George Pearcy, was born in the year 1813. He was raised in a Christian home and was born again while still a teenager. He yearned to be of service to his Saviour, but because his family was poor, he was unable to finish his education until he was thirty years old, graduating from Columbian college. When the Lord called him to the mission field of China he went back to college to add medicine to his skills. On this day in 1846 he married Miss Frances Miller, and two weeks later he was commissioned at the Second Baptist Church of Richmond to serve as a missionary. Then he and his bride, along with another missionary couple, sailed for China, arriving four months later.
After serving in Canton for a while, trouble arose between the English and the Chinese. There were shootings, and burning and looting of the properties of many foreigners. When it was eventually decided that the missionaries should move to Shanghai, they set sail but their ship was caught in the worst typhoon in fifty years. A hundred vessels and a thousand lives were lost in the storm, but the missionaries “escaped all safe to land.”
The Lord’s work continued in Shanghai for five years, during which time Pearcy was able to translate the local Chinese dialect to a phonetic system of reading and writing. Then his health began to decline. At one point cholera laid him so low that he lay as though dead. His mind was alert, but his body was so inert he feared that he would be declared gone and he would be buried alive. However, the Lord blessed and he slowly recovered – well enough to sail for America early in 1855. Unable to return to the mission field, Bro. Pearcy began visiting churches to raise money and awareness for the needs in China. He died on July 24, 1871.
Even though it is nearly impossible for missionaries to enter China today, the seeds planted by the early missionaries like George Pearcy are said to be still producing fruit for the Lord’s glory.