Aaron Lee interviews Sharon Jeong Ide over email about the research and reasons for republishing Victorious Lives. Originally published in 1927 by missionary and author Mattie Wilcox Noble, Ide includes a biography of Noble in this edition, presenting a broader view of God’s work in establishing the Protestant church in Korea.
Chapter One
1893-1895
The city of Seoul stood before them under a shroud of darkness. It was past curfew. There would be no gates flung wide to welcome the newlyweds into their new home. Instead, Mattie and Arthur Noble were met with a rope, dangling over the thirty-foot wall that barred entrance into the city.
While scaling the wall was punishable by banishment, the natives assured them the law was hardly ever enforced as they knotted the rope around Mattie’s waist. Besides, it would be no trouble at all to hoist her 103 pounds over. With such a petite frame, it was no wonder that along their journey from Pennsylvania, folks had remarked she couldn’t have been a day over 19.
She was, in fact, 20-years-old to Arthur’s 26, having dropped out of Wyoming Seminary to marry the man whose heart was already set on joining the pioneer mission work in Korea.
Mattie Wilcox married W. Arthur Noble on June 30, 1892. She was considered underage at that time and required her mother’s presence in order to obtain a marr-iage license. In some ways, the wedding was the start to her adult life. The trip they embarked on soon after was filled with experiences like dining in establishments with alcohol for the first time and “heaving Jonah” over waves so big they resembled the snow-capped Rockies.
Despite their unique entry, Mattie and Arthur Noble would spend the next 40 years adopting Korea and its people as their own. They would take front row seats to a nation struggling for independence under colonial rule and shaking off the societal shackles of Confucian ideals.
Interview with Sharon Jeong Ide
Aaron Lee
Please introduce yourself and your work.
Sharon Jeong Ide
My name is Sharon Jeong Ide and I’m a wife and homeschooling mom in Houston, Tx. In the margins of motherhood I write on Christian living and theology for platforms like Risen Motherhood, Journey Women, Hosanna Revival, and the Daily Grace Co. Since falling in love with stories of Korean history and the Korean diaspora, I’ve also begun writing fiction and am pursuing traditional publication. Victorious Lives was an outpouring of the research that has gone into capturing these stories in novel form.
Aaron Lee
What motivated you to produce Victorious Lives and the biography of Mattie Wilcox Noble?
Sharon Jeong Ide
I first came across Bible Women in a book titled The Korean Pentecost. Korea before the turn of the 20th century was a Confucian society that expected women to stay at home for the entirety of their lives. It was into this society that the first female converts went out to bring the light of the gospel to Korean women one home at a time.
I needed to know more about these incredible women. As I researched, I saw several sources citing Victorious Lives of Early Christians in Korea. To my surprise, the entire book was available in photocopy form. I only needed to read through a few of the testimonies to realize this was a treasure collecting dust in a digital archive. These were autobiographies by men and women who planted and sustained the Korean church through a period of cultural transformation and Japanese colonization.
Their stories alone were enough encouragement to pursue republishing, but as a homeschooling mom I know how difficult it is to find biographies written about Korean saints. Even though Korea is the #2 missionary-sending country in the world, I don’t think most folks are able to name one Korean missionary or theologian. I’d love for my children to learn about the rich history of both their biological and spiritual forefathers. And here was this resource sitting there for the sharing, and already translated into English. I did some research on independent publishing and got the approval from the original publisher to republish this public domain work and we were on our way.
Aaron Lee
What was the research like when putting together Victorious Lives as well as the biography of Mattie Wilcox Noble?
Sharon Jeong Ide
When I realized Mattie Wilcox Noble’s personal journals from her 40 years as a missionary were also digitally archived, I knew I had to add a biographical account. I had no idea it would end up being nearly as long as the original book itself, but her story provided such a great backdrop to the testimonies of the saints that it was well worth the effort.
The real fun came in hearing her name drop the various men and women who provided their autobiographies throughout her journals. Some of them were congregants who stood by her side during near church splits, and others were there to help bury her children lost to sickness in Korea. It helped to paint the picture of the local body many of these saints were a part of.
The final piece of the research treasure hunt was in searching through the Methodist missionary archives for photos. There are photos of young Mattie and Arthur Noble with their dearest Korean friends, and photos later on as they both age and their children grow up to return as missionaries as well. It was really a delight to bring all those pieces together.
Aaron Lee
What were some of your takeaways from the testimonies and from Noble’s life ?
Sharon Jeong Ide
Missionary biographies are always inspiring to us because of the great sacrifices they make it devoting their lives to a foreign land. The Noble family certainly embodied that life of service, but the day to day was often not far from how we might live our own lives.
Mattie raised children. She managed a household. People got sick, all the time. But she also discipled women, did the slow but heartfelt work of neighborhood evangelism, and used hospitality as a means of planting God’s Word in people’s hearts.
Those are all things we are able to do whether in a foreign land or at home. And that’s the example and her husband led for the men and women noted in this book. There were shorter and longer stints of itinerant evangelism for many of the saints, but even the women with babies tied to their backs were known for tithing their time to study God’s Word and bring it to neighboring villages.
Aaron Lee
How has this book impacted your perspective on missions, missionaries, and God?
Sharon Jeong Ide
The saints in this book had a love for Christ that propelled them forward through challenges both big and small. Some of their achievements were great and others more humble, but what made their lives victorious in the end was a persistent and unfailing devotion to God.
Their words are full of wisdom and encouragement for every believer in every context. It is such a delight that God’s truths are unchanging in every time and place. I hope you are blessed by these testimonies by saints from ages past.
Our Books and Reviews page focuses on Asian American authors and issues. For more, check out our Author Interviews.