Your Sons & Daughters Shall Prophesy - Prophetic Gifts Today In The New Testament Church

A Profile of the Ancient Hebrew Prophet

The Chinese Beggar Children

Some dismiss the visions and spiritual manifestations of others with a shrug. When such visions are received by children, however, it makes you stop and think. This true story of modern times is about not just one child but many. The simplicity and purity of attitude of the young orphans described-involved in one of the most marvelous prophetic happenings in Church history-stands in such stark contrast to the devious nature of Bal aam and other false prophets that it seems a fitting close to this chapter. H. A. and Josephine Baker went to China in the early 1920s as faith mis sionaries with no denominational sponsorship. They settled in a little town of five thousand called Kotchiu, located in the southwest corner of Yun nan, the most southwest province of China. Said to be the worst town in all China, Kotchiu was controlled by robbers and was unspeakably vile and sinful. Almost immediately, [the Bakers] were conscious of the many teenage beggar boys who were starving and dying in the streets. That was when they decided to open the Adullam Home. In addition to dysentery and other internal diseases, the boys had terrible sores all over their bodies.Josephine found real joy and satisfaction in removing their filthy rags and giving them baths. Disheveled hair was cut and clean clothes were given them. Their sores healed rapidly as they responded to the love ofJesus. There were forty boys in the Home when the great miracle took place. There was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the like of which is recorded in few pieces of Christian literature. They fell prostrate on the floor under the power of God. While in the Spirit, they saw into the next world. They saw angels and talked with them; they played in the wonderful parks of Paradise; they saw the saints of old. This outpouring went on for days and days. Little children preached under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The lowest, most outcast beggar boys saw revelations of invisible worlds and the glories of the redeemed.° In some cases they were poor children with one or both parents dead and had been brought to the Home. There were also some prodigals who had run away from the homes in more distant parts of this or adjoining provinces. But from whatever source they came, these children, mostly boys rang ing in ages from six to eighteen, had come to us without previous training in morals and without education. Begging is a sort of "gang" system in which stealing is a profitable part. The morals are what would be expected of a "gang" in a godless land. p. 11 For the most part the children of the story had been beggars on the streets of the city. In the Bakers' words:

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