Rex Ray

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The opportunity to escape from bandits seemed near until he heard the Lord say, “No, not tonight. My grace is sufficient for you.” When would his captivity end?

DECADES OF SERVICE
1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s

MINISTRY EMPHASIS
Evangelism & Church Planting

AFFINITY GROUP
East Asian Peoples

The opportunity to escape from bandits seemed near until he heard the Lord say, “No, not tonight. My grace is sufficient for you.” When would his captivity end?

Rex Ray didn’t hesitate to join the search party to find missionaries who had not been heard from in close to a month. Carrying canned milk, food and medical supplies, they boarded a small boat to travel the Foo River. Their search was cut short when Chinese bandits shot at their boat and kidnapped Rex and several others in the search party.

Their captors forced them to march, carrying heavy equipment, over steep mountains. The bandits were insistent that foreign governments would pay a large ransom for the captives’ release. As the days passed, Rex and his friends looked for ways of survival, escape, but also the opportunity to share the gospel. Surprisingly, the bandits would often gather and listen to preaching. Rex wrote in his book, Cowboy Missionary in Kwangsi, “We decided the Lord had permitted us to be missionaries to those bandits, for they might never have another opportunity to hear how to be saved.”

One night when Rex was feeling eager to escape, the Lord calmed him with the words, “No, not tonight. My grace is sufficient for you.” He rolled over and went to sleep that night, continuing his missionary efforts the next morning.

In time, God did provide an opportunity for escape, hiding Rex from a captor’s vision with a grey cloud. He managed to hike to a river where he found a boat crew sent by the Chinese government to find him and return him to safety. When the officials came to see him, Rex shared that Jesus had delivered him. The message of Jesus continued to spread throughout China.

In 1936, Rex Ray and Dr. Robert E. Beddoe took Theron Rankin, the FMB secretary for the Orient, on a 1,000 mile survey trip of Kwong Sai province in China. Here, they pose with the missionaries at the Kweilin station.

IMB Photo