Charles Richard Hillis (1913–2005) was an American

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, author, and founder of "Formosa Crusades", later "Orient Crusades" and "Overseas Crusades", now "OC International".

Early life

Hillis was born an American citizen in Victoria, British Columbia,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, before the family moved to Monroe, Washington. Hillis was an adventurer. At the age of thirteen in 1926, Dick attended evangelistic meetings at the little Methodist church in town, where his mother served as chairman of the church’s missionary committee. It was during these meetings where Dr. George Bennard, (the author of the gospel hymn

The Old Rugged Cross "The Old Rugged Cross" is a popular hymn written in 1912 by American evangelist and song-leader George Bennard (1873–1958). History George Bennard was a native of Youngstown, Ohio, but was reared in Iowa. After his conversion in a Salvation ...

) was the guest speaker, that young Dick Hillis was called to go to

as a

. He trained for ministry at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles ( BIOLA) and graduated in 1932.

Missionary career

At the age of 20, Dick Hillis was on his way to China with the

China Inland Mission OMF International (formerly Overseas Missionary Fellowship and before 1964 the China Inland Mission) is an international and interdenominational Evangelical Christian missionary society with an international centre in Singapore. It was founded i ...

(CIM) (now OMF International), founded by

Hudson Taylor James Hudson Taylor (; 21 May 1832 – 3 June 1905) was a British Baptist Christian missionary to China and founder of the China Inland Mission (CIM, now OMF International). Taylor spent 51 years in China. The society that he began was respons ...

. Hillis was the youngest American missionary candidate ever accepted by the CIM. On December 8, 1934, Hillis' CIM colleagues,

John and Betty Stam John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

, were beheaded in Tsingteh. CIM mission headquarters in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

sent word of the Stam’s execution to Hillis, who was just completing his first year in China. Hillis reportedly said, "Will I, too, be captured and murdered? Am I going to die here, too, Lord, alone and thousands of miles from home?" Hillis and his family spent most of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in the United States, but returned to China after the war, only to face further conflict between the

Chinese Communists The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

and the

Chinese Nationalist Party The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Taiw ...

. In 1950 Hillis and his family were expelled from China, and returned to the United States. Soon after Hillis took a position as the Taiwan director of

Youth for Christ Youth For Christ (YFC) is a worldwide Christian movement working with young people, whose main purpose is evangelism among teenagers. It began informally in New York City in 1940, when Jack Wyrtzen held evangelical Protestant rallies for teenagers ...

, and it was at this time that he formed a traveling evangelistic basketball team, which he renamed ''Venture for Victory'' and which led Hillis to form his own mission organization. In 1951, Hillis left

and founded "Formosa Crusades" as he initially responded to Madam Chiang Kai-Shek's request for men to preach to

Chinese Nationalist Army The National Revolutionary Army (NRA; ), sometimes shortened to Revolutionary Army () before 1928, and as National Army () after 1928, was the military arm of the Kuomintang (KMT, or the Chinese Nationalist Party) from 1925 until 1947 in Chin ...

soldiers in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

and then to requests of Taiwanese churches that the visiting teams remain to help in training lay people and church personnel. He became General Director (1951-1970); retired for health reasons and in order to provide full-time spiritual leadership of the mission (1970); briefly assumed the newly created position of President (1976) and upon the appointment of

Luis Palau Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archai ...

as President was named Vice-President-At-Large to actively assist the mission and participate in missions conferences and seminars. On New Year's Eve, 1985, Dr. Dick Hillis received the

Far East Broadcasting Company Far East Broadcasting Company is an international Christian radio network. From 1960 to 1994, FEBC owned and operated shortwave radio station KGEI in San Francisco, California. Philippines The Philippines is where FEBC began its initial broad ...

's Founder's Award at the "Rejoice '86" celebration. Today the global outreaches of OC International continue.

Personal life

In 1936, Hillis married Margaret Humphrey, a fellow missionary with China Inland Mission. They had six children together. Margaret Hillis died in 1981, and Hillis married Ruth Kopperud in 1982. He died on December 14, 2005.

Quotes

* "Every heart with Christ, a missionary; every heart without Christ, a mission field." * "God didn't take me to China for what I could do for China, but for what China could do for me."

Bibliography

* ''Steel In His Soul'', by Jan Winebrenner, 1996, WinePress Publishing. * ''Developing a Heart for Mission: Five Missionary Heroes'', by Roy Robertson, 2002, NavMedia.

Works

* Authored numerous books on missions, particularly based on his own experiences in Asia, as well as on the role of the Holy Spirit in the Christian's life. * ''Shall We Forfeit Formosa?'', (Zondervan) 1954 * ''Do We Recognize Red China?'', (Zondervan) 1956 * ''Are the Heathen Really Lost'', (Moody Press) 1961 * ''Unlock the Heavens'', (Service Press) 1963 * ''China Assignment'', (Overseas Crusades)1965 * ''Strange Gods'', (Moody Press) 1966 * ''Born to Climb'', (Word Books) 1967 * ''Inhale the Incense'', (Fabrizio Publications) 1970 * ''Sayings of Mao, Sayings of Jesus'', editor, (Regal Books) 1972 * ''Not Made for Quitting'', (Dimension Books) 1973 * ''The Spirit Speaks: Are You Listening?'', (Regal Books) 1980 * ''Listen to the Spirit'', with Don Hillis, (Baker Books) 1984 * ''What If They Haven't Heard?'', (Moody Press) 1986 * ''I Was Never Called'', (Overseas Crusades)

References

External links

The Dick Hillis Story

OC International

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hillis, Dick 1913 births 2005 deaths American Protestant missionaries Biola University alumni Protestant missionaries in China Protestant writers American evangelicals American expatriates in China