Biography
Marie Monsen was born in 1878 in Norway. She was raised in a church-going home in a land shaped by Lutheran faith, and she grew up knowing the Scriptures. Yet she later said that for a time she was a church member and not a true believer. A time came when she turned to Christ in earnest, and her life was changed. She trained as a nurse and in 1901 she sailed to China as a missionary. She was in her early twenties.
She spent more than thirty years in China, serving in several provinces in the interior. She worked at the hard and ordinary tasks of mission life. She learned the language, lived among the people, taught women and children, helped the sick and visited homes. She was often alone in difficult places and endured long journeys, sickness and war. China in those years was swept by civil conflict and revolt, and missionaries had to flee at times. In the unrest of 1927, as armed bands and political fighters moved through the land, she saw how the fear of death unsettled the church.
It was in those years that her work took its decisive turn. She noticed that many in the churches, including pastors and church leaders, did not have assurance of salvation and were afraid to face death. Some of them knew the doctrine of the gospel and could repeat the creeds, but they had never truly turned from sin to Christ. She began to ask pointed questions of those she served. She asked whether they were sure they were born again. She called pastors to confess hidden sin and to be reconciled with those they had wronged. She pressed the point that the church could not be revived until the people of God dealt with sin honestly.
The response was striking. In meeting after meeting, church leaders and members began to weep, confess and seek forgiveness. Hidden sins came to light. Broken relationships were mended. Prayer meetings grew longer and deeper. Many who had been church members for years said they had now truly met the Lord. The awakening spread from place to place, and in the 1930s it touched churches in many parts of northern China and beyond. Other missionaries and Chinese leaders took up the call, and the movement came to be known as a time of revival. It left a mark on the Chinese church for a generation.
She recorded what she had seen in a book, The Awakening, which was published in English in 1961. She wrote simply and told the story without display. She was careful to say that the work was God's and not hers. She also refused to claim more than she knew. She wrote of her fears, her failures and her struggle to be faithful. She spoke of the moments when she had been afraid to say hard things and had nearly stayed silent.
Those who knew her describe a woman who was plain and direct, and who could be stern. She had little patience for religious show and did not flatter. She also loved the people she served and cared about their suffering. She lived simply and spent much time in prayer. She believed that revival comes when God's people humble themselves, confess their sins and turn to Him with all their hearts.
She left China in the early 1930s and returned to Norway, where she lived the rest of her life, and she died in 1962. Her labor was not marked by crowds or fame. Yet her work reached across a nation, and her message is still plain. The church needs repentance more than it needs programs, and God gives new life to those who come to Him with nothing hidden.