师达能 · 1907 – 1934 · American
John Stam was born in 1907 into a Dutch-American Christian family in Paterson, New Jersey, and graduated from Moody Bible Institute. In 1932 he was sent out by the China Inland Mission, arrived in Shanghai, and first studied Mandarin and the dialect of southern Anhui in Anqing. In 1933 he married Betty Scott, a fellow worker in the same mission, in Jinan. After their marriage the couple were sent to pioneer rural work in the Xuancheng, Wuhu and Jingde area of Anhui, and in November 1934 they moved to the county town of Jingde, Anhui, taking charge of the China Inland Mission's Jingde station, together with their newborn daughter Helen (Helen Priscilla Stam).
On December 6, 1934, the Northward Anti-Japanese Vanguard of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, led by Fang Zhimin (方志敏), passed through Jingde, captured John and Betty Stam and demanded a ransom. John Stam wrote a letter to the China Inland Mission's Shanghai office, still encouraging his co-workers with words of peace. On the morning of December 8, the couple were taken to a small hill outside Miaoshou town and beheaded; John Stam was 27 and Betty 28. On the evening of 7 December the couple had hidden three-month-old Helen in a sleeping bag inside the room, with money pinned to her clothes. Helen was rescued by the family of Evangelist C. K. Lo (罗传道), a co-worker who had been due to join the Stams, and was taken by way of Xuancheng and Wuhu to her maternal grandparents, the missionaries Charles and Clara Scott, in Jinan; she later went to the United States and was raised by her aunt's family.
In December 1934 the news of their martyrdom reached the United States. Mrs. Howard Taylor (戴存义夫人) wrote a biography based on their story and letters, The Triumph of John and Betty Stam (1935), which sparked a great revival of missionary commitment among young people in the North American churches. Afterwards many young people in North America were inspired by it to give themselves to overseas missions. The martyrdom of John and Betty Stam and the rescue of their daughter are regarded by historians of Christianity as one of the most influential martyr testimonies in the history of 20th-century overseas missions.