#12 in a series on the life of William Borden, the millionaire missionary who died en route to China's Gansu Province, adapted from his biography (BordenofYale.com), which I helped edit for republication (Aneko Press, Jan 1, 2024).
Here are two fascinating glimpses into the inner thoughts of young William Borden, from a letter (to his mother) dated 111 years ago today (February 12, 1913):
My Arabic is going rather slowly just at present. I seem to have struck a snag. It certainly is difficult! However, I hope to overcome by the help of God and with due perseverance. . . .
There is little more important to a missionary than learning the target language of the people he or she wishes to reach with the Gospel. Borden understood this, which is why he had started studying Arabic while in seminary at Princeton, and why he was in Cairo in early 1913. His calling was among the Muslims of Gansu, China, and he knew that Arabic would help him in his ministry there. So he poured his heart and soul into the work of studying the language.
Language Learning Hurts
But that didn’t make it easy. People ask me how I learned Mandarin so well, and I say that although it seems easy in hindsight, but I spent countless hours pouring over dictionaries, maps, and my Chinese-English NT until my eyes (and head) literally hurt from exhaustion. It seems Borden had hit a rough patch in his studies here, but he was not going to give up easily.
Borden continued in his letter:
Dr. Zwemer preached a fine sermon at the American Mission, Sunday night. Afterwards we met an American girl, a graduate of Holyoke, whom we had both known in Student Volunteer days. She had just arrived with a party. It was nice to see someone like that.
Samuel Zwemer was the man whom God had used so mightily back in William’s freshman year at Yale to call him to a lifetime of ministry to Muslims. And now he was Borden’s field supervisor, tasked with helping him navigate his time in Cairo and prepare him for a lifetime of service in China.
But the point of Borden’s mention of Zwemer here had more to do with the girl he met after church…
A Hint of Loneliness
It’s interesting that he doesn’t mention her name, although he says that they knew one another from the college missions club (Student Volunteer) days. He obviously enjoyed seeing her again, but also seems to have kept a friendly distance. He was with Dr. Zwemer (“we met an American girl”) and she was with a larger group of travelers (“she had just arrived with a party”).
However, Borden’s final comment (“It was nice to see someone like that.”) reveals that he was (at least a little bit) lonely as a young, single American male serving in a bustling city full of Arabs. At minimum, this passing interaction with an American girl from his college years made him feel nostalgic and long for an American friend his age.
I won’t go so far as to say that he longed for a wife, a companion in life and ministry, because Borden himself had told a friend that he had no intention of marrying, due to the hardships he expected to face and his fierce dedication to the mission. But as one who said similar things as a young missionary (and has now been married almost 20 years), I’m not sure I fully believe him.