LIFE LESSONS
Follow the Light John Melby At 16 years old, Russell Glazier, confined to a bed due to an illness, completed a correspondence course from the Moody Bible Institute. During that time of study, he decided to become a missionary in China. Russell did just that, serving the Lord in an opium drug-affected region of Nanking in Northern China early in World War II. Russell met Dorothea Luton soon after arriving. They became friends, were married and had four children all born in China while they both served as missionaries there. One of their children, Grace Bryer, is a member of College Church. Grace is a 1958 graduate of Wheaton College. This is a story about Grace and the Glazier family as missionaries in China. THE MISSIONARY BEGINNING Five weeks after graduating from Moody, Russell was on a train leaving Chicago and beginning his journey to serve in northern China. Arriving in an area affected by opium and heroin, he witnessed the suffering from drug use. He knew then his ‘mission’ was to help the addicts know the hope of salvation in Jesus Christ. Soon, he became an administrator of a “hospital” bringing addicts to Jesus and curing them of their addictions. While in China, Russell married Dorothea, a missionary he met in Shanghai. Dorothea had graduated from the Toronto Bible Institute and was also in China as a missionary. Eventually the Glazier family increased by four children. Their first child was Edward, followed by Eleanor, Gracie, and then Lois. The children were, at times, separated from each other during Russell and Dorothea’s missionary work. This separation was due to the limited number of Christian English schools. In addition to his role as local missionary administrator of Nanking Hospital, Russell traveled in his teaching and evangelistic work. Gracie was the Glaziers' third child and lived in China during her first five and a half years of life. For part of that time, she and her older siblings, Edward and Eleanor, were separated when they went off to the Chefoo school in a more northern region of China. She and her younger sister, Lois, were at home the time her dad was the administrator of the hospital. As a missionary family, at the time of war, life was a challenge for the Glazier family. THE HOSPITAL As a mother, daily life for Dorothea became especially challenging. For example, the distance separating the addicts’ residence and the Glazier family home was only a small lawn. Russell, Dorothea and the two girls, ages three and one, were
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