Red Runs The River

Introduction by Anthony G Bollback

The martyrdom of John and Betty Stam, missionaries of the China Inland Mission, in December 1934, made an indelible impression on me as a young boy. Their heroic sacrifice and martyrdom had a definite part in my commitment to missionary service in China, and although unknown to me at the time, the eventual impetus for this book. Red Runs the River is the heroic story of thousands of Chinese Christians who sealed their testimony with their own blood. Several hundred years ago when the gospel first came to the Middle Kingdom, now known as China, the river of blood started flowing. It became a raging torrent when the Communist regime took power in 1949 under the harsh repression of Mao Zedong. It is estimated that 30 million Chinese died under the cruel heel of Mao and his regime.  Today, thousands of Christians still languish in China’s prisons for no other reason than their faith in Jesus Christ. 

I will never forget the anguish we suffered as missionaries of The Christian and Missionary Alliance when we were forced to evacuate China at the time of the Communist takeover in 1949. We became painfully aware of the high cost of discipleship when we heard about many of our Chinese colleagues who were imprisoned for long years of re-indoctrination. At that time we could only imagine the suffering they were enduring. One such man, Rev. Joshua Ku, our dear friend and colleague, was the pastor of the growing Christian and Missionary Alliance Church in Wuchang. He was imprisoned for twenty years, and yet stalwartly refused to renounce his faith in Jesus Christ. Upon release from prison, he immediately gathered a group of young people together for the purpose of training them for ministry.

Returning to work with the Chinese people in Hong Kong from 1957 to 1970, I had opportunity to hear firsthand reports of the thousands of believers who had laid down their lives for Christ. My wife and I lived through the invasion of refugees into Hong Kong during the mid 1960s at the height of the Red Guard rampage in China. We witnessed the tragic roundup of these destitute people who were sent back to China and probably death. The cries of people in boarded up trains, begging for the chance of freedom, are cries that ring in our memories to this very day.

Although I have carried the seeds of this story for many years, it was not until 2002 that the Lord pressed upon me the urgent need to write about the river of blood. In many mission conferences over the years in hundreds of churches, I have used as my text the words of Jesus found in Matthew 16:18, “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” There is no doubt that in spite of the hundreds and hundreds of accounts of believers suffering and forgotten in horrible prisons and forced labor camps at the hands of cruel men who were determined to wipe out the testimony of Jesus Christ, the church in China has grown at a phenomenal rate. Although I chose to write this fascinating story of victory and challenge as historical fiction, the characters are composites of people known to me who endued unspeakable suffering. There is documentation to verify many of the accounts of the heartless persecution of stalwart believers who dared to live and die for Christ with victory and praise on their lips.

As I prayed about writing this story, God led me to weave the authentic reports of persecution into a fictional story of two young people who suffered the intense sting of persecution and many years of forced separation. In spite of their terrible hardships, they never wavered in their faith and devotion to Jesus Christ, just as hundreds of Chinese, past and present. 

Because of the underlying truth of each fictional episode, Red Runs the River is much more than fiction. It is the story of heroic followers of Jesus Christ who paid the ultimate price for their love and devotion to Him. The result is that a very unusual phenomenon is occurring in China. Throughout the land of China where the Communists vowed to stamp out Christianity, the greatest movement of God in the history of the nation is taking place. Although China has done its worst to wipe out every vestige of Christianity, every tactic has failed. Today there is an estimated 80 to 100 million Christians in China, whereas at the time of the Communist takeover, there were only an estimated one or two million believers in the whole country! God’s church is flourishing.

My prayer is that every reader will be impacted by the gripping stories of the faithfulness and courage of the Chinese Christians in their hour of trial. We in America have not been tested as our Chinese brothers and sisters. Too often we are caught up by materialism and compromise. We are spiritually asleep. May this story be a wake-up call to prepare Christians to face the inevitable persecution of the end times. And may the response be to follow Jesus at whatever cost as the brave Christians in China have done so well and so faithfully. 

I owe a great debt to my wife Evelyn of sixty years for her dedicated commitment to serving the Lord by my side, and for her invaluable help and suggestions for this story. Without her sage advice and encouragement, this story would never have seen the light of day. I am also deeply indebted to my daughter, Joy Peters, who has edited all of my previous books, and who tackled this one with skill and commitment to Jesus. Red Runs the River is the culmination of my life-long passion to serve the Chinese people and Christ’s church; I send it forth with the hope that it will bring many people face to face with Jesus.

Anthony G. Bollback

Kissimmee, Florida,

2003