In the Spotlight: A. Wetherell Johnson

God’s Daily Loving Kindnesses

“What have I come to? Am I to give more to those who already have so much?” Miss Johnson’s heart sank when she was asked to teach the Bible to five women who were already well instructed. She was recovering in San Francisco from her sacrificial years of missionary service in China (1936-1950) when confronted with this request.—Fearlessly Feminine.

Audrey Wetherell Johnson (1907-1984) is the founder of BSF International (formerly called Bible Study Fellowship). She was raised by a believing Christian family in Leicester, England. The Bible was critical to her conversion, and she was committed to its authority and taught it with power. She enjoyed an intimate relationship with God, and she allowed Him—not self—lead her life.

Even in the worst possible conditions, Miss Johnson’s primary memory was of “God’s daily provisions and loving kindnesses.” While in China in 1942, she was interned in a prison camp during the Japanese invasion. She was forced to live with other prisoners in a former horse stable. Eighty-nine cots, six open toilets, and two wash-basins filled the crowded hut. Her diet consisted of a one-inch cube of meat and a little rice.

Even in the worst possible conditions, Miss Johnson’s primary memory was of “God’s daily provisions and loving kindnesses.”

After a brief furlough in England, Miss Johnson returned to China to teach in the Bible Seminary in Shanghai. Although she had every intention of staying there to train teachers for China’s unreached millions, the communists put her under house arrest for eighteen months. She was finally forced to leave China permanently in 1950.

Miss Johnson found herself in the U.S., and she poured out her heart in prayer about the invitation to teach these five women. Suddenly, she remembered Jeremiah 45:5. “Should you then seek great things for yourself? Seek them not.”

By agreeing to teach these ladies, Miss Johnson unknowingly founded BSF International, which has become an interdenominational worldwide ministry. Hundreds of classes meet for in-depth study each week. A. Wetherell Johnson firmly believed that through careful and prayerful individual study, many people would come to know, trust, and obey the great God of "daily loving kindness" to whom she had committed her life.

Autobiography

This information is paraphrased from the introduction to chapter five, “Fearlessly Single” from the book, Fearlessly Feminine by Jani Ortlund.

Check out Miss Johnson's autobiography, Created For Commitment for more information about her life and faith.




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Photo: WebelPhotography (Flickr)