“WE ARE NEAR Chicago, and nearly everyone going from east to west stops off there, and we have visitors from all over the country who in some way have heard of our work; and while they are in Chicago, they take a run out here. In this way we get quite a good many missionaries who have been right in the field and have good, deep experiences. That is a great help to those preparing for the Lord’s work—it sets the fire burning in our own hearts.”
An outstanding characteristic of the Faith Homes was its many missionary visitors and its deep interest in foreign missions. Not only were these missionaries entertained as were all other guests, free of charge, but they were usually given an offering from the missionary fund and were diligently prayed for. More than one missionary testified that the only real rest he got while at home was during his stay at this haven in Zion.
The cause of foreign missions was always especially dear to Mrs. R. It will be remembered that the only offerings taken in the Homes were for missions the first Sunday of each month. On the same day letters which had been recently received were read from missionaries the world over. This custom was instituted about 1915 by the word of the Lord given by Mrs. R.
The amount of these missionary offerings was phenomenal, considering that it came mostly from the meager resources of the people in the Homes who had no regular income but lived by faith themselves. True, in later years it was augmented considerably by outsiders who were regularly employed, but in the beginning it was from the sacrificial giving of poor saints committed to the propagation of the gospel. Throughout the greater part of her life the distribution of this fund was made under the guidance of Mrs. R., as the Lord directed. And many were the testimonies from missionaries the world over as to the timeliness of the offerings received from the Homes. Thus the deep poverty of these saints ministered to the needs of others in distant lands.
The way in which the Holy Spirit brought various missionaries and their needs to the attention of Mrs. R. was often nothing short of supernatural. For example, one day the power of the Lord came upon Mr. Mitchell. Moved by the Holy Spirit he got a map of South America. Then the Holy Spirit guided his hand involuntarily over it until it came to a certain place where his hand was stopped and held. The Lord then spoke to him saying that a missionary there in the place where his finger rested was in dire need.
Mr. Mitchell did not recognize the place and knew of no one there. Under the leading of the Spirit he took the map to Mrs. R. and told her what had been said to him. Upon seeing the place, she instantly recognized it and exclaimed, “Why, that’s where — is!” Immediately she dispatched an offering as indicated by the Lord. Soon a reply came, stating that at that time this missionary was absolutely penniless, virtually facing starvation, so that the offering came just in time.
On another occasion the Lord spoke the name, “Anglin,” to Mrs. R. Never had she heard of anyone by that name and naturally wondered what the Lord meant. After a time she learned of Mr. and Mrs. L. M. Anglin and their orphanage, the Home of Onesiphorus, which the Lord indicated should be regularly supported and prayed for. Another missionary whom Mrs. R. early became acquainted with and supported ardently was Lillian Trasher and her Assiut Orphanage.
These missionaries Mrs. R. also held up as examples to the young people in the Homes who were training for Christian work: “Work for Jesus as you would if you were a missionary such as Miss Trasher with an orphanage in Egypt or Mr. Anglin in China” (November 27, 1921).
One day in 1924, the Lord instructed Mrs. R. that the people in the Homes should pray with some fasting for three days for Mr. and Mrs. G. F. Bender and their work in Venezuela. This meant that all the residents free to do so— probably about thirty or forty—gathered in the morning and prayed without intermission for about six hours. Some of this praying was audible, much of it silent, each one lifting up his own heart to God. At the end of the three days the entire company, however, lifted up their voice with one accord and claimed the answer to their prayer. The Lord declared the victory He had called them to pray through was given.
What was the result of this mighty volume of intercession? Immediately a mighty revival broke out in Venezuela which continued for months with multitudes being saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. Now Mrs. R. would be the last one to claim that this remarkable visitation had come solely through the intercession of those in Zion. No. She knew that the Benders were faithful workers, people of much and mighty prayer, and that many others had interceded for this needy field. The Lord did choose, however, to make this group give the help in prayer which was needed at this time, so that immediately after these three days of prayer the Spirit of God breathed upon the church there.
About the same time as this prayer was held for Venezuela, the Lord told Mrs. Mitchell that He desired a weekly prayer for missionaries to be held each Friday afternoon for two hours from 2:30 to 4:30. When Mrs. R. was told of this she was delighted, for the Lord had indicated the same thing to her. The first half-hour of this time was devoted to praying the Lord of the harvest to thrust forth laborers into His harvest field. The remainder of the time was spent in interceding for individual missionaries and the problems of the field. Thus in a very specific and practical way the work of foreign missions was kept before the people, especially those who themselves were training for Christian service at home or abroad.
The first foreign missionary to go out directly from among the Faith Home young people was Mabel Rigg, originally from Cincinnati, Ohio. After a period of training in the Homes and service in associated assemblies, Miss Rigg went to South Africa in 1925. Mrs. R. was keenly interested in the preparation and thrusting forth of this ambassador to the regions beyond.
Early in her contact with Mabel Mrs. R. had said to her:
“The Lord could lead you to the place where He could do as He pleased with you, and you would have no desire one way or another, except it be His perfect will. That is what He has chosen for your life. If you will accept it, He will start to work it out now as you pray, working more greatly as the prayer nears the final victory…..
“Why worry about the future? Go at it now, and when the time comes, God will do something special to help you over the hard place. Jesus understands your frailty, and you are ever under His guiding eye.”
“The vessel must be emptied—emptied of self,” Mrs. R. told the prospective missionary. “Let go of yourself to take Jesus. You are just in the beginning. Follow Jesus, or you will be following the vessel you are trying to be.”
During Mabel’s busy days of preparation for leaving for Africa, Mrs. R. made this illuminating suggestion to her:
“Maybe you will have to do as I have had to do sometimes— go without eating or sleeping for forty-eight hours at a stretch.”
A final word of exhortation was to serve as a motto for her for more than thirty years of service in the land of her calling:
“In Africa all your joys and sorrows and hard times are in Jesus.”
A year after Mabel went to Africa, Mrs. R. wrote in a letter to a mutual friend: “One sweet pleasure of my birthday was a cablegram from Mabel. I appreciated this coming from across the sea very much. We were glad to learn of God’s giving her a companion whom we believe is a real missionary. May God bless them.” Her “companion” was John S. Richards, and together they are still enjoying most fruitful service for God.
In 1926 another handmaiden, Kathryn Roth, left as an ambassador to Africa—this one to Kenya, where she has been used to bring the gospel to a tribe which had never had it before. Three years before, the Lord had raised Kathryn from death’s door, due to a serious heart condition. At that time she consecrated to go to Africa and soon after told Mrs. R. of her call.
In response Mrs. R. wrote her: “. .. if you go, you want to go in faith, and hope, and power for what will be needed all the time you are there, God undertaking Himself, even to the last moment, for all your needs. And God wants me not to meddle, as if I could advise you, but He wants you to have faith, and me to have faith, that God Himself must tell you, so you will feel you really know.”
And God did tell Kathryn, so that she herself unmistakably knew the will of God. Through all the vicissitudes of the years, many of them bitter and tragic to the extreme, she has been enabled to stand and be more than conqueror.
When Chiang Kai-shek became president of China, the Lord indicated to Mrs. R. that he and his country occupied a strategic place in the political world and should be fervently prayed for. Twice in 1931 the Lord had her call for an all-day of prayer for him and China because of the great importance of the situation there. That was the year (1931), it will be remembered, when Japan invaded Manchuria. Mrs. R.’s interest in Chiang Kai-shek is all the more significant in view of the fact that then the importance of China in world affairs was not generally recognized, certainly not by Christians as a whole.
So it was that throughout her life Mrs. Robinson maintained a world vision, deeply interested in the kingdom of God everywhere, no matter what instrument was used for its furtherance, whether Pentecostal or of some other denomination. In this respect, as in so many others, she showed her breadth and that she was a true child of God, regarding all who named His name as brethren in a common cause.
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Martha Wing Robinson (1874 - 1936)
Martha held meetings which touched people to return to the work of the service of God. The Robinsons opened a "Faith Home" where people would come for teaching and prayer. Like George Muller they depended on God to provide what was needed for expenses. Thousands came through her home and healings were a regular occurrence. Her husband died in April of 1916, but Martha continued in her ministry. She had a very sharp gift of discernment and regularly told people the secrets of their hearts. She often had directive prophetic words for those under her care. Many young people came to the home for training and went into the mission fields and evangelistic endeavours.Martha Wing Robinson died June 26, 1936. Shortly before she died she stated her life's message "Nothing matters but Christ Jesus." Her whole life was spent in the service of God and for the Glory of His Son Jesus. She had seen many healed, saved, delivered, empowered and sent out. She was truly a mother in Israel. In 1962 Gordon P. Gardiner wrote a book about her life called "Radiant Glory" because that is how she lived her life.