Cowman, Charles Elmer (1864-1924) and Lettie [Burd] (1870-1960)

Missionaries in Japan and founders of the Oriental Missionary Society

Born in Toulon, Illinois, Charles Cowman moved with his family to Thayer, Iowa, birthplace of Lettie Burd, when he was two years old. They became childhood sweethearts and were married in 1889. They moved to Chicago and were converted at Grace Methodist Episcopal Church. After hearing A.B. Simpson, founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, give a missionary challenge, they dedicated themselves to missionary service. After brief training at Martin Wells Knapp’s God’s Bible School in Cincinnati, they went to Japan as independent missionaries in early 1901. There they teamed up with Juji Nakada, a Japanese whom they met when Nakada was a student at Moody Bible Institute in the late 1890s.

Leasing a hall in Tokyo, they began by conducting nightly evangelistic rallies and a daytime Bible training school for workers. A distinctive feature of their ministry was the Every Creature Crusade, an effort to reach every home in Japan with the gospel of Jesus Christ, a feat they claimed was accomplished between the years 1912 and 1918. Together with Nakada and E.A. Kilbourne, they organized their work as the Oriental Missionary Society (today, OMS International). Eventually they also established work in Korea and China as well as Japan.

After Charles’s untimely death, Lettie continued to play a significant role in OMS. After Kilbourne’s death in 1928 she held the office of president until 1949, longer than anyone else. She traveled the world speaking in behalf of missions, and is best remembered for her compilation of devotional materials in Streams in the Desert (1925). OMS International was born in the holiness movement and continues today in the tradition of Wesleyan Arminian theology, with an emphasis on evangelism, church planting, and training.

Everett N. Hunt, Jr. “Cowman, Charles Elmer and Lettie (Burd),” in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed. Gerald H. Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 156.

This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright © 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of Macmillan Reference USA, New York, NY. All rights reserved.

Bibliography

Digital Texts


Cowman, Lettie B. Streams in the Desert. n.p.: n.p., 1925.

_____. Mountain Trailways for Youth. Los Angeles, CA: Cowman Publications, 1947.

Primary


Cowman, Lettie B. (ed.). Streams in the Desert. n.p.; Grand Rapids: n.p.; Zondervan, 1925; 2008.

_____. Charles E. Cowman: Missionary Warrior. Los Angeles, CA: Oriental Missionary Society, 1928.

_____. Consolation. Los Angeles, CA: The Oriental Missionary Society, 1932.

_____. Mountain Trailways for Youth. Los Angeles, CA: Cowman Publications, 1947.

_____. Traveling Toward Sunrise. Los Angeles, CA; London: Cowman Publications; Christian Literature Crusade, [1952].

_____. Springs in the Valley. Los Angeles, CA; London: Cowman Publications; Christian Literature Crusade, [1953].

_____. Harvest Secrets, Etc. Los Angeles, CA; London: Cowman Publications; Christian Literature Crusade, 1956.

Kilbourne, E.A. The Great Commission. Third edition. Tokyo: Oriental Missionary Society, 1913.

Secondary


Choi, Meesaeng Lee. “In Search of Full Salvation: The Fourfold Gospel and the Korea Holiness Church in Relation to the American Holiness Movement.” Ph. D. diss. Drew University, 2002.

Cowman, Lettie B. and Edward Erny. The Story Behind Streams in the Desert. Greenwood, IN: OMS International, 1994.

Erny, Edward and Esther Erny. No Guarantee But God: The Story of the Founders of OMS International. Greenwood, IN: Oriental Missionary Society, 1969.

Hunt, Everett N. Protestant Pioneers in Korea. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1980.

Merwin, John J. “The Oriental Missionary Society, Holiness Church in Japan, 1901-1983.” D. Miss. diss. Fuller Theological Seminary, 1983.

Pierson, Ben H. The Vision Lives: A Profile of Mrs. Charles E. Cowman. Grand Rapids; Los Angeles, CA; London: Zondervan; Cowman Publishing Co.; Oliphants, 1961.

Tucker, Ruth. From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A Biographical History of Christian Missions. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004, pp. 272-5.

Wood, Robert D. In These Mortal Hands: The Story of the Oriental Missionary Society: The First 50 Years. Greenwood, IN: OMS International, Inc., 1983.

Sanders, Fred. “Today is Lettie Cowman’s Birthday (1870).” In The Scriptorium (March 3, 2009). This biographical article is centered on an account of Cowman’s compilation of Streams in the Desert.

See a brief biography of Lettie Cowman at the Zondervan Publishing Company’s website as well as descriptions of the various adaptations of Streams in the Desert that Zondervan publishes.

Portrait


Lettie Cowman, Charles E. Cowman: Missionary Warrior. Los Angeles, CA: Oriental Missionary Society, 1928. Found scanned image at The Scriptorium, an online journal of The Torrey Honors Institute of Biola University.