Bill Wallace served as a medical missionary in China for nearly twenty years before dying as a martyr for his faith. His story has inspired Christians throughout the world.

Dr. Wallace was buried in an unmarked grave by the Communist Army to cover their crime. Chinese Christians later would risk their own lives to place a simple marker where he was laid to rest that read, “To live is Christ.”  Rarely has a grave marker so accurately summarized a life.  But then, rarely has a person’s life so exemplified the principle expressed in Philippians 1:21, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Bill Wallace was an ordinary man who, in the providence of God, lived an extraordinary life.  He was willing to forgo marriage and family; a prominent career; and a comfortable future in America for the sake of ministering to people in need.  His service brought physical and spiritual healing to countless people.

Dr. Wallace lived a life worth examining and emulating. His story will challenge you to a deeper dedication and clearer awareness of the will of God for your life.

here was almost no breeze. In the stillness it seemed that time was suspended, as indeed it was for Bill Wallace. Inside the garage where he sat, the shadows offered some relief from the brilliant sun­shine which reached in from the opened doors to expose a partially dismantled Ford, a grimy but orderly workbench, an assortment of oil-smeared wrenches, and a small New Testament open on the bench.

The physician’s seventeen-year-old son, whose main claim to fame was his phenomenal mechanical skill, was working diligently when his moment of destiny seized him. The first assault slowed him; the second caused a mistake; the third stopped him.

Laying aside his wrench, he picked up his New Testament as if it could offer an answer for the demanding question that without warning had taken command of his consciousness. What should he do with his life? No, that was not quite accurate. He was not sure the question was so self-determinative. Better, what would God have him do with his life?

An intruder, had there been one (and anybody would have been one in the moment), would not, could not have realized that forces at work in this young man on this hot, still, uninspiring afternoon would forever decide his life’s course. Neither the place nor props, not even the slouch­ing figure of the lean, sandy-haired youth, would have revealed it; but that is what was happening.

Can the “heavenly vision” be so mundane? Can God’s Holy Spirit grasp men and set them apart for special tasks in such ordinary circumstances? Well, it was, and he did; and it happened right there in that garage.

Apart from any previous reference to anything remotely like this, the young mechanic-to-be, trade school bound, decided that day, in that moment, in that place, that God was calling him to be a medical missionary in a place that He would some day reveal.

Dr. Jesse C. Fletcher is president-emeritus and former president and chancellor of Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. He has an extensive history of involvement in ministry, education and community. In addition to his leadership roles at Hardin-Simmons, Dr. Fletcher served as president of the Southwestern Seminary national alumni organization and was named a distinguished alumnus there. He was elected to the General Council of the Baptist World Alliance and served as a trustee of Golden Gate Baptist Seminary. Dr. Fletcher has received numerous awards throughout his career, and he has written ten books. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in business from Texas A&M University, and Master of Divinity and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Southwestern Seminary. He and his wife, Dorothy, have two children and five grandchildren.