James O. Fraser

James Outram Fraser (Chinese 富能仁) (1886-1938) was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China with the China Inland Mission. He pioneered work among the Lisu people of Southwestern China in the early part of the 20th century.

First years in Yunnan

Born in London in 1886, he became a graduate engineer. However in 1908 he dedicated his life to missionary work and joined the China Inland Mission. He arrived in China at the age of 22 and traveled from Shanghai to Hong Kong and then to the mountainous region of China's far southwest.

He was forced by the chaos accompanying the Chinese revolution of 1911 to divide his time between Yunnan Province and Burma. He learned the language of and commenced his work among the Lisu, a Tibeto-Burmese minority people who lived in the high mountains along the borders of the two countries. Fraser had arrived in Yunnan in 1910, and spent nearly thirty years working among the Lisu. Fraser is best known for the alphabet he created for the Lisu, often referred to as the Fraser alphabet. It was designed for purpose of translating the New Testament into the Lisu language. Fraser also designed a written musical notation for transcribing the Lisu's oral history songs. Going to China with CIM (China Inland Mission), he was stationed in the then remote province of Yunnan to work with the local Chinese. But Fraser was a keen climber and revelled in climbing through the mountains meeting and preaching to the Lisu people, particularly in the upper Salween River valley. Readily accepted by them and able to live in their mud floor huts, he was able to communicate a little through Chinese and then to learn their language, which is in the Tibeto-Burman group. Initial success was followed by years of doubt and difficulty until 1916 when he and fellow missionaries started to see scores of families convert to Christianity and enthusiastically pursue a new life without the fear of the spirits that had previously characterised them. By 1918, sparked by family evangelism carried on by the people themselves, 60,000 believers had been baptized. Fraser was known for his ability to organize the people into strong indigenous churches that became models for church-planting ventures not only for other minority peoples in China's southwest but in other countries as well.

Aware that they would soon need material in their language, he began work immediately on Mark's gospel and a book of hymns, since they showed great interest in writing and were already great singers and natural musicians.

Furlough and marriage

Fraser went back to England on furlough in 1924 and when he returned to "Lisuland" in 1929, he was married, to Roxie Dymond, the daughter of a Methodist missionary stationed in Kunming.

Revival and the Fraser alphabet

Fraser developed a script for the Lisu language and used it to prepare a catechism, portions of Scripture, and eventually, with much help from his colleagues, a complete New Testament. Working initially on Mark and John and then on a handbook of Lisu history and language, Fraser handed on the translation task to Allyn Cooke and his wife, Leila, coming back to help the team with revision and checking in the mid-1930s. The complete New Testament was finished in 1936.

Fraser maintained a consistent policy of training the Lisu converts (usually whole households and whole villages at a time) to be self-supporting and to pay for their own books and church buildings. They raised their own funds for the support of pastors, of wives and children of their travelling evangelists and of festivals and other occasions. Unlike other missionaries of his generation, Fraser would not pay local preachers to go out, or for building local church structures, and this was something that put the Lisu in good stead for the years of Japanese occupation and the Communist persecution, particularly during the Chinese cultural revolution. Nevertheless tens of thousands of them fled during this era to neighboring Burma and Thailand. Fraser also left church government in the hands of Lisu elders; very little imprint was made on them that had a home church character, other than the tremendous prayer support the Fraser organised back in England for the Lisu and his work.

Throughout the 1930s other missionaries came to assist in the work, but the bulk of the conversions happened as a result of Lisu evengelists covering the ground and reaching not only Lisu but also Kachin and Yi people (Nosu). Revivals also broke out at this time. It is acknowledged by the Chinese Government that by the 1990s over 90% of the Lisu in China were Christian.

Final years and legacy

Fraser wrote many articles in English for "The Chinese Recorder". After seeing great fruit for his labours, James Outram Fraser died in Baoshan, in western Yunnan in 1938 of cerebral malaria, leaving his wife and three children. His main biographer was his daughter, Eileen Crossman who published "Mountain Rain" in 1982. His grave is now at the Qing Hua church.

This quote from the OMF website November 2005:quote|“On September 25, 1938, while in Baoshan Yunnan, China, James Fraser died at the age of 52. Due to land erosion, West Yunnan’s Christian church decided to move the grave from the mountain slopes of Baoshan to this location, renewing the headstone on behalf of the Lisu church as a way of expressing their cherished memory of J.O. Fraser.Fraser’s life has reaped a large harvest although many tears had first to be sown through his labours. quote|“The Lisu church at Baoshan plans to commemorate J.O. Fraser every seven years at a special Easter service in the new Bible training center they have started there.Another memorial to J.O. Fraser has been erected by Lisu believers in Weixi County in far northwestern Yunnan. Inscribed in Lisu, Chinese and English the English reads: “IN LOVING MEMORY. JAMES O. FRASER 1886-1938. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. WITH DEEPEST LOVE REMEMBER YOU ALWAYS—THE LISU CHURCH.” The Chinese states additionally: “Erected by the Christian Church in the Lisu Autonomous County of Weixi on 15 March 2004.”

In 1992, the Chinese government officially recognized the Fraser alphabet as the official script of the Lisu language. Today, Fraser is remembered as one of Christianity's most successful missionaries to east Asia in modern times.

Christianity is thriving in the Salween River valley where the Lisu live nearly 70 years after the death of Fraser. Of the 18,000 Lisu who lived in Fugong in 1950 - 3,400 professed faith in Christ. As of 2007 there are estimated to be 80-90 percent of the 70,000 making the same profession. In Yunnan it is estimated that there are between 100,000-200,000 total Lisu Christians in the Lisu Church. More than 75,000 Lisu Bibles have been legally printed in China following this explosive growth. [OMF International (2007), p. 1-2]

Further reading

* "Behind The Ranges : Fraser of Lisuland S.W. China" by Mrs. Howard Taylor (Mary Geraldine Guinness)
* "Mountain Rain" by Eileen Fraser Crossman
* "A Memoir of J. O. Fraser" by Mrs. J. O. Fraser
* "God Reigns In China" by Leslie Lyall, Perspectives 1997 Ed.
* "James Fraser and the King of the Lisu" by Phyllis Thompson
* "The prayer of faith" by James O. Fraser & Mary Eleanor Allbutt
* "In the Arena", Isobel Kuhn. OMF Books (1995)
* "Stones of Fire", Isobel Kuhn. Shaw Books (1994)
* "Ascent to the Tribes: Pioneering in North Thailand", Isobel Kuhn. OMF Books (2000)
* "Precious Things of the Lasting Hills", Isobel Kuhn. OMF Books (1977)
* "Second Mile People", Isobel Kuhn. Shaw Books (1999)
* "Nests Above the Abyss", Isobel Kuhn. Moody Press (1964)
* "The Dogs May Bark, but the Caravan Moves On", Gertrude Morse. College Press, (1998)
* "J.O. Fraser and Church Growth among the Lisu of Southwest China." M.A. thesis: Regent College. (Microfiche from Theological Research Exchange Network.) Walter McConnell. (1987)

* Historical Bibliography of the China Inland Mission

References

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Notes

External links

* [http://www.omniglot.com/writing/fraser.htm The Fraser alphabet]
* [http://www.christianword.org/revival/prayermakes.html James O. Fraser: Prayer Makes History]
* [http://www.omf.org/breakthrough Breakthrough: The Life of James O. Fraser and the Lisu People Docu-drama, OMF International 2008]
* [http://www.omf.org/omf/us OMF International (formerly China Inland Mission)]

Persondata
NAME= Fraser, James Outram
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Fraser, James O.
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Missionary to China, inventor of Tibeto-Burman Nosu alphabet
DATE OF BIRTH= 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH= London, England
DATE OF DEATH= September 25, 1938
PLACE OF DEATH= Baoshan, Yunnan, China