January 13 Today in OPC History

In a January 13, 1949 letter, Chaplain E. Lynne Wade, Orthodox Presbyterian minister aboard the U.S.S. Henrico, wrote of his visit to OPC missionary Richard Gaffin in Shanghai at the end of 1948.

The Presbyterian Guardian summarized the letter for its readers:

Chaplain Wade spoke of the wonderful work which Mr. Gaffin was doing. He feels that the people over here little realize their privileges and responsibilities in the matter of foreign missions, He suggests that the best way to wake us up would be a 2 or 3 weeks visit to the field. “Such an experience results inevitably in an overwhelming burden for the desperate need of these multitudes without Christ, and the infinitesimally and pitifully small forces on hand to meet the need—yet, at the same time, an unbounded joy and pride in having the least part in meeting that need through having one’s own representative on the field in such a person as Dick Gaffin. I spent weeks—days and nights—chasing all over that part of China with him to all the different places he goes and watching him at work; and I’d get so proud of him sometimes I’d feel like I was going to burst from inside.”

A constituting member of the First General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in 1936, Mr. Wade served as an Army Chaplain from 1941–1950 and a Navy Chaplain from 1950–1956. He then served as a missionary to Guam from 1956 up to his death in 1965.

Picture: E. Lynne Wade