12,000 Souls

12,000 sounds like a large amount of people. Maybe not if you are comparing it to the population of the world. However, if you consider each person that the number 12,000 comprises of, mother, daughter, father, son, friend, wife, husband, it seems like a precious amount of souls. This is especially true when you consider that these people were part of the Jewish community in Austria and they were given a death sentence when Adolf Hitler came into power. It was only a matter of time.

Through God's Providence, in the early 1900s missionaries from Norway came to China. A young Chinese boy named Feng Shan Ho became a follower of Jesus. Later in life, he received a Western-style college education through a Yale University extension program. He earned his doctorate in political economics and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Munich.

While in school in Germany, Dr. Ho witnessed the rise of Hitler. He was not impressed with the man.

Eventually, Dr. Ho was promoted to the first secretary at the Chinese embassy in Vienna, Austria. He was well liked in Austria, particularly among the Jewish community as he was well aware and concerned about the growth of anti-semetisim.

While a majority of Austrians welcomed becoming a province of Germany beginning in 1938, Dr. Ho could predict the trouble that would come, especially for the Jews.

That trouble almost began instantly. Jews' freedoms were taken away. They were not given citizenship and were forced, by Hitler's secret police, to do degrading tasks in the middle of the street. Property was seized from them and they were unjustly jailed. What's more, those who used to be friends and neighbors of the Jews now saw them through an anti-semitic lens.

Jews did not have anywhere to escape as many nations were not accepting Jewish refugees. At this time, Feng Shan Ho had become the consul-general at the Austrian consulate. This was his chance to save the Jews. He contacted American Christian ministries in Austria and they helped him spread the word. Ho started issuing visas allowing Austrian and German Jews to immigrate to Shanghai, China. The way the visa was set up, however, Jews were able to flee and settle anywhere they wanted, such as the Soviet Union or Italy.

Long lines began to form in front of Vienna's Chinese consulate. The Jews knew that their only hope lay in the hands of this diplomat from China.

Dr. Ho knew the risk. He was bending the rules to issue these visas and he could be severely punished if it was found out. Nevertheless, he continued. Even when the Chinese ambassador warned him to stop because of Chinese and Nazi Germany's fragile relationship, he continued but at a quicker pace. In addition, when the Nazi's seized his office, he opened one in his home. Ho was forced to leave in 1939 when the Chinese government moved him to a different post. Thousands of visas had gone into the hands of Jews. For almost two years, he had issued an average of five hundred visas every month.

Only God could have orchestrated these events. Missionaries from Norway coming to China, Dr. Ho becoming a Christian because of their witness and through his strong convictions, he saw the evil that needed to be combated and he bravely and compassionately went to work to see that this took place. From Norway, to China, to Germany, to Austria, over a span of thirty years, 12,000 souls were eventually saved.

Dr. Ho knew that all of this did not happen by chance and was part of God's plan. A poem he wrote expressed, "The gifts Heaven bestows are not by chance. The convictions of heroes not lightly formed. Today I summon all spirit and strength, urging my steed forward ten thousand miles."

God certainly weaved this story.