Rex Ray was a Southern Baptist missionary who served with his wife in South China during the turbulent and challenging years of the Sino-Japanese war, WWII and the Chinese civil war.
The eldest son of pioneer settlers in Whiteright, Texas, he grew up in the Southern Baptist tradition and came to faith at the age of 19. He graduated with a Bible degree from Baylor University in 1917.
On graduating, he found WWI was in full swing. He joined the US army as a chaplain and saw service in Europe for more than a year. Returning to the USA in 1919, he decided to become a missionary, and he was appointed by the Southern Baptist Missions board for China in 1920. He sailed from Seattle that March to begin at the Baptist Mission in Canton.
There in quick succession, he met Janet Gilman, and they were married in Canton that November. He was 46 and she was 29. She was the daughter of pioneering missionaries to China and was born in Hinan.
They spent the first part of their honeymoon on the island of Cheung Chau, the beginning of a long association with the island. It’s not known which house(s) they used.
In 1921 they were called to Wuchow, which had a boys’ and girls’ school. At that time the Stout Memorial Hospital was being built. Despite knowing little Chinese as yet, Rev Ray was made principal of the boys’ school. Janet was having to learn Cantonese as well, as her dialect growing up had been Hainanese. They got busy with evangelistic meetings and Bible classes and spent the next 20 years there.
Rex Ray also started a bookstore known as the True Light Book Store.
In 1926 the Communist unions put such pressure on the Christians in Wuchow that the missionary staff had to leave. With the backing of an American gunboat, they managed to leave the town and get back to Hong Kong and thence sailed home to America.
They returned in March 1928, to China and Wuchow, finding the Communists driven out and peace restored. They were able to continue the work.
In 1935 they went back to the States on furlough. By now they had four children – Daniel, David, Lois and Mary Dee.
On their return to China, Daniel and David left them at Shanghai for their American boarding school in Kuling. This time the Rays brought their Ford V8 with them. By this time there were many more roads in China, making new places accessible by car. They also brought a trailer with a large tent, which they used for their evangelistic outreach in Kwangsi province, reaching hundreds of people.
In the summer of 1937, Japan attacked China and war was on. Wuchow started to experience bombing attacks from the air and the Stout Memorial Hospital became a place of refuge for many. It was aptly named, being a five-storey brick, steel and concrete structure. Knowing that the war might last for years, Ray took Janet and the children to a house on Cheung Chau for safety, returning to Wuchow to carry on the work. Many missionary families did this at this time.
Japan then threw a blockade along the coast of China, cutting off the supply of medicines and other essentials. Ray had many hair-raising experiences blockade-running with supplies from Hong Kong, at risk by day from Japanese planes and at night from pirates exploiting the dangerous situation. Each run that he made, Ray took the opportunity to visit the family on Cheung Chau.
In 1938, the American School at Kikungshan transferred to Cheung Chau, so the boys were close at hand. Lois was also attending by now.
In December 1940, the Japanese threat to Hong Kong was too great and Ray purchased tickets for Janet and the children to return to the States. They left in January 1941; the American School was on the same sailing. When they left their Cheung Chau cottage, they thought they would not see it again.
Hong Kong fell to the Japanese in 1941, but Ray laboured on until 1944. He was well overdue for furlough and showing signs of starvation. He found himself among crowds of refugees fleeing north-west from the Japanese advance in South China. He got a pass from the US army for a flight out of China to India. From there he took a Liberty ship to the USA for a happy reunion in Bonham, Texas with his family, not seen for 5 years.
Once recovered, he spent 18 months on speaking tours to raise support in Texas, Missouri, Kentucky and Oklahoma.
After the war ended, Ray returned to China in 1946 with son Daniel and nephew David Hicks and with a ton of aid on a trailer, some for the Stout Memorial Hospital in Wuchow, and the rest for the now ruined Baptist Hospital in Kweilin.
In Kweilin, the hospital, the church and missionary residences all had to be rebuilt as well as churches in the countryside. In September of that year, missionary staff started returning, and Janet Ray returned in 1948. Bible classes and gospel preaching restarted and hundreds came to faith.
The Rays went on to do amazing work, which included evangelising the Tai Kam Leper Colony and an island of pirates.
By late 1949, the Red armies were approaching Canton, where Ray was at the (last) Leung Kwong Baptist Convention. He managed to get a black-market ticket for the last train out of Canton. Making his way to Macao, he managed to get to Toi Shan to rescue Janet. They got out despite the Communist takeover and got a junk to Macao. From there, they made their way one last time to recuperate in their little cottage on Cheung Chau*.
Before leaving Hong Kong forever, they visited the Happy Valley Cemetery to lay flowers on the grave of Marian McNair Ray, the daughter they had lost to glandular fever in 1930, aged 5.
They returned home again to Texas and Bonham to enjoy their family graduating from university and entering the mission field themselves.
Following the Korean War, in November 1951, Rex Ray took ship to South Korea with a jeep and a trailer loaded with hospital equipment and relief clothing. Janet joined him later, and they served there for two years.
Rev Ray was eventually retired by the Board of Missions in 1956 at the age of 80 and the Rays returned to their home in Bonham, Texas, this time with six Korean orphans, who were adopted into American families.
The Rays left a son, Daniel, behind in South Korea, serving as a Baptist missionary.
Rex Ray died two years later in 1958 aged 83, after a life of astonishing service, courage and faith.
*The text says 'it stood on a high stone bluff overlooking a restful glittering sea.' This description fits possibly Houses #10, #19, #20 or #24.
Note: In the course of his service, Rex Ray met with missionaries Robert Jaffray, Manly W Rankin, and Auris Pender.
Sources:
Cowboy Missionary in Kwangsi by Rex Ray
Photos that show this Person
