December 16
1714: Birth of George Whitefield, who later became an international evangelist.
1786: Birth of Konrad Kocher, a famous German chorister and composer of the hymn tune DIX (“For the Beauty of the Earth”). Kocher is known for his role in popularizing the practice of singing in several voices in the churches.
1826: Birth of John Ellerton, an Anglican clergyman who authored several hymns for children, including “Savior, Again to Thy Dear Name We Raise” and “Welcome, Happy Morning.”
1835: Arthur and Lewis Tappan, the evangelical brothers who had to suffer much loss in their business because of their strong opposition to slavery, Â come close to financial ruin after a fire on New York City’s Pearl Street.
1867: Birth of Amy Carmichael, a Scotch-Irish missionary to India who worked there for  56 years under the Zenana Missionary Society. She also worked to rescue children from Hindu cult prostitution, and founded the Dohnavur Fellowship in 1925.
1870: Foundation of the Colored Methodist Church of America at Jackson, TN, which later came to be  known as Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, which has approximately 3,000 congregations as its members at present.
1897: A Conference of African-American delegates in the Shiloh Baptist church of Washington, DC, organize the Lott Carey Foreign Mission Convention, which later came to be known as Lott Carey Baptist Home and Foreign Mission Convention.
1918: Persecution of Proto-priests John Pyankov and Alexis Saburov, of the Resurrection church in Perm, and Nicholas Yakhontov of the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius church by the Soviets. These pastors were drowned in the Kama River during the night and are honoured as martyrs in central Asia.
1944: Passing away of Betsie ten Boom in Ravensbrück concentration camp, near Berlin, she was involved in hiding Jews from Nazi persecutors.
2011: Chinese authorities make known the sentencing of  Gao Zhisheng, a Christian lawyer, whose whereabouts have been unknown for years, for three additional years in prison.
Edited by: T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy:Â https://studylight.org