January 13. CT Studd. CT was considered England’s most outstanding cricket player. By the time he was 16, he was an excellent player, and he played all through college and became famous throughout England.
Full of energy and courage, CT walked away from cricket, left Cambridge, to preach the Gospel in China. CT had many, many major adventures and founded the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade. On this date in 1887, CT gave away a large portion of his inheritance to support George Mueller’s work with orphans.
If God leads you into a tight spot, He’ll have your back.
Star cricket player CT Studd loved God, he loved people, and he wanted to “run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.” When he heard about a tribe of cannibals in the heart of Africa—who had never heard about Jesus—he had to go to Africa.
No matter CT was over 50 years old. No matter his health was iffy. No matter the cannibals had filed their teeth to sharp points.
CT welcomed tight spots—just to see how God would get him out. And—in any situation God led him—CT refused the negative point of view.
With hired porters, CT and (his soon-to-be son-in-law) Alfred set out across Africa on bicycles with hard seats and skinny tires. No modern roads, no paved paths—no reason to complain. CT kept pedaling.
The first night in the Congo, they pitched a tent twenty yards from Lake Albert, where “the flies provided a treble to the … barking of the crocodiles,” CT said. “It was not altogether nice to have them so close.” Though he would never complain or worry, he did wisely burn a good fire all night between the crocodiles and his bed.
As they moved on, the journey was slow going, and they often had to carry their bikes, which CT declared no problem. Massive trees turned the “midday sun to twilight.” Steaming heat rose from thick vegetation full of leopards and lions and lowland gorillas.
At one point, Alfred and CT got separated from their porters, and the bicycles were little help on steep hills and through crowded villages. Hot and hungry, the guys had no money, no food, and very little understanding of the language. They stumbled through a village, not completely pleased with life.
CT begged a man with a basket of maize and sweet potatoes to sell them food. And the man agreed.
But how would they pay for it?
CT grinned. God’s provision was very near. Why were there so many buttons on breeches? To be cut off and used as money, of course! The native went away happy. (But—instead of clothes, the villagers oiled their skin. So CT wondered how the man’s wife would sew his new buttons on.)
Now CT and Alfred had food, but no way to prepare it. At the next village, they found a man with actual clothes on. Time to barter with buttons. The man made them a fire. But CT had no pot or griddle or even a paper bag.
No problem.
The man threw their food into the fire, and—thirty minutes later—when he pulled it out, CT declared the food “unspoiled” by rich sauces.
The presence of two white guys with too many clothes on did attract a little too much attention. But CT and Alfred were “lank, lean, and tough,” so their new pointy-toothed friends-in-need were not “tempted beyond what they were able to bear.” Intact, CT and Alfred left the village.
As they traveled, CT and Alfred fought a fever. It was like being knocked in the head by the devil. Fever rose. Medication failed. Weakness increased.
Scripture said if anyone was sick to anoint them and pray, but CT and Alfred didn’t have salad oil, or olive oil, or even linseed oil. They decided lamp oil worked just fine. That night CT felt he was at the edge of death. But come morning he was fit as an African fiddle.
CT and Alfred told the tribesmen about Jesus, and the first baptism was held in a river. To keep their new converts safe, CT had two jobs: 1. Dunk people. 2. Shoot crocodiles.
Eventually he and Alfred settled in an African village. People from all around came to hear about Jesus. One man and his wife walked 200 miles to hear about God. “He never missed a meeting.”
It seems CT was open to anything the Lord delivered. One converted cannibal, also an ex-soldier, took it upon himself to keep the 200 oiled bodies respectful. If, during prayer, someone opened his eyes, he popped them on the head and told them to behave in God’s house. If someone prayed too long, CT said, “Now we’ll sing a hymn while our brother finishes.”
One man stood and said he was sorry. Everyone listened. He had to confess he had eaten his uncle.
“In my desperation I prayed, and the LORD listened; he saved me from all my troubles” (Psalm 34:6 NLT).
How do you respond to difficult situations? If God leads you into a tight spot, He’ll have your back.
Grubb, Norman. Chapter Fifteen: “Through Cannibal Tribes.” CT Studd—Cricketer and Pioneer. Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1982 (Original publication date: 1933).
Hammond, Peter. Cricketer for Christ, CT Studd (1860–1931). Published January 20, 2017. Frontline Fellowship. https://www.slideshare.net/frontfel/ct-studd-cricketer-for-christ.
“Chapter 26.” THE FUNDAMENTALS – A TESTIMONY TO THE TRUTH Vol. 4, Edited by R.A. Torrey, A.C. Dixon and Others. Accessed September 23, 2020. AGES Digital Library, 2000. (Original publication of essays 1910–1915). http://www.ntslibrary.com/PDF% 20Books% 20II/Torrey% 20-% 20The% 20Fundamentals% 204.pdf.