The Red Story: Capture, Ransom, Escape in 1934 China Ray Smith

Only one Westerner ever escaped successfully after being captured and held by a formal Chinese Communist army during the 1900s warlord era. Rev. Howard Smith (1904-81), serving under the Christian and Missionary Alliance, never failed to credit the Lord’s deliverance when sharing his “Red Story” over 100 times to varied audiences.

Rifle butts hammering on the compound gate and shots heard in town alarmed the missionary couple serving isolated Pengshui in Szechuan province that early May 8, 1934, morning. They were just finishing prayers with several local believers. “Let’s hope it’s just bandits after loot,” Howard said to his wife, Gertrude, aware that 21-month-old Raymond Henry was upstairs with his amah (nurse). was aware of an old Chinese proverb: “A peasant was brought in to play with the Han Emperor. To avoid having his head cut off he had to play well enough to satisfy the Emperor but never to win.”

The 30-year-old Pennsylvanian, a product of the Christian and Missionary Alliance’s Bible Training Institute in Nyack, NY, was proven dreadfully wrong.

The feared Reds had overrun the undefended county seat after its 300man garrison and city officials “bugged out” during the wee hours without warning the missionaries to also flee.

Amazed at his good fortune in capturing “foreign devils,” Communist General Ho Lung (or He Long) the next day released Mrs. Smith and the child to deliver the impossible ransom demand of $30,000 U.S and $3200 in medicine for Howard’s freedom. Gert, a 1926 graduate of Wheaton College, faced the 500 miles and ten harrowing days down the Wu and Yangtze rivers to reach her Ekvall missionary parents’ station in Wuchang and the mission office in Hankow. She had waved as Howard, amid Pengshui’s wealthy bound to-one-another-to-be-ransomed, were marched away with the 5000-man Third Route Army. Howard was allowed to keep a pocket devotional titled “Broken Bread,” in whose margins he made daily notes.

And, yes, Howard witnessed to his faith and talked theology of sorts to any receptive captors, including some who had been exposed to missionaries. One day sitting on the edge of a ravine reading his little devotional, an officer accosted him. “Doesn’t your Bible say if you are struck on one cheek you are to turn the other?” Smith braced himself for a practical test as he affirmed the truth of this statement. But the officer was only inquiring to strongly state the Communists objection to this so-called doctrine of non-resistance.

During Smith’s next 45 days, the Communists would march a 15-mile route, and a max one-day route of 40 miles, pausing to propagandize villagers, train new recruits and take any resisting villages with mortars and machine guns. While covering about 800 circuitous miles in rugged Szechuan and Kweichow provinces, Howard remained unharmed, an asset, for desperately needed funds. “Every day I memorized our terrain while looking for ways to escape. But all prisoners were kept in the middle of the daily march and closely guarded at nightly bivouacs,” he recalled. He noticed extensive fields of poppies grown to produce opium.

General Ho enjoyed conversing with his “prize” while showing off his Parker pen filled with red ink. After occasionally eating at the general’s tent, Howard would play Shang Chee (elephant chess) by candlelight with the onetime warlord officer turned Communist in 1926. Smith continued on next page

Although fit enough to keep pace, Howard sensed time was running out for him. “Eventually the Reds executed those whose families failed to pay up and I knew they’d tire of feeding me.” Finally on June 21, for the very first time, he was quartered in a hut on the outskirts of the five-mile-across encampment. Providence? That midnight Ho called a surprise drill to see how quickly his army could break camp. Not satisfied, he then harangued his troops in ranks (including Howard) for 90 minutes before dismissing the men to their hassocks. Howard somehow remained awake on the board he lay, eyes closed. Just before dawn as cooks prepared the morning rice, the guard who had been pacing outside the door, sat down exhausted and dozed off. Housed with a sleeping colonel and four soldiers, Howard slid into his perfectly placed sandals, took the four long steps he had practiced to the door, saw no one on the dirt alley and crept out. He knew the Reds knew all the tricks for recapturing escapees, and whom he’d seen some publicly executed as an example, Howard figured he’d need a half hour head start. It was not to be. Just ten minutes bushwhacking up the mountainside, bugles sounded the alarm and pursuit was on.

In the next seven days on the run, Smith was apprehended and got away from five separate hostile groups. Blessedly, none guessed he was escaping from the Reds. Hollywood would have rejected the episodes as too improbable a script for what would have made a thrill-a-minute movie*.

Holing up in a cave that first day, Howard crossed the summit by night into the next valley heading in the general direction of the Wu River. Thirty –six hours later he approached the rare house but moved on when a red flag on its roof. Another time villagers with dogs shooed the ragged stranger away. Desperate for food he surrendered the silver dollar he’d concealed in his trousers for nine raw eggs and found some raw peas and a cucumber in a garden.

At dusk, weak with fever and sunstroke, Howard approached a “wild looking village” where he begged shelter from a reluctant villager. Lying on some boards in a middle room where a child had been evicted, he was awakened about 3 a.m. by men in a frenzy pounding on the wooden walls with big knives. Sha, Sha (kill, kill). “I’d been seen. These were Spirit Society or God Soldiers who hated all military, foreigners and strangers. They felt imperious to bullets.” Howard shinnied into the rafters and walked the beams toward the back of house as the front door splintered. Yelling men poured in, driving the family outside. A shot went through the roof. Smith peeked out a back window. A burly guard, swinging his sword and afraid to miss the action, left his post. Jumping out, he passed another window, heading for the corner of the house. Just then a head popped out an open window. A soldier yelled “ Sha !” Unrecognized in the darkness, Howard hollered “ Sha ” right back, closed the window and dove down a bank into a corn field. Crawling noisily away he lost his precious sandals.

Remarkably, six-foot-two Howard was never recognized as a white man. Fluent in the dialect and with his black hair, brown eyes, ragged clothes and dishevelment, rural folk assumed he was a strange “Ningpo Chinese” from the city on the faraway coast.

A day later in pouring rain he again climbed up into a grain loft to dry and rest. “I congratulated myself on my resourcefulness. And then barking began inside the house. The dog had smelled me and wouldn’t quit. When the farmer opened the door, it came right out and looked up at me. In plain sight from a lamp in the house, guys from the village with torches forced me down and into the house. Five impressive men in loincloths sat in a circle around me, calling me a robber and sending one of them to get a gun to kill ‘this bad guy’. [He never returned.] They had no idea who I was or even that I could understand everything they said.” Howard improvised. Pulling out and pointing to the writing in his devotional. he identified as a Russian on an “important mission” for the nearby Red army, “they’ll kill all of you if you do anything to me. They half-believed me and felt they needed a higher up in the morning.” Feeding him a bowl of rice and some veggies, they left and he slept. When no one showed up in the morning, Howard told the bemused farmer he was on a mission and couldn’t wait and simply walked away. “I’m not proud I deceived those boys, lied to them,” he admitted later, “but my life hung on it this time.”

Day four and exhausted he flopped down on the trail and drank from the same hole a lad’s water buffalo had. “Typhoid was the least of my problems.” Then crawled up into the back of a roadside shrine with its two pusas (idols) “If I’d been found there, considering it sacrilegious, people would have killed me on the spot.”

In an incident Smith never told publicly—sensitive to skeptics of guardian angels—Smith came to a fork in the road where there was a sign he couldn’t read, knowing one trail would lead to a river he could follow downstream. Which path? Starting on the one that looked easier on his bare feet, he glanced back from the crest of the sloping hillside. A male figure, the only person he’d seen all day, stood at fork and hailed: “Where are you going?” Howard thought: “Why is he asking me? Is this a trap?” Finally answering: “Chetan,” a known friendly town. The man: “You’ll never get to Chetan that way.” Howard knew if he were going the wrong way, he’d never have strength to retrace. He looked at the mountain chain ahead, decided to believe the man, and cut across to the other trail. As he started around the bend the figure was still standing there.

Howard’s feet were now cut and bleeding. “I began looking for some straw sandals that a coolie had thrown away. Anything for the bottom of my feet.” And he found one for his left foot, though too small for his size 12 feet, which became eventually infected. Soon he stumbled across a right foot sandal! Chance? Doubtful.

Milestones

Births

Hazel Esther was born to Joey and Bekah McKenna on May 15. Hazel joins her sister, Amber. Her paternal grandparents are Steve and Lisa McKenna.

MARRIAGES

Ann Hancock married Brett Kauffman at College Church on Saturday, June 3. Ann is the daughter of Nathan and Liz Hancock. College Church members Jacob Frerichs and Micah Aviles were married at College Church on March 25.

Merit Davey and Danielle Girgis were married at College Church on March 11. Danielle is the daughter of members Phil and Maggie Girgis

Deaths

Pray for Catherine Chong and family as they grieve the loss of Catherine’s brother, Anthony Pun , who passed away on May 17 in Sydney, Australia.

Pray for Carol (Kevin) Casey and family as they grieve the loss of Carol’s mother, Edith Johnson , who passed away on May 7 in Prospect Heights.

Pray for friends and family of Tony Zalar , who passed away on May 6.

Pray for Sherry (Scott) Torppey and family as they grieve the loss of Sherry’s mother, Frances Main , who passed away on May 5 in Wheaton.

Reaching the river, four travelers he encountered reported the Reds had a blockade at the normal crossing several miles behind, which Howard had skirted. Not over yet, Smith stumbled into an encampment of warlord troops who put him under guard for two days, debating selling him back to the Reds. Howard successfully cautioned them of the wrath of Chiang kai Shek and, providentially again, the only known Chinese Christian in the area paid for a junk to transport him back to Pengshui and safety.

Howard‘s little leather-covered book has Psalm 34:6 underlined: “This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.”

*Ray

Pray for Donna Lynn Poland and family as they grieve the loss of Donna’s husband, Larry , who passed away on May 3.

Pray for the family of Juanita Grace Taetzsch , who passed away on April 24.

Pray for College Church missionary Pam (John) P. and family as they mourn the loss of her mother, Joanne Burns, who passed away on April 18 in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Pray for Jenny Dudasik and family as they grieve the loss of Jenny’s stepmother, Dee , who passed away on April 6.

Congratulations

On April 28, Dr. Jim Tebbe , chair of the Board of Missions and retired College Church missionary, was honored for his service at Forman Christian College in Pakistan at the dedication ceremony of the Jim Tebbe Campus Center. Dr. Tebbe has been credited with saying that Forman Christian College “offers an umbrella of Christian grace to every student,” and the new center in his name provides students a space to meet, connect, build relationships. A plaque on the ground floor of the building has these words from Psalms on it: “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.”

Galleries

A MARGE GIESER RETROSPECTIVE

May 14, 2023 to June 30, 2023

Come see the many sides of Marge Gieser, whose art graced College Church for many years. With help from her family, visitors can see works of art that demonstrate Gieser’s great depth, breadth and faith.

The ArtSpace gallery is located in the Crossings building at 321 E. Front Street in Wheaton.

HOURS: Monday, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday: 12-2 p.m. Other times available by appointment. Call the Church Office.

ART & STORY

Exhibition planned for summer 2023

This summer we are planning an exhibition that will combine “Art & Story.” We will be teaming up an artist with a writer to produce one art piece to be displayed in the gallery. For the writer, it can be a short story, poem or an insightful quote. For the visual artist, it can be a painting, illustration, graphic art, photography or any type of visual artwork.

Don’t put off signing up. Register today. This is our firstever collaborative exhibition, and we need to hear from you. Please sign up at www.college-church.org/artspace.

Gatherings

A monthly coming together, where discuss our personal projects and the many facets of creativity and God.

Tuesday, June 13, at 7 p.m. in Crossings

We will be discussing the CT Article: In Times of Tragedy, I Find Solace in Scriptural Art by A. Trevor Sutton.

Creativity word for the month: Balm. If able, bring something creative along that theme.

Workshops

PAINT YOUR HEART OUT

July 29 | 9AM-NOON | In Crossings

Cost: $35

You must register to attend.

The workshop is for non-artists and artists alike, requiring no previous skills. You will be guided through emotion-processing-prayer-painting exercises that help you to express things that you cannot put into words. It will give you a new visual vocabulary for expressing your heart to God. It is a powerful tool for grieving and lament as well as worship and praise. You will leave the workshop with three finished paintings on canvas that have personal, symbolic significance to you.

IMPROV/GAME WORKSHOP

September 16 | 10AM-NOON | In Crossings

Cost: $15

Minimum people: 8; Maximum: 20

You must register to attend.

The Improv/Game Workshop draws heavily from the book Improvisation for the Theatre by Viola Spolin and Neva L. Boyd. Everybody can use more fun and laughter in their lives, even us Christians. Maureen Kelly brings 30+ years of teaching improvisation to this workshop, relying upon the concept of “play.” Workshop participants work with each other in ensemble and to be keenly aware of their fellow players and working in the moment at hand. Participants will discover and enhance listening skills, unharness innate spontaneity and wit, and increase attention to their surrounding environment and other participants. There also can be quite a bit of laughter, which is never discouraged.

For more information or to sign up for a gallery or workshop, visit our webpage: college-church.org/ artspace.

Marge Gieser’s art graced the worship services of College Church since she began creating them in the 1980s. As congregants listened to sermons from different books of the Bible, they also saw new visual expressions of the themes of sermon series through her banners.

While those who attend College Church still see her banners used in worship services, especially around the holidays, we don’t realize the many sides of Marge’s art. This collection shows some of the banners she created for worship along with a variety of other media. She drew, painted murals and sculpted in metal, and the collaborative Fourth of July parade floats she designed became church projects many summers in advance of the city’s Independence Day parades. This retrospective show in Crossings celebrates the many sides of her artistry.

Besides College Church and some of its church plants, Wheaton College and the Wheaton Eye Clinic, her art has been displayed in many places including: Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago; Moody Church, Chicago; Coventry Cathedral of England; St. George Church of Bagdad, Iraq; Khartoum Evangelical Church of Sudan.

While on medical mission trips with her husband Dick, an ophthalmologist, Mrs. Gieser would paint colorful murals to brighten hospital wards of in faraway places like Vellore, India; El Alto, Bolivia; and Ulan Bator, Mongolia.

We are grateful to Marge’s family for sharing with us the many sides of this remarkable artist, woman and follower of Christ.

Artist Spotlight Marge Gieser

The artists and creatives of College Church thank God for the inspiration of Marge Gieser’s artistry and example for us all. Enjoy her art here in Connections and in the Crossings Gallery throughout the month.