Metcalf finally settled in Taku (Taogu) with the Eastern Lisu, establishing a church and Bible College. On 19 January 1921 he married Elizabeth Mary Donnelly, an Australian missionary from Adelaide. Elizabeth was born on 19 January 1891 and arrived in China on 28 November 1917. The couple had two children, Ruth (b. 24 June 1924, d. 18 January 2010), and Stephen (b. 23 October 1927, d. 7 June 2014), both of whom became missionaries with OMF International, Ruth Metcalf to Thailand, Stephen Metcalf to Japan. In 1951 the Metcalfs were forced to leave China with the exodus of missionaries following the Communist victory over the Nationalist government. Metcalf did not live to know of the hardships of the Cultural Revolution which included the death in 1973 of his convert Pastor Wang Zhiming, whose statue is among those of the Ten 20th Century Martyrs on the West Gate of Westminster Abbey.
