MOUNTAIN RAIN
The biography of James O. Fraser
By Eileen Crossman. Authentic Media. 262 pages. £6.99
ISBN 1 85078 411 6
Where might you find a 22-year-old, brilliant pianist with a top engineering degree? Backpacking in Australia on a year out? In 1908 James Fraser was in south-west China, soon to be the only missionary in the area. Sent by the CIM to Yunnan, a fortnight from Shanghai, Fraser was drawn to a strange people he met in the market. They were demon-worshipping Lisu from villages in the mountains bordering Burma.
For a decade Fraser trekked the mountains, preaching. Only a handful of families turned to Christ, some turned back. The author (Fraser’s daughter) tells how he was about to be moved elsewhere when there was an explosion of conversions. Hundreds of Lisu families turned decisively to Christ. They seemed more open to the gospel than the Chinese — perhaps because of a Lisu legend of a ‘white brother’ bringing ‘the book of the true God’ in their language (still unwritten)!
