Even during this time of persecution in China, Communist Party members can’t deny the impact that great missionaries like Dr. Nelson Bell, father-in-law to Billy Graham, had.

The Global Missionary Mobilization Conference for Memorial to Dr. Nelson Bell was conducted recently to honor Dr. Bell, 50 years after his death – 50 years this year. Hosted last month by the China Servant Leadership Center and the Gospel Servant Leadership Revival Platform, the event remembered the contribution made by Dr. Nelson Bell and his family.

 

Dr. Nelson Bell was a Presbyterian missionary who served the Chinese people through medical care for 25 years. Dr. Bell established the Love and Mercy Hospital, then the world’s largest Presbyterian hospital. It still stands today, but is known as the Second People’s Hospital of Huai’an, Jiangsu Province.

Dr. Nelson Bell’s daughter, Ruth, was born and raised in China. She saw her father care for the people of China, even pulling abandoned babies out of ditches and providing medical care for them, saving their lives. For her high school education, Dr. Bell sent Ruth to boarding school in Pyongyang, North Korea, before she flew to America to attend university where she met and eventually married Billy Graham.

Dr. Bell’s biography can be found in the book, “A Foreign Devil in China: The Story of Dr. L. Nelson Bell.”