Friday, December 9, 2022

It is the 9th of December 2022. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You may know or remember from this show the story of the evangelical missionary explosion in the 19th century- characters like William Carey and Adoniram Judson. Perhaps the most extraordinary family of missionaries was the Scudders. Dr. John Scudder Sr. was the first medical missionary in India, and 43 members of his family would serve over a combined 1,000 years of service- mostly in India and other parts of Asia.

His son, Dr. John Scudder Jr, who was also a medical missionary in India with his wife Sofia, had 6 children, all boys except the last- Ida Sophia Scudder, who was born on this, the 9th of December in 1870. By the time of her death in India in 1960, it was said you could address a letter to “Dr. Ida, India,” and her fame was such that the letter would reach her.

But Ida never intended to be a missionary- she was born in India but came to America for a furlough with her family during a cholera epidemic. Her parents would leave her with her aunt and uncle in Illinois. When that aunt and uncle decided to go to Japan as missionaries, Ida had to decide where she would go next. Her aunt and uncle were friends with the evangelist Dwight L. Moody who suggested to her that she attend his all-girls school- Northfield, in Massachusetts.

I’ve yet to find a biography of Ida that doesn’t mention her penchant for troublemaking at Northfield, from sneaking out to go into town, stealing a German teacher's horse and buggy, and smoking in the attic.

She would not graduate, however, as, in 1890, her mother became ill, and she left to join her family in India. She was determined not to become a missionary and wrote to a friend that she would serve for a year and then come back to the States. And this is when the famous “three knocks in the night” story occurred. A man came to the medical mission because of his ailing wife but refused to let Dr. John tend to her because of taboos about men examining women. This happened two more times, and each time she had to send the men away. She learned that all three women had died and decided that it was God’s calling on her life to join the family business as a medical missionary.

She returned home and enrolled at the Women’s Medical College in Philadelphia. She would complete her medical training at Cornell Medical College in New York, a school that had only just begun admitting women to the program.

She was determined to open a hospital for women in Vellore, India, and was granted 10,000 by Edward Schell to open the hospital in the name of his late wife. Mary Taber Schell Hospital opened in 1902. In 1909 she opened a nursing school for women, and in 1918 opened a medical school for women.

She would be lauded for her roadside dispensaries that grew from her traveling to remote areas in Southern India to serve the poorest Indians. In 1938 India passed a law requiring medical practitioners to have a university degree. This would lead to the creation of the Christian Medical College and Hospital. It would gain a reputation as one of the leading hospitals in India and is today the largest Christian hospital in the world, with over 2,300 beds. It has been visited and lauded by the likes of Gandhi, Alexander Fleming (he invented penicillin), and Jonas Salk (of the polio vaccine fame).

Ida Sophia Scudder would die in 1860 in her bungalow in Kodaikanal, India. Born on this the 9th of December in 1870, she was 89 years old.

The last word for today comes from the daily lectionary- the benediction from 2 Peter 3:

17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 9th of December 2022, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who also steals horse-drawn carriages and smokes in the attic. He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man excited about tomorrow's Christmas extravaganza- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.