I.

An interview with a pioneer missionary

An Hour With J. Russell Morse

Stone: When did you first go to the mission field. Brother
Morse?

who has bought us with His own blood. And so we

launched out.

Morse: In 1921, together with Dr. Albert L. Shelton. The

journey beyond the end of the railway made as rapidly as

we could by pack mule caravan took two months. We arrived there two days before Christmas.

Stone: Where were you located? Morse: Batang, in Chinese Tibet. Just six months after

we arrived there, when this great pioneer missionary (Dr. Shelton) was returning from a trip to inner-Tibet, he was shot down by bandits. Many of these Tibetan bandits had benefited by the medical treatment and surgery of Dr.
Shelton; they did not realize who it was because the news hadn't gotten out that he had returned.

At that time I was having some dental trouble, so my wife, Robert, and Eugene (as my only children at five and six years old) stayed out there on the mission field while I went down to the end of the railroad to get my dental work done. I couldn't get it done there and I had to go clear to Hong Kong. My brave wife and these two small children stayed out there until I got back, during a dan gerous time of war and revolution. This was actually the beginning of the Lisu work. This was also the first time that the Communists were trying to take over in China. Stone: What year would this have been? Morse: 1927. In May all the missionaries in China were advised to get out of the country by the shortest route available. So at that time, my wife and Itogether with Eugene and Robert, carried in baskets on the backs of mengot together what of our possessions we could and made this seventy-day journey to the end of the railroad
in north Burma.

Stone: So that left you all by yourselves. Morse: I was with him on the night that he died. At that time I cried out to the Lord in agony because Dr. Shelton was the one who had brought us there. He was the one who had approved us, over the objections of the United Christian Missionary Society. (They opposed us because we had not attended the College of Missions in In dianapolis.) My wife had graduated from the University of Oklahoma. She was a Phi Beta Kappa and we had been taking post-graduate work in Phillips University. I remember praying when Dr. Shelton died, "Lord, if his dream of establishing a hospital as an opening for the gospel in Tibet is not to be realized now, what would you have me to do?" At once it came to my thought that if it would not be possible to work in Tibet, there are regions
on the border of Tibet where no missionaries had ever

Stone: Brother Morse, when the UCMS didn't support you, how did you secure funds?
Morse: We did not realize at that time that there were hundreds of churches and other missionaries as well that

were withdrawing support from the Disciples, because of their modernism and because they were making the res
toration movement into another denomination. We

lived. We prepared to carry on as well as we could. Fol

lowing the death of Dr. Shelton there was a great deal of

controversy. Some felt it was unsafe for missionaries to
travel and establish new stations.

Stone: They wanted you to return home? Morse: The ones did who, during Dr. Shelton's lifetime, had criticized his work. They said that it was a waste of

time to travel among these wild Tibetan people, doing

medical missionary work. Yet when we felt that other missionary work should be established, they didn't want
people to go out into new areas.

Finally after much prayer, my wife and I decided that if

the work couldn't be done under the United Christian

learned that off in the Philippines, in India and Japan, at about the same time others were resigning from the UCMS. Our letters to my mother were shared by her with friends and they started to send support to us through my mother. She just kept up writing her letters and telling other people about the work. Of course they sent in help. After we resigned from the missionary soci ety, very shortly others then started to support this work. When I first went to the mission field in 1921, my mother said, "I'm an old woman, sixty years old. I may never meet you again. But your going out to the mission field is an answer to my prayers even before you were born that I might have a son that I could raise for Him." After that she lived for thirty-two years to be ninety-two years of age and a one-woman-missionary society all of that time! She was our original forwarding agent. Stone: Is there more of an interest in world evangelism among our churches now than there was when you went
out?

Missionary Society (Disciples of Christ), it had to be

done anyway, because Jesus Christ had commanded us to do so. So, in 1926 we resigned from the UCMS. A memorial fund of $250,000 had been raised at the time of
Dr. Shelton's death. We said that if others wanted to

Morse: I feel that one of the greatest events in the restora

tion movement in modem times was when all of these

build a memorial of evangelism among these people in

and around Tibet, we would dedicate ourselves to do
what we could as a memorial to Dr. Shelton and to Him
Page Four (212)

churches decided that they were not going to be a de nomination. They were going to continue in a part of a movement. God has blessed our world outreach. I supCHRISTIAN STANDARD

of George Mark Elliott, G. W. Elliott, was a pioneer evangelist in the horse and buggy days. He went from one place to the other holding revivals in South Dakota. My father became a Christian under the ministry of Brother Elliott. My mother, joined by G. W. Elliott in prayer, asked God that she might have another child that
she could raise for the Lord. The next time that Brother

Elliott came into our area to hold a revival, my father and mother stood there with me in their arms in the receiving line and praised the Lord for answering their prayer. My sister who was about eighteen years older than I was, told me that I also held out my hand to shake hands with the preacher! Stone: That's great! Morse: It was a joy to me, when one of our sons, LaVerne, married Lois Elliott, the daughter of George Mark Elliott, the granddaughter of G. W. Elliott. Stone; You have a lot of missionaries in your family Eugene, Robert, and LaVeme. Morse: Well, it started when my wife and I were wonder ing whether we should leave Eugene and Robert in the United States to go on to school, while we went back alone to the field to carry on. Both Eugene and Robert objected vigorously and said, "You can't run that work out there without us. We've got to go along, too!" Eugene was fifteen years old at that time. They could speak the languages like natives and already had mis sionary experience.

(PhoFo by John Dressier, Valporaiso, Ind.)

Stone: I'm sure they were a real help to you in the work. Morse: They had been developed as God gave this vision of some of the most needy people on this planet and of how worthwhile these people were. The first problem was to get these peoplethe Lisu tribesto become lit erate. Then we gradually produced the Scriptures and
hymnbooks for them. However, I soon found out that the missionary has to

pose there are at this time over two thousand direct sup port missionaries. We don't like the word "independent," because we tried to be very dependent on the Lord and on the churches. We like the word "direct-support" much bet ter, since it follows the New Testament pattern. In our own mission field, we tried to work on what we called independent cooperation to help othersnot necessarily the Morses, but others like Isabel Maxey Dittemore, Harold Taylor, and others. They would write their own newsletters and have their support separately, but we would cooperatenot because of organization but be cause of the lordship of Jesus Christ.

be a sort of Jack-of-all-trades. In this region where we were for about twenty-five years, there were no doctors or hospitals nearer than four or five-weeks journey away.
We had to do a lot of medical work. First aid was last aid.

Stone: How did you come to be a believer in the princi ples of the restoration movement? Morse: My parents and grandparents were a part of the church of Christ. An interesting sidelight is that the father
for March 9,1980

Again and again I met with cases that weren't in any medical books. I had taken a special one-year-course for missionaries who were going to be in parts of the world where there were no doctors or hospitals available. Again and again, I found cases and conditions that weren't in any of the medical books. I always made a point to pray for the sick people and to point them to God, as the Great Physician. In answer to these prayers, amazing numbers of people were healed. Stone: Brother Morse, would you tell us about the time later in your work when you were imprisoned by the
(213) Page Five

Communists? How long were you a prisoner?

Morse: Altogether, I was under the Chinese Communists for two and one-half years. All of our mission, except myself, had headed out of China for Burma. Suddenly

Stone: After they picked you up, you were there fifteen
months?

there was a turnover by the Provincial government be cause they saw that ultimately they would have to be under the Communists, so they tried to get into their good graces. However, during that fifteen months, before I was seized and arrested, the native Christians and I had baptized into Christ 235 souls. The little church that had been started among Chinese people in Kunming (Yunnan Province) at the end of the railroad, had grown to five different congregations.

Morse: Fifteen months in solitary imprisonment. It was the biggest prison in the province of Yunnan. From all I could gather, there were as many as five thousand prisoners there. People were being tortured and killed, day and night. I could hear a lot of this. Through cracks in the place, I could even see some of the things going on.
Stone: How did you manage to keep your balance or your sanity? Morse: It was the consciousness that I had props that they couldn't knock out. I didn't have a book with menot my Bible, nor a hymnbook, or anything like that. But again and again as dilemmas and dangers arose, the Holy Spirit instantly used some verse of Scripture or some of the great hymns of the church to counsel me. You might say my legal counsel was from God. One thing that amazed me was that, in spite of my complete helplessness in the face of all I was confronted with, the words of a hymn kept coming back to me so often. "Be not dismayed whatever betide, God will take care of you; Beneath His wings of love abide, God will take care of
you." That came to mind so often. I didn't believe it, but
it came true.

'7 soon found out that the mis

sionary has to be a sort of Jaclcof-aii-trades."

At the same time, different people would seek to curry favor with the Communists by giving false accusations against American people. So one day as I was on the
porch of our house, in from al! sides came eighteen or

nineteen enemy soldiers with bayonets on their rifles. Others had tommy guns and the officers had revolvers. They said, "Come with us. We have some questions that we want to ask you." I said, "Will you allow me to go into my room and get some of my bedding so I would have something for overnight?" "Oh, you don't need to worry with it," they replied. "Perhaps in a few days you will be able to come back to your own home. In the meantime, we will provide for you." As I was being taken away to this prison with the armed guards in the car with me, I realized that there was nothing that I could do. It must be God who provided guidance and deliverance. I
prayed.

Stone: How were you finally released? Morse: For four or five months I prepared daily to die. I improvised Communion, the Lord's Supper, and partook of it. I had nothing but tea and some Chinese steamed bread that's called man t'eo they gave us once a week. I saved that for this daily preparation for my execution. I would partake of the Lord's Supper and rededicate my
self to God.

Out of the many hundreds of Scriptures that I had memorized while I was in the high school and college, Philippians 4where Paul himself had been a prisonercame to mind: "Rejoice in the Lord always: again I will say Rejoice. ... In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus." Well, if there was ever a time when it was humanly im possible to rejoice and not to be anxious, it was then and the times that followed. But I took that as my golden text for my imprisonment.
Page Six (214)

Stone: Because you never knewthat might be the day. Morse: Yes, anytime that there was a knock on the door or a call to go out before the inquisitors, I was constantly prepared to die. After you have gone through that day after day with all they can do to you and you come through, you just praise the Lord each time. It's just like an experience in resurrection. One day they told me, "You have been here long enough. We're going to let you go back to your father."
Because I was familiar with the Chinese Communists'

double talk, I said, "I don't want to go to my father, because he has been dead for fifteen years." They laughed and said, "No, we really mean this. We're going to send you back to your native land." They didn't say why they were releasing me, except in being "lenient" to me, they were showing how generous the People's Re public of China can be. It was an eighteen-day journey to Hong Kong. We went through Chungking down the Yangtze River on a small boat loaded with soldiers
CHRISTIAN STANDARD

;!'.'yfo:

headed for Korea. I slept out on the open deck on top of a table, without any bedding, just the poor ragged clothes that I had worn in prison. At each place we stopped along
the way, I was examined again. I didn't know but that I would be executed. Finally I got on the railway at Can
ton.

Scripture He wants to use for our help in a specific need and He can get it for us, like a doctor gets medicine for
therapy.
Stone: But first we have to learn it.

Morse: First we have to have it in our mind, processed

I just wondered if I would have to begin life al! over again. In prison, I had been led to believe that they had
captured all the members of my family, not telling me whether they were alive or not. At the border the Com

into the "computer," so it will be there for instant refer

ral. I feel that before our Lord's return, there will be an

munists took everything I had, and I just walked across with nothing left except my old prison clothes. In Hong Kong, I went to a small Chinese hotel, the Star Hotel. I said, "I have just come out of Communist
China. I have a friend who used to live here and I need to

call him. Of course, I'm an American citizen." She said, "There is the phone. You can use it." I told her that where I had been they didn't have telephones, and I didn't know how to use it. She hunted up the phone number of Howard Phillips. Mrs. Phillips answered. I said, "Is Howard Phillips there?" She said, "Who is this?" "This is Russell Morse. I've just come out of Communist China." I heard her scream in delight, "Howard, Howard, Mr. Morse is here!" Howard came to the phone and said, "Brother Morse, you just stay right there where you are and I'll be down for you soon." I said, "The first thing I want to know is what news you have of my family. Are any of them still alive?" He

intense increase of spiritual warfare. We need to build in these spiritual shock absorbers that the Holy Spirit can use. The Holy Spirit is our comforter. One of the main ways He will comfort, counsel, and encourage His peo ple, is when they have the Word of Godthe sword of the Spirithidden in their hearts. Little children should be memorizing Scriptures. Not only that, but they should be taught how to pray. On the foreign mission field, we've seen the prayers of little children answered in marvelous ways. Little children pray in simple, trusting
faith.

'7 have felt that one of the.

things that we should do in all of

our churches

is

to

memorize

Scripture."
Stone: The Lord honors that kind of faith.

replied, "Alive? Brother, they are all alive! Your wife and one of your sons just arrived here in Hong Kong about three days ago and have been inquiring around to see if there had been any news of you." As I hung up the phone, I began to feel my faceall of that hair! They had left me enough money to pay .my railroad fare and have a night in a hotel. So I rushed over across the street to a barber shop.
Stone: You wanted to look your best when you saw them! For two and a half years they had been praying and wait ing. Morse: A group in California had been having prayer around the clock, day and night, during the week before I
was released.

Morse: I want to add this. All through the years I have been interested in what is going on in all of Christendom. God has worked with our restoration movement, but this idea has also caught on in other places. We should seek out these people and have fellowship with them. Like Priscilla and Aquilla taught Apollos the way of the Lord more perfectly, we should be willing to help these people today. And if they have anything good and true that they have discovered in their Christian experience, we can have it right in our Christian churches. I believe in our plea. We have never been members of any other than the Christian church or church of Christ,
but we've come to feel that God has a restoration move

Stone: What did your prison experience teach you about

the Word of God?

Morse: Because of this experience of being deprived of the written Word, and having only what had been hidden in my heart, I have felt that one of the things that we should do in all of our churches is to memorize Scripture. This would prepare us for the times of tribulation that are coming on the world, when we may not be able to have the Scriptures available. The Holy Spirit knows what
for March 9. 1980

ment of His own to unify His people. Paul exhorted Christians to strive to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. We need to find a common ground with other Christians, and use that as a beginning place to share with them our faith. If we are going to be too inde pendent and too separatist from others who also love the Lord, we're not going to have as great an influence for the promotion of New Testament Christianity as we orig inally set out to have.
(215) Page Seven

OCT 2 9 198]

USPS 48Z-030

NORTH BURMA CHRISTIAN MISSION

P. 0. Box 4074

Terre Haute, IN 47804

Vol.

OCTOBER 1981

No. 10

J. Russell Morse Honored

At the North American Christian Conven

tion in Louisville, KY. in July, J. Russell

Morse was honored as "Churchman of the

Day" on Friday of the convention, Dennis Sulton, Minister of Chapel Rock Christian Church inlndianapolis, Indiana gave a bio graphical sketch and introduced J, Rus sell, then presented him with a plaque commemorating the occasion.

TIBET
J. Russell Morse went to Tibet in 1926,

Since then the Morse family has worked in China, Burma and Thailand, Now the third generation of Morses is working in Tibet again through Lisu missionaries. Three elders of the supervising Burmese con gregations sent the following letter: Dear Joni and Nangsar,

The committee established to supervis e the Tibetan work sends greetings to you whom we remember continually in our
Lord. Just as we continue to remain safe

and well in the watch care of our Lord,

we pray that you too are in good health, (next page)

We want you to know that to date, there

have been five Tibetans who have turned

to the Lord.

The remaining four Tibetan

Christians continue to be faithful.

physical help and some food. At the very least the twofamilies willneedkyats 5000. to get by on in a year. We are looking forward to these funds coming from your
side.

Your suggestion that two full time mis sionary families be sent to the Tibetans
has been well received, and accordingly we have held extensive consultations among ourselves concerning this matter. As a result, the shurches have set apart two families for the Tibetan work. They are;

Since preacher Mvk mgang Yodephas been the main contact with you in regard to this new work, we ask that all financial support and communication be channeled through
him in the future as well.

1.

Preacher Yvngmi Yosep and family.

2. Preacher Mon Yaku and family.

We also want you to know that the gospel tapes sent in by Robert Morse were re ceived, and the Tib etan s here were all able to understand the teaching. We would

In line with your proposal, the congrega tions in the Tvluq area all pitched in and
constructed a house seven arm spans long.

like to request more such tapes with addi tional teaching if possible. Other visual
aids are also much needed and very ef
fective.

The preacher's hous e was completed in just one week! Preacher Yvngmi Josep and family will live in this new house in the Tibetan village of Tvwundvm. Preach-erMonY-aku ^idfamily-will-Lo c a t e in

Krong village. The following elders have been appointed to handle and distribute funds and support for the two missionary
fannilies.

We have already begun to work in this new field. Please keep praying for the pro gress of the work. We continue to look forward to input and momentum from your
side.

On behalf of the others.

1. 2. 3. 4.

Langwang Pong Langwang Dcp Nvmga Abay Yvngmi K(pna

5. Mvliu Punghcpy
6. Tvlanvm Piter

7. Stpn Chang Scpn

Tvwundvm village Tvwundvm village Dvzung village Gvway village Tvsh (ptuq village Tvlatuq village Krong village

Elder Yvngmi Kcpna

Elder Tvlanvm Piter

Elder Mvliu Min

Gvway village Tvlatuq village Tvshtptuq

New Forwarding Agent

Mrs. Diane Laxen, 13 Canterbury Drive, Terre Haute, IN 47805, Telephone: 812-

These men have been as signed to look after

the well being of the mis sionaries and their

needs.

466-5550, is the newpersonal Forward

ing Agent for Robert Morse,

Although the Tvluq area churches are not yet able to adequately support even their own preachers, we will do our best to as sist the two missionary families and the
Tibet an work in any way we can. Any assistance we can provide is limited to

Mrs, Laxen replaces Mrs, Laura Nelle Littie who has served in this capacity for 30 years. A tremendous debt of gratitude
is owed to Mrs. Littie who has been a
faithfvil servant in an unseen role for three decades.

Burma

Revisited

able to carry. He received news of thatarea. The Christians told him that there

are at least seventy congregations, meet ing in homes now after years of "hiberna tion" when meeting openly was forbidden,
and of Christmas conventions with 300 or

400 and up to 2,000 in attendance and of the great need for Bibles, hymn books and
other Christian literature.

It was so good to again see Sarip Jong (the father of Joni's wife, Nangshar), and to meet for the first time Pastor Joshua, who has been living in Rangoon, preaching the Good News to people there. For the five weeks preceding our arrival, the South east Asia Evangelixing Mission had been conducting an Asian Leadership Seminar, for which some seventy or so leaders had gathered. About fifty of the Lisu and Rawang leaders from North Burma remained
for an additional week in order to meet

We also talked with preachers who have been serving as missionaries in the Naga area along the Burma-India border. They told of areas previously resistant to the Gospel which are now asking for teachers; of villages of 2, 000 people turning to the
Lord en masse; of an area with more than

40 villages, some with as many as 20,000 people, where they are begging for teach ers; and of the plans for sending in teams of evangelists and for training new leaders. One of the big problems in this area con cerns language. Almost every village speaks a separate language or dialect.
But we heard also about the tremendous

with us.

Beginning on Monday, Bible study classes were held each morning, taught by Eugene
and Robert, After a noon break, the af ternoons were spent in talking with differ ent groups and individuals, discussing sit uations, problems and solutions, opportu nities andhowto use them, and in catching up on news of friends. Each evening was another time of Bible study and fellowship.
In between times there was distribution of

need for teaching aids, such as filmstrips and projectors, picture charts, and public address systems (a MUST when speaking to crowds of several hundred people at a time). They also need small portable gen
erators to t a k e into these areas where

there is no electricity. If there are those who are interested in helping to provide some of this much needed equipment, gifts can be s ent to the Mis sion forwarding agent designated for "Burma evangelism"

the Bibles, study notes, teaching tapes,

cassettes, medicines, etc.

We talked with one young preacher who had been over to the Salween Valley in China, and he told of his experiences as he met with Communist officials who questioned
him, and told him to return home. But he

also told how God opened the way for him to meetwithChristians, and give them the few Bibles eind hymn books he had been

The 3-year Bible Seminary (Putao Christion Bible Seminary) is continuing, with
nine teachers and 52 students, represent-,

Rawang Old Testament

ft'

ing eight ethnic groups:

Chin,

Rawang, Lisu,

Burmese, Naga, Indian, Lushia,

and Ngochang, Classes are taught in Ra wang, Lisu, and Burmese, and Eiiglish is
studied as a foreign language.
Short-term schools are also held in the

Putao area. Six three month Bible Schools

are held each year, in different areas,

eachwith an attendance of one to two hun

dred,

Besides this, there are one month

schools for elders and deacons, and other

schools for women, young people, etc, , of 1 to 4 week duration, held in the local congregations,

Robert Morse and several Rawang coworkers have been working on translation of the Old Testament into Rawang, Robert returned to the U. S. on furlough in June,

but the work is continuing as Jerry Thaprom, R. Andrew, and Samuel Mani pre pare the first drafts of the translation. Already completed and in the hands of the printer is the Rawang hymnal, complete with responsive readings. An edition of 8500 books is being printed in HongKong. Hopefully, they will be finished in time
for at least some of the books to r e a c h

Eugene on Furlough
Eugene Morse is in the U.S. for a short furlough. He will be able to speak in the churches until his expected return to Thai land in January, To reach him for preach ing dates contact: Pat Bitts, P. O. Box 4074, Terre Haute, IN 47804. Telephone;
812-466-5955.

North Burma by Christinas.

NBCM Newsletter is published quarterly

for the North Burma Christian Mission, P.O. Box 4074, Terre Haute, IN 47804,

Second Class Mail privileges at 410 1/2

Second, Columbus, IN 47201. Please

s e n d PS F o r m 3579 to P.O. Box 4074,

Terre Haute, IN 47804. Gene S.

Carter,

Chmn,, M/M Art Bitts, Treas. - Sec,

Editori'al Offico
P 0 Box 117

Kon^pton, IM

'16049