C. T. Studd

Charles Thomas Studd was born on December 2, 1860, in Spratton, Northamptonshire, England, into a family of great wealth. His father, Edward, had made a fortune in India and retired to a country estate, where he raised his sons in luxury. Charles went to Eton and then to Trinity College, Cambridge. He was one of the finest cricketers of his time, and he played for England, including in the famous match of 1882 against Australia at the Oval that gave rise to the Ashes. He was admired across the country.

His father was converted in 1877 under the preaching of the American evangelist D. L. Moody, and the household was transformed. The father began to give himself to the work of the gospel and soon died. For several years Charles went on with his life as before, devoted to sport. He grew cold in his faith. Then in 1883 his brother George fell gravely ill, and the experience shook him. He looked at his life and saw that he had been living for himself. He came back to Christ and made a deeper commitment.

He felt called to be a missionary. In 1885 he and six other young men from Cambridge, some of whom were famous athletes, sailed for China with the China Inland Mission. They became known as the Cambridge Seven, and their departure stirred the nation. Many young people in Britain were moved by the sight of men who had every advantage choosing a life of hardship. In China he worked for ten years under harsh conditions, and he suffered from poor health. In 1887, when he came into his inheritance of about twenty-nine thousand pounds, he gave nearly all of it away to Christian causes, including the work of Moody and George Müller. His wife, Priscilla, supported him in it.

His health broke down, and he returned to England in 1894. He spent several years speaking to students and helping to promote missions. In 1900 he went to India to pastor a church in Ootacamund, where he served for six years. The climate suited him better. He then felt that God was calling him to the interior of Africa, where, as he heard, tens of thousands of people had never heard the gospel. At the age of fifty he went to the Congo, against the advice of doctors and friends.

In 1913 he founded the Heart of Africa Mission, which later became the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade, now called WEC International. He lived in a simple house in the interior and worked among the people of the Ituri forest. He translated, preached and trained African evangelists. Because of illness, his wife could not join him for most of those years, and the two lived apart for long stretches. He was often sick, and in constant pain. He said that if Jesus Christ is God and died for him, then no sacrifice is too great to make for Him.

He was a man of fierce will, and he was difficult to work with. He demanded much from the missionaries under him and sometimes drove them hard. Colleagues felt that he could be stubborn and autocratic. There were quarrels and divisions in the mission, and some left in bitterness. His family felt the cost of his absence. He did not claim to be free from faults, and he spoke of the need to be broken.

He died on July 16, 1931, at Ibambi, in the Congo, at the age of seventy. The mission he founded has sent thousands of workers to many nations. His life shows what it can mean to give everything, and also the human cost of a driven life.