said: “God made me fast, and when I run, I feel His pleasure.” When asked how he ran so quickly, he often said that he ran as fast as he could for the first half of a race, and then asked God to help him run even faster for the second half. Liddell won so much gold and silver that his mother hid his trophies under her bed at night, in case of burglary.

Missionary families often make great sacrifices for the sake of the lost. Born in 1903 at Siao Chang on the Great Plain of Northern China, Liddell, and his older brother Robert, were sent in 1912 to the Eltham missionary boarding school in London. While at Eltham, Liddell earned the Blackheath Cup as the best athlete of his year, becoming the captain of both the cricket and rugby union teams. He did not see his mother again for seven years, and his dad for 13 years. Since he only knew Chinese culture, he experienced enormous culture shock in his parents’ homeland of Scotland.

While earning a chemistry degree at the University of Edinburgh, he was not only a track and field runner, but also became an award-winning rugby player for the Scottish national team. Being painfully shy, Liddell never could have imagined that he would become the most famous person in Scotland. Chemistry Professor Neil Campbell at Edinburgh commented, “No athlete has ever made a bigger impact on people all around the world, and the description of him as ‘the most famous, the most popular, and best-loved athlete Scotland has ever produced’ is no exaggeration.” Dunky Wright, Scotland’s greatest long-distance runner, said, “he was without doubt the most glorious runner I have ever seen …with such a high moral Christian character…”

Liddell had a unique running style that coaches tried to cure without success. The New York Times noted that he seemed to do everything wrong. The Daily Mail sketched him in a cartoon as if he were a rubber contortionist. Throwing his head back, he swayed and rocked like an overloaded express train. He was compared to a startled deer, a windmill with its sails off kilter, a terrified ghost, and someone whose joints had never been oiled. Jack Moakley, the wisest and oldest of the American Olympic running team, said, “That lad Liddell’s an awful runner, but he’s got something. I think he’s got what it takes.”

It hurt Liddell deeply when many called him a traitor for being unwilling to run on Sunday at the Olympics. His strong Christian convictions led him to refuse to work on Sundays, including winning gold medals. His stunning gold Olympic win in the 400 metres turned him from a national embarrassment to a celebrated hero. The closest parallel to his new fame was Beatlemania, complete with an actual Eric Liddell fan club.

For Liddell, the 1924 Olympics was just a brief diversion on his way to serve as a missionary in China. Before he boarded the boat to China, enormous crowds came to hear him speak in churches. More than 1,000 people had to be turned away sometimes because there was no more room.

Liddell served in China as a missionary chemistry teacher from 1925 to 1943, first in Tientsin (Tainjin) and later in Siaochan. In 1941, the fighting between the Chinese and invading Japanese forces became so dangerous that he was forced to send his Canadian wife Florence and their three children back to Canada. Kissing his wife goodbye, he whispered in her ear, ‘Those who love God never meet for the last time.’ The Japanese occupiers did not allow Liddell to hold church services with any more than ten people present. So he met nine people for afternoon tea, giving out copies of his sermon. These nine people then each met nine other people giving them copies of the sermon until everyone was reached. This became known as the Afternoon Tea Church.

Over 1,000 missionaries were imprisoned by the Japanese, many of whom died. In 1943, Liddell was sent to the Weixhan Internment Camp in modern-day Weifang, Shandong, with 1,800 other prisoners, including 100 other missionaries’ children. While interned in this 150 by 200 yard camp, he helped the elderly, taught Bible classes at the camp school, arranged games, and taught science to the children, who referred to him as Uncle Eric. David J. Michell, a child internee, remarked, “He had a smile for everyone.” Sports Writer A.A. Thomson said of Liddell, “During the worst period of his imprisonment, he was, through his courage and cheerfulness, a tower of strength and sanity to his fellow prisoners.”

Sometimes he ran races against the Japanese guards in order to allow food and medicine to be smuggled in for the starving inmates.

Liddell never saw his family again, dying at age 38 in the internment camp of a brain tumour, just months before the WW II liberation. His last words were, “It’s complete surrender.” Adopted by the Chinese as their very own, he is commemorated in a monument in Weifang, featuring these words from Isaiah: “They shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary.” What might it take for us to feel God’s pleasure for the sake of the nations?

Rev. Dr. Ed and Janice Hird
co-author of For Better, For Worse Discovering the keys to a lasting relationship

Look Up, Waaaaay Up!

I enjoy Fall beauty in nature and the blessings of everyday and also anticipate the Thanksgiving holiday. Autumn, for me, lends itself to wistful reflection. And so, I occasionally hark back to summer days and former joys. I begin with one.
 

I'm sorry I didn't take a pic of
those amazing clouds that day!

“Look, there’s a rabbit. It’s running! See its nose . . . and ears?”  “Yep! They’re really clear.” My beloved and I were having coffee on the deck. We gazed upwards into a gorgeous blue sky painted with wispy, slow-moving clouds.

Soon we saw a dog, clearly resembling a Scottie or a Yorkie – sweetly cute, with distinct facial features – eyes and ears, nostrils and mouth and basic body shape, then next a huge fish. All were clearly distinguishable. Gradual change: The rabbit’s features began to lengthen, morphing in turn to a fawn, a goat and a horse.

Some folk attach significance to the figures they see in cloud formations or in other things. I knew a guy in Scotland who perceived the outline of South Africa in a marking that had formed on a bar of soap and figured that God was sending him there.

Soon his wife and family found themselves aboard ship with all their worldly possessions, heading halfway around the world. He was absolutely sincere. Was he a crank? Lord knows. He and his wife have since passed away, but their daughters now have their own families – not in South Africa, but back home in Scotland.

Courtesy: Free Google Images

A generation or two of preschool Canadians began their morning eagerly awaiting the invitation to “Look up, waaaaay up!” Lounging on the sofa or on the floor of their living rooms – some probably picking away at a bowl of Cheerios™ or Cocoa Pops® – little people in the thousands across the country followed the camera sweep of The Friendly Giant’s big leather boot, all the way up to his cheerful round face. And then they’d see Rusty the chicken and Jerome the giraffe puppets.

I’m sure The Friendly Giant’s mellow intonations inviting kids to view another episode of that children’s morning TV show still resonate warmly in many an adult memory today.

Those recognizable figures we perceive forming in the clouds high overhead have much to do with perspective and perception. The shapes resembling either objects or living things are not merely associated with the eye, but also with the mind. The eye and faculty of sight enable us to see, while the mind perceives, analyses and interprets what is seen.

Courtesy: Free Google Images

The youngsters see the huge, tall man with the long boots and his animal friends contrasting in size with the tiny furniture on the TV production set, and they believe that Friendly really is a kind and gentle giant. Rusty and Jerome, Friendly’s pals, become the kids’ pals too.

Our two younger sons used to watch the program; it was wholesome viewing. The little people had to look waaaaay up if they were to see the giant’s friendly face and his pals, and to follow the goings on at the castle each day.

Dreadful, heinous things are going on in the world around us, some at home, but especially abroad. Should we bury our heads in the sand and pretend it’s not happening? Do we fixate on the evil and darkness?

Acknowledge it, we must. But let us not fail to accept the warm invitation to look up, waaaaay up, to our Creator God, our Heavenly Father, and receive courage and hope, and be warmed in our souls and strengthened in our spirits to live in the light of His grace and love and to share it?

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, “Light of the world, You stepped down into darkness; Open our eyes, let us see Your Beauty . . .”*                                                              

~~~

*Paraphrased from song by Tim Hughes; © Thankyou Music.

~~+~~

Peter A. Black lives in Southwestern Ontario. He writes a weekly inspirational newspaper column, P-Pep! and is author of Raise Your Gaze ... Mindful Musings of a Grateful Heart, and Parables from the Pond.

The Girl - by Peter A. Black

It’s the big day! Three double-decker buses roll to a stop, kissing the kerb. All is abuzz. Little kids, teens and adults – mums and dads, singles and seniors, are herded aboard. Today’s the Annual Sunday School Outing, eagerly anticipated; a highlight excursion to a country park by the banks of Lochwinnoch.


Three Buses like those in the background

Fun galore – races for every age group and lots of prizes; sneaking off with a couple of pals to explore, then falling into the water and getting soaked . . . again, this year? Brief, stiff lecture about wandering off.



Credit: Lochwinnoch.info

Breathe it in – the familiar smell of wood-fire smoke, blending with the mellow odor of damp woollen clothes drying out. Body gradually warming up in chill Scottish air, fingers cradling a cup of hot sugary tea. Hmm. Lunch – everyone gets the same: a tasty Scottish spiced-sausage pie, fern cupcake, Blue Riband caramel wafer bar and a big round, icing-topped cherry-in-the-middle jam-filled Empire Biscuit, or maybe a shiny red-and-green apple.

~~~
What a grand view from the upper deck! Almost all are aboard now – all two-hundred-plus of us. Church door and gates are locked, Mr. F              climbs on board our idling bus. Engines roar and gears engage. We’re off!

Her printed cotton dress moves gently in the breeze. Her brown hair – not too short, but not too long, either – doesn’t hide her endearing round, rosy cheeks. What do her eyes say, as she stands all alone, gazing up, eyes scanning the windows? The lower deck? The upper deck?



Source: MRM Black

I gaze into those eyes; a fleeting second is all I have. What do I see? Disappointment? Sadness? What does she feel?

Mystified?

Abandoned?
Unsure?
Afraid?

Left behind, all alone . . . on a city side-street, outside the padlocked gate of a church.

What will she do now? What will happen to her?

I’m on the bus. I’m ten.
She’s . . . three-and-a-half, maybe four.
~~~
I’ve wondered about that little girl more often than I can recall during the more than six decades since that day.

She tugs at my heart every time.

~~+~~
Peter, now retired from fulltime pastoral service, is an author, inspirational columnist and songwriter living in Southwestern Ontario. He enjoys singing and playing sacred music and praise songs – especially for his friends in a number of residential care facilities and in area congregations.

~ Raise Your Gaze ... Mindful Musings of a Grateful Heart

~ Parables from the Pond

Contact 

 

The Irreplaceable Sandford Fleming-HIRD

By Rev. Ed Hird+

Recently I dropped over to my friend Keith Cameron who had inspired the ‘Captain Robert Dollar’ article. Keith was so pleased by the Deep Cove Crier article that he gave me another tip: “Write about Sir Sandford Fleming, a Scottish Canadian. Fleming was a thinking renaissance man, organizing time for the world. Fleming was a man’s man, bold and adventurous”

When I ask many people about Sandford Fleming, they are tempted to confuse him with Alexander Fleming who discovered penicillin. At age 17, Sandford Fleming emigrated to Canada from his hometown Kirkaldy in Scotland.

Sandford Fleming’s remarkable discovery was time, Standard Meridian Time. In the 19th Century, there were 144 different time zones in North America. Every city was its own Greenwich, having its own personal time zone. As Clarke Blaise put it, “Every self-respecting town on the continent had a right to its own newspaper, its own baseball or cricket team, and its own individual time.”

Sandford Fleming served as the Chief Engineer and Surveyor for the Canadian Pacific Railway. He was an amazing visionary, first proposing a sea to sea railway in 1858, well before people would take him seriously. Several top Canadians told Fleming that since Canada already had sixteen miles of railway, there was no longer a need for engineers! He should just go back to Scotland. A few years later, Fleming became the sole engineer to oversee the survey for the Intercolonial Railway linking the Maritimes to Quebec. As an engineer, Fleming loved anything to do with engines and railways. .

Railway engines brought unimaginable new speed to the vast land of Canada. They also brought new disasters when locomotives crashed into each other because of different time clocks. Sandford knew that it was time to figure out what time it really was. Going to the UK to argue for standardized time, he was snubbed and not even allowed to present his scheduled paper. Jealousy between European nations for a long time paralyzed initiatives to make Greenwich Time the standard time around the world. Sandford showed remarkable perseverance in bringing us the Standard Time that we now take for granted. As Hugh MacLean put it, “Fleming never knew when he was licked.”


Sandford was there at the 1864 Charlottetown Conference which birthed the nation of Canada. He was there for the Last Spike at Craigellachie in November 7th 1885 when Canada was joined by rail from sea to sea. Sandford Fleming has been called ‘the outstanding Canadian of the nineteenth century’.


Where would Canada be today without dedicated engineers like Fleming? Engineers have built Canada from the ground up. Clark Blaise comments: “The engineering profession, always a high calling – and often a source of profound despair – for Fleming, is the link between science and society. The engineer calculates the cost of change, understands debentures and interest rates, the politically possible, the socially beneficial. He reads the future.” As a person of faith, Fleming saw the Engineering profession through the eyes of Isaiah 40 which talked about every valley being exalted: “It is one of the misfortunes of the profession to which I am proud to belong that our business is to make and not to enjoy; we no sooner make a rough place smooth than we must move to another and fresh field, leaving others to enjoy what we have accomplished.”

In 1872 Sandford and his good friend the Rev. George Grant led an expedition to BC in order to survey the future Canadian Pacific Railway. The travelogue they wrote about their adventures became a Canadian best-seller. Both Sandford and George shared a deep Christian faith that sustained them through many trials and tribulations. Wherever Sandford went, he always found time to worship on Sundays, even if it was simply kneeling by the railway tracks and giving thanks to Almighty God. Sandford even wrote a simplified worship service that travellers and busy construction crews could use.

Sandford was always inventing. He created Canada’s first postage stamp, the three-penny beaver. In 1849, he founded the Royal Canadian Institute which became the Royal Society of Canada, a leading scientific institute. He wrote twelve books and served as Chancellor of Queen’s University for thirty-five years. Despite enormous opposition, Fleming built the world’s first sub-Pacific cable bringing instantaneous communication around much of the world. It was for this amazing feat that Queen Victoria knighted Fleming in 1897.

My prayer for those reading this article is that we too like Sir Sandford Fleming may be creative, persevering, and ground-breaking.

The Reverend Ed Hird+
Rector, St. Simon’s North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons

http://www.battleforthesoulofcanada.blogspot.com/

-published in the September 2009 Deep Cove Crier