NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--If he had lived, Bill Wallace would be 100 years old now. But the Southern Baptist missionary and dedicated surgeon -- beloved by nearly all who knew him -- died alone 57 years ago in a cold jail cell far from home.

Wallace Memorial Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tenn. -- named for the martyred missionary -- recently celebrated the centennial of his birth. But more than celebrating his birth, Wallace Memorial wants Southern Baptists to remember his life.

To help future Baptist leaders know the story of this real-life hero, the church has partnered with Holman Bible Outreach International to reprint his biography, "Bill Wallace of China," by Jesse Fletcher, first published in 1963.

"The servant leadership model ... needs to be rekindled in Baptist life," said Mike Boyd, Wallace Memorial's pastor. The story and example of Bill Wallace needs to be put back in the hands of Southern Baptists, Boyd said, to say anew that, "We've been called to serve people."

Phill Burgess, executive director of Holman Bible Outreach International, agreed. Holman is producing a translation of the New Testament for overseas distribution. As part of their partnership with Wallace Memorial, one copy of the translated Scriptures will be sent to the mission field for every copy sold of the Wallace biography, Burgess said.

"The work of Bill Wallace is not finished," Burgess said. "Our whole goal is to get God's Word in the hands of a lost and hurting world."

Holman supplied 1,000 copies of the biography to Wallace Memorial. Boyd wants to place a copy in the hands of every graduating student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he is an alumnus and a trustee.

"Christianity is what motivated to use his surgical skills on the field," Boyd said.

Wallace's service in southern China began in 1935 but his call to missions came while he was still a teenager. A doctor's son, he was born in Knoxville in 1908. As a boy he tagged along as his father visited patients, but he was more interested in fixing cars than healing the sick.

That changed when he heard God's call to medical missions at age 17. After college and medical school, Wallace was appointed in 1935 as a missionary to southern China at the Baptist-operated Stout Memorial Hospital in Wuchow (now Wuzhou).

A quiet man, Wallace's love for God was evident in his actions. Patients and co-workers at the hospital experienced Christ's love through Wallace's acts of selflessness.

When it was time to sleep, he made sure his staff and patients had blankets and a place to rest their head first. When it was time to eat, he waited for everyone else to eat.

"We've lost the heart of servant leadership in our culture," Boyd said. "Bill Wallace optimizes what servant leadership is all about."

On a foggy night in December 1950, Wallace's faith was tested when his home was ransacked by Chinese military. They claimed to find a gun hidden under his pillow and accused him of being a spy. He was arrested, thrown into a dingy prison cell and tricked into signing a spurious confession.

Wallace was severely beaten, ridiculed, interrogated and accused of "murdering and maiming Chinese patients, of performing illegal and obscene operations," Fletcher wrote.

To keep his sanity, the doctor wrote Scripture passages from memory, denials of guilt and protests of innocence. He grew despondent in his final days, but he never stopped sharing Christ. He ministered to his guards, fellow prisoners and the townsfolk who passed by his cell window.

His love for Jesus and the Chinese people cost him his life. Two months after being jailed, on the morning of Feb. 10, 1951, Wallace was found hanging from a beam in his cell. Few believed the 43-year-old doctor had committed suicide. His body bore little evidence of a hanging but plenty marks of physical abuse.

"Quietly, his soul slipped from his torn body and his exhausted mind and went to be with the One he had so faithfully and served," Fletcher wrote. "Bill Wallace was dead to the world, but alive forever with God."

Wallace was laid to rest in an unmarked grave in Wuchow. Chinese friends later erected a monument engraved with these words from the Apostle Paul: "For to me to live is Christ."

In 1985, his remains were returned to his stateside home. He was laid to rest next to his parents at the Greenwood Cemetery in Knoxville. An exact replica of the monument in China now stands at his Tennessee gravesite, inscribed with the words, "For to me to live is Christ."

The memorial edition of Bill Wallace of China will be available in bookstores and on lifeway.com in July.

Comment on this Story