A Foreign Devil in China: The Story of Dr. L. Nelson Bell

Excellent background on the father and mother in law of Billy Graham. This excellent story is tinged slightly by hagiography, making more of their lives and work than seems possible.

A Foreign Devil in China is the biography of Nelson Bell, an American physician who served 25 years as a missionary doctor in China. It is a well-written and easy-to-read story covering his early years as a child in Virginia, his mission service, which ended with the outbreak of World War II, and his subsequent years as a physician and church leader when he returned to America.

For me, two things stood out about Bell's life. One was his absolute love of God, nurtured through a lifetime of devotional reading of the Bible and prayer, and without which he truly felt he could do no good thing. His close walk with God also led to his abiding trust in God's presence and will in every circumstance. And serving as a missionary doctor in China show more in the first half of the 20th century gave him a multitude of trials and tribulations.

The other thing that stood out, which was also connected to Bell's walk with his Savior and dependence on God's revealed word, was the idea that everything was theological. The words in the Bible mattered, and they had much to say to nearly every situation of life. It is a message that continues to ring true today. Bell lived during the time of the Fundamentalist/Modernist controversy and he was a Fundamentalist in every good way that word and time can be understood. And in that lived theology his was a life that many could do well to emulate today. show less

A biography of Dr. Nelson Bell, medical missionary to China from 1916 until forced out by the Japanese in 1941. Best known in later years as father-in-law of the evangelist, Billy Graham, Nelson Bell in his own right, became well-loved and fruitful in his medical work and evangelism in China. He always stressed that the two must go hand-in-hand and strenuously urged against pure social work delivered without the Gospel. A good presentation of the background in which Ruth Bell, wife of Billy Graham, was reared.

This is a fascinating story about Dr. Nelson Bell(an American surgeon in China), his wife Virginia, and their children. Dr. Bell served many years as a medical missionary in China, practicing medicine, preaching, and raising a family under the most difficult conditions. His daughter Ruth would become the wife of evangelist Dr. Billy Graham.

Story of Dr. Bell - a missionary doctor (and the father of Billy Grahams wife) and all the years he spent in China. It was a very good book and if you like reading about missionaries I would recommend it.

Travel/China

Story of Dr. Nelson Bell, a major influence in the life of Billy Graham as well as his father-in-law.