Ten Thousand Strangers Invited In

In December 1937, when Japanese forces captured Nanjing, China, American missionary Minnie Vautrin faced an impossible choice. As acting head of Ginling Women's Arts and Science College, she could have evacuated with other foreigners. Instead, she opened the campus gates.

Within days, nearly ten thousand Chinese women and children flooded onto the college grounds, desperate for safety from the soldiers terrorizing the city. Vautrin, who had served in China since 1912, hung an American flag over the entrance and stood as the sole barrier between the refugees and the violence outside. Japanese soldiers came repeatedly, demanding entry. She turned them away again and again, placing herself between them and the women huddled inside.

Her diary entries from those weeks reveal the crushing weight she carried. She rationed food, organized sleeping space in every classroom and hallway, and comforted women who had already suffered unspeakable harm. Night after night, she patrolled the grounds. The strain would eventually break her health and her spirit — she never fully recovered.

Jesus said, "I was a stranger and you invited me in. I was sick and you looked after me" (Matthew 25:35-36). Vautrin's open gates at Ginling College show us what those words look like when they cost everything. She did not simply welcome the stranger — she sheltered thousands at the price of her own well-being.

Most of us will never face what Vautrin faced. But every day, someone nearby is desperate for shelter — emotional, spiritual, physical. The question Jesus poses remains: Will we open the gate?