Ida Scudder (1870-1960): Ida Scudder came from a family of medical missionaries in India–but she wanted nothing to do with that life! Ida’s dream was to live in America, get married and live a comfortable life far away from the deprivation she had witnessed as a missionary kid. Yet the Lord had other plans for Ida, and used a stunning turn of events to change her heart. Join us today as we talk about the early life and calling of the irrepressible and vivacious Ida Scudder!

• Dr. Ida by Dorothy Clarke Wilson

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Join us each week for a lively conversation between author Cheryl Brodersen and history teacher Jasmine Alnutt as they explore the lives of well-known—and not so well-known—Christian women in history. Trust us—these are definitely women worth knowing! Visit GraciousWords.com.

When my wife and I set off to serve at Calvary Chapel Nice back in May 1997, we carried most of what we owned in a few overstuffed suitcases halfway across the world. Those were the glory days of lenient baggage allowances and quick access to departure gates. In one of our suitcases, too heavy to lug up a staircase by myself, was a book I still keep and flip through from time to time—The Light and the Glory by Peter Marshall and David Manuel. Its premise, Did God have a plan for America?, is still of great interest, but what feeds my soul over the years is the historical accounts of hope, suffering and the first Thanksgiving.

In their account of the first Thanksgiving, Marshall and Manuel wrote that the Pilgrims wanted to celebrate all God had done for them and invite their native hosts to a feast in honor of the Great Provider. “Massasoit¹ was invited and unexpectedly arrived a day early—with ninety…counting their numbers, the Pilgrim’s had to pray hard from giving in to despair.”²

We can only imagine the anxiousness they felt as this army of unexpected guests entered their settlement. Hospitality is a blessed exercise of grace because as we plan to reach out, we may find ourselves completely overwhelmed by the need (John 6:5). But that’s when the Lord provides beyond what we think we need in those special moments of our faith being tested. God used the Natives to feed their English hosts. “Massasoit had commanded the braves to hunt for the occasion. They arrived with no less than five dressed deer and more than a dozen fat wild turkeys!” Experiencing this kind of miraculous provision changes a soul. It brings us to prayer and deep thankfulness as it did for the New England Colony.

“Surely one moment stood out in the Pilgrim’s memory—William Brewster’s prayer as they began the festival. They had so much for which to thank God: for providing all their needs, even when their faith had not been up to believing that He would do so; for the lives of the departed and for taking them home to be with Him.”³

The first year was a calamitous one. Many dear friends perished before they arrived in the New World. The year that followed produced more hardships than anticipated, dwindling the number of survivors every month. If they were to welcome even five more guests than planned to their Thanksgiving feast, it would have been a step of faith. Yet God gave them the grace to rejoice and experience His love in a new way.

I remember our first Thanksgiving in a foreign land, our generous hosts in Nice and the overwhelming gratefulness for all the Lord had brought us through. It was an evening that overcame the feeling of uncertainty we carried in facing a new year. Yet in our lives, we’ve seen time and time again how faithful the Lord is. It reminds me of another story just one year later as the new colony in Plymouth survived another year in the New World and called for a second feast of Thanksgiving. This time, they began a little differently, a solemn moment of remembrance as set before each one was “an empty plate in front of each person were five kernels of corn.”⁴ Remembering the penury they endured and the divine deliverance they experienced led them into a more profound celebration.

It’s technically not necessary to experience hardship to be thankful.

God tells us to give thanks (Psalm 50:14; Ephesians 5:20), and we know that He through His Spirit gives us what we need to obey (Philippians 2:13). Still, some people seem to be naturally inclined to thankfulness and yet others, swimming in blessing, only see the negative. How does this work? This is a question of the heart. One can experience the goodness of God, know He will provide based on all they have experienced and read, but still, through sin or doubt, give in to a grumbling spirit. This happened to the children of Israel in the desert (Numbers 17:6-14) and is part of the temptations that are common to all (1 Corinthians 10:13).

We would hope the Pilgrims would have kept the unity of the Spirit and continued in thankfulness as God increased their provision. Oddly enough, by November of their second year in Plymouth, a controversy had so divided the unity that had once given birth to our Thanksgiving Holiday, that Robert Cushman found it necessary to preach on the “Sin and Danger of Self-love.”⁵ Oh, the pastoral love and daring of the Puritans! What a good reminder of our humanity and constant need of grace, which leads to true gratefulness.

Over 20 years have passed since my wife and I celebrated our first Thanksgiving on the Old Continent, and it’s one of my family’s favorites. Not just my immediate family, but our church family asks us every year if we can do it again. We can’t all meet on Thursday; most people work until 7 or 8 pm and it’s not a day one can ask off from work. Our tradition is a church meal after service. We clean our meeting hall and dress a huge table in the middle. Everyone brings something. It doesn’t look like your traditional American Thanksgiving meal because people come from all over the globe and bring food from their countries. But all who come thank God for His Providence.

We begin with a passage of Scripture, a short devotional message and sometimes take communion. Then we eat together, laugh and spend a moment publicly thanking the Lord for all He’s done. Around the table are people from every social class. There have been years when the homeless have come to celebrate with us. Generally, we have someone from every continent or at least from places I didn’t know existed before I moved to France. We sit and eat as a family, united in our Savior’s grace, and for a moment we share in the communion of the thankful. Over the years, I’ve learned that many churches all over France do this too. It’s not a new tradition, but it’s bringing together something the born again French love most: good food and fellowship to the glory of God.

Psalm 136:1 says:

“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” There is no better way to spend this Thanksgiving, or for that matter, the rest of the year, than to allow this Word to fill our hearts and lead our minds to remember all the good the Lord has done for us.

Notes:

_{¹ The Pauquunaukit Wampanoag leader who sought an alliance with the colonies of New England and was able to maintain peace throughout his lifetime.
² Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Light and the Glory, Fleming Revel publications, 1977. 137-144.
³ Idem.
⁴ Idem.
⁵ Idem}.

“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these” (M​ark 12:30-31​).

IT’S HALLOWEEN!

On this day, kids will be hurrying home from school, dressing up and heading out to get candy from their neighbors. I grew up doing this, and I loved it every year.

When I got saved, I became aware of some of the other elements of Halloween – its history and some of the pagan practices. I realized that many Christians have strong views against this holiday and what it represents for some. This is my feeble attempt at helping us see this from a different perspective.
Try and see this holiday for what it is today: The one day of the year when many of the families in your neighborhood take their little ones and come up to your door.

It’s the one day of the year when it’s not creepy to slowly meander through your neighborhood while your kids beg for candy from everyone. It’s community.

TRY AND SEE THIS FROM A MISSIONAL PERSPECTIVE.

It’s an opportunity to engage in our community rather than oppose it.

You do not have to compromise the gospel to be kind and friendly on Halloween. And compromise is what this is all about isn’t it? It’s the concern that, by celebrating Halloween, we are promoting evil and paganism.

Consider this: Instead of becoming overly agitated with the fringe elements of Halloween, let’s see it for what it is today for the large majority of people- a day for communities to come together and show some love to our kids (and candy, lots of candy!)

CONSIDER HALLOWEEN FROM SOLOMON AND JESUS’ PERSPECTIVE

“Go, eat your bread with joy, And drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works. Let your garments always be white, and let your head lack no oil” (Ecclesiastes 9:7-8).

“Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20 NLT).

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon encourages his readers to consider this one fact: We are all going to die. This will either depress you or motivate you to listen to God’s wisdom on how to live. If death is a reality, then what is this life all about?

And Solomon exhorts us to GO. It’s a command. Get off the couch, eat, drink and put on a nice outfit, maybe even some cologne! Why? Because God wants you to live while we are here on earth.
In Matthew, Jesus also commands us to GO. Go and make disciples of all nations. Go live out your faith in this world.

In both passages, we see the Trinity at work in our lives. I believe it is symbolized in Ecclesiastes and made plain in Matthew. The symbols are these:

Bread/wine = symbols of Jesus’ body and blood oil = symbol of the Holy Spirit

Solomon says partake of the bread and the wine and put on the Holy Spirit for God approves of this. Jesus says partake of My death and resurrection and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And as I am transforming you, GO make disciples of all nations.

This Halloween, GO- eat and drink, put on some cologne (and maybe a fun costume) and make disciples of all nations by living out the life of God in you.

The missionary stories from the 19th century are filled with courageous people giving life and health for the Gospel. Some were lost at sea; others struck with malaria before they were able to complete their first year of service. In that time, a family life wasn’t always an option. Rare are the stories of a family moving to the field in the 1800s and even less are those who thrived happily together in their calling. I recently discovered one such story—Welsh missionary pastor John Jenkins.

John grew up Baptist in a family of pastors. He was tall with wavy, white hair. In the few pictures that can be found, he smiles, which speaks of his joyful disposition. He spoke Welsh (Cymraeg), a Celtic language close to that spoken in Brittany (Breizh), France.

Why would a Welshman be drawn to France? Most likely due to the Lord’s call.

By the time Jenkin’s set foot in Brittany, Protestantism that once thrived in the region was reduced to a handful of churches.¹

When John arrived with his family in the port city of Morlaix, he realized his native Welsh tongue was close to but not exactly the same as language spoken by the Bretons. Not only this, but the more he conversed with people, the more he discovered Catholic clerical expressions for everyday situations. This led him to refer back to a Catholic translation of the Bible into Breton by Jean-François Le Gonidec. However, he discovered that the Gonidec translation, although scholarly, was inaccessible to the average Breton who at that time was illiterate.²

Thus began Jenkin’s life work, a translation of the New Testament into a Breton that the common man could understand. He began with the Greek Textus Receptus, used his English and Welsh translations as guides, and moved slowly toward his goal with help from poet Guillaume Ricou. He spent time with the people, learning local expressions and applying them to Biblical concepts. He also translated hymns into Breton and wrote songs using traditional Celtic music as his mastery of the language increased.

His form of missionary work was seen as revolutionary at the time, but the work continued until he finished translating the New Testament in 1847.

Immediately the British Bible Society took interest and ordered 3,000 copies of Jenkins’ New Testament.³

Over the next 30 years, his translation became widely distributed in Brittany, though receiving heavy criticism by Catholic priests. As more Bretons came to faith, the need for them to grow in their Biblical knowledge made evident the need of an Old Testament translation. In the end, it was Jenkins’ son, Alfred Llewellyn Jenkins, who accepted the challenge in 1882. Having grown up in Morlaix, his mastery of Breton surpassed his father’s. With the encouragement of M.M. Rohan, he began a revision of the New Testament, followed by a translation of Genesis from Hebrew. His revisions continued through the decades, and his final version was printed in 1935.⁴ More than a Bible translator, Alfred Llewellyn, had adopted his father’s love for the people. He was used to plant several churches in the surrounding areas and establish a school.⁵

John Jenkin’s heritage is one born out of a love for the Word and the people he was sent to serve. He was able to go and discern the most urgent need, a readable Bible. He learned to adapt and spent years in language study. He adopted local culture, which testifies to a heart that wanted to communicate the Gospel. Language learning is a form of love in action. It lowers the missionary to a child’s level and leads them to die to themselves. But as they seek the Lord to know how to communicate spiritual truths through limited vocabulary, they experience Jesus’ resurrection power at work in them.

This was one of John Jenkins’ strong points. He embodied Paul’s vision for Gospel contextualization in 1 Corinthians 9:22b-23: “I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you.”

He built lasting relationships, not just friends, but he drew people to Jesus.

Jenkins was known by his children. This wasn’t always the case for missionary families at the time. Yet his children grew up in the ministry, and his son followed in the Mission. In fact, it is estimated that Alfred was able to accomplish more than his father, having grown up in Brittany as a Breton.⁶ No wonder the photos that have survived show John Jenkins so full of joy. He discovered the blessings of bringing his little ones to the Lord and watching Him do great things.⁷

This is a great heritage for anyone in the ministry—a love for the Word, for the people and a family that loves the Lord. Though he’s not as well known as other missionaries of his time, his story inspires me as many of my mentors and pastors have through the years. He modeled a correct perspective on life and was empowered by the Spirit, as he worked toward a harvest for eternity.

Notes:

¹ “John Jenkins 1.” Les Protestants Bretons. https://protestantsbretons.fr/protestants/john-jenkins-1/.

² Ibid.

³ “John Jenkins, Traducteur De La Bible -2.” Les Protestants Bretons. https://protestantsbretons.fr/histoire/john-jenkins-traducteur-de-la-bible-2/.

⁴ Read the Bible. A Free Bible on Your Phone, Tablet, and Computer. | The Bible App | Bible.com. https://www.bible.com/versions/1799-jen1897-ar-bibl-santel-jenkins-1897.

⁵ John T. Koch, Celtic Culture A Historical Encyclopedia, ABC CLIO, 2006, “Christianity in the Celtic Cultures,” p. 429.

⁶ John Hughs Morris,The History of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists’ Foreign Mission: To the End of the Year 1904, Indus Publishing, 1996, The Breton Mission, p. 259.

⁷

“‘Pebbles in a brook polish one another'”—thank God for the pebbles of His Lisu Church.” So wrote Isobel Kuhn, who with her husband John spent more than 20 years in China and Thailand as China Inland Mission missionaries, specifically among the Lisu people. The bright countenance of an aged and faithful believer and the humble prayers of young Christians helped her to persevere when faced with her own self-doubt and “ordinariness.”*

In her book Nests Above the Abyss, Isobel ends with several biographies of Lisu Christians—the many “pebbles” that made up the Church in Yunnan province. She wrote:

“Old Big, a rough country farmer, accepted the Lord the first time he heard of Him, when the gospel was given in Pine Mountain Village. His hut was on the lowest level of the village, but his mansion is in glory. Until he died, I never heard of his dishonouring the Lord in any way. I always looked forward to his beaming smile and a loving handshake on Sunday morning. About 65 years old, his kindly face was a token of ‘the adding up of days in which good work is done.’ Some others of the Lisu saints may have given us heartache or worry from time to time but never Old Big. Beside him was his sweet, happy-faced wife. Charles named them Zacharias and Elizabeth, for in these latter years they truly walked blameless.

On Sundays he used to sit up near the front, the light on his face was never dim. Too old to learn to read, he always sat up close to the front and with a radiant countenance did his best to memorise hymns, texts and sermon outline, so that I had long regarded him as my special Sunday joy. During the week he held services in his own home for his neighbours and preached and sang from memory, and how his face glowed with beatific joy when he sang.”

Like all saints, Old Big did not escape the sharp wind of trials.

Sometimes inclement weather would destroy much of their crop, the year’s food supply. Isobel wrote, “I remember how his face was set—‘The most important thing,’ He said, ‘is eternal life’.” He was determined to walk in a godly manner in all things, and wind or no wind, he did.

Isobel & John developed the Rainy Season Bible School for the edification of the Lisu people. These classes were taught by the Kuhns and others. “From these classes, countless Lisu took the Christian message to untold numbers of nationals and travellers throughout China.”

One of Isobel’s joys, when it was not her turn to teach a Bible School class, was to sit in the back of the room and listen. She jotted down a few sentences from their prayers to share with her supporters a glimpse into the hearts of the Lisu Christians:

“Thy name is written on my heart and my name is written on Thy hands, so we cannot be separated.”

“Lord, I’m not worthy to be Thy slave and Thou has made me Thy friend. I am worthy of death, and Thou has given me eternal life.”

“Lord give strength to our teachers; help them so that when they teach, we may see the face of Jesus.”

The teachers encouraged their students to “keep tryst” with Jesus for a time of prayer and listening. Isobel wrote:

“I had been feeling slightly discouraged, wondering if we teachers were not too ordinary in our spiritual gifts and wondering if the students’ hearts were being penetrated with the Word in the way we hoped them to be. At sunset time I slipped out for my usual tryst (in the mountains). I turned to the upward path, and suddenly turning a corner I came upon Junia and Lucius who were descending, apparently from the same errand on which I was bound. They passed me in smiling but self-conscious silence, and I was reminded that those two were scheduled to take between them the weekend services at Village-of Knoll the coming Saturday. We had urged our boys to ‘keep tryst’ and to pray about such things, but who did, and where they did, I had no notion. I had stumbled upon their effort to fortify themselves in prayer!”

Encouraged by her discovery, she continued to a place higher up. After a time of prayer, Isobel arose and returned to the trail. As night approached, she heard the voice of another student.

“I could hear his voice clear and strong, ‘O Father, help me to learn this Book…’ And then I knew he was praying. I tried not to listen and glided more swiftly and carefully onward, but a curve of the path and I saw him, kneeling before the open scriptures, his face right down on the grass even with his knees and his voice cutting the still air with all the freedom of one who believes himself to be entirely alone in the woods. He did not see me at all so occupied was he, and I heard him say, ‘O Father God, I hand over my whole body, soul, and spirit to Thee—do with me as Thou willest.’ Then with thrilled heart I turned and fled down the path out of sight and sound. What I could hardly believe was this praying lad, alone on the mountain consecrating himself to his Maker, was our dear little ‘Brand-New.’”

Whether raising a family, teaching a class, or leading a team on the mission field, self-doubt may assail us: Are we doing any good?

Unaware of how they were impacting the Lisu church, Isobel, John and others had led by example the joy of a long and faithful life in Christ, and the benefit of “keeping tryst” with God. How merciful our heavenly Father was, during those times of self-doubt, to give them glimpses of His glory in the joyful countenance of a fellow believer, or in observing a humble and godly life, or in the over-hearing of earnest hearts in prayer.

These are the things that encourage us to persevere in doing good (Galatians 6:9) and to stay on that narrow way that leads to life (Matthew 7:14). This is how pebbles in a brook truly polish one another. It is by fellowship with other believers that we are polished by the godly living and mutual encouragement of our fellow pebbles.

Note:

* Unless otherwise noted, all quotes are from Nests Above the Abyss, by Isobel Kuhn, China Inland Mission Publishing, 1947.

¹ Isobel Miller Kuhn, gutenberg.org

Missionaries are sometimes called a rare breed. They leave home, integrate into a foreign culture and bring a foreign concept (the Gospel) to people who don’t know they need it. Indeed this isn’t normal living. Yet their lives are filled with the victories and disappointments we all share as Christians.

Some face extreme hardship, and by their lives, encourage us all into a deeper walk with the Lord. One such person was Doctor Helen Roseveare.

Born in 1925, in Hertfordshire, England, Helen first learned about World Missions as a child in her Anglican Church Sunday School. Her heart stirred as her teacher shared of the work in India. Helen decided at a tender young age that she would become a missionary too. Her father gave a high priority to education, and so she poured herself into academics, which propelled her to pursue medicine at Cambridge University. But as she matured into adulthood, Helen became aware of a gnawing void in her soul. She never strayed from her Anglican upbringing but longed for something more than the comfortable life she knew as a child. It was at University that the Lord reached out to her in the form of a classmate who invited her to join the local Christian Union. The prayer meetings and Bible studies inspired Helen to read through the entire New Testament, for the very first time.

God broke through to her during a weekend retreat led by Dr. Graham Scroggie. During one of the sessions, Helen received the Lord’s grace with the firm conviction that her sins were forgiven. After the meeting, she went to see Dr. Scroggie to tell him all that had transpired. He opened her Bible and wrote a prayer based on Philippians 3:10 that foreshadowed the Lord’s work in her future.

“Tonight you’ve entered into the first part of the verse, ‘That I may know Him.’ This is only the beginning, and there’s a long journey ahead. My prayer for you is that you will go on through the verse to know ‘the power of His resurrection’ and also, God willing, one day perhaps, ‘the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.’” ¹

When Helen graduated Cambridge, she joined the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade as a medical missionary to the Belgian Congo.

She then moved to Belgium, where she first learned French, as well as to study Tropical Medicine, before entering into the missionary call she received as a child in Hertfordshire.

Helen arrived in Northeastern Congo in 1953. She determined to work and live among the local community. They taught her how to fire bricks, and she helped build a hospital from the ground up. It was this simplicity and tenacity of spirit that earned her the endearing name, Mama Luka, after the New Testament writer and physician, Luke.²

During those first years, she also established a training center for nurses and opened a maternity ward. Through these years of hard work and struggle, the Lord revealed to Helen her sins of unrelenting willfulness, impatience and ethnic pride.³ Overworked, she found herself disputing with colleagues and nationals, until she was encouraged by her local pastor to spend a week away in prayer and fasting. Through this experience, she received renewal, but she would still be led to return to England to rest and refocus.

While on furlough in Cornwall, Helen enrolled in more medical training. There, she met a young English doctor, and soon a romance developed. Helen considered settling down into married life. Yet the Lord impressed upon her, that she was to remain single—the last thing she wanted to do. After a profound struggle with the Lord, she finally accepted the divine plan, and in 1960, Helen returned to the Congo.

In January 1960, the Belgian government agreed to decolonization. On June 30,1960, the Congo gained its independence and became the République Démocratique du Congo (RDC). But the RDC slid into a political vacuum when the Belgian Government abruptly left the region, causing inner governmental conflicts, which led to rebellions that disintegrated into Civil War by 1964.⁴

During this time, many missionaries and dignitaries returned home because they were attacked, tortured and often executed. Helen decided to stay. Hers was the only hospital in over a 100 mile radius. When the Simba Rebels came, the villagers tried to shield her, but she was brutalized, raped and taken hostage. Though she experienced the worst evil she’d ever known, Helen testified to the overwhelming sense of God’s presence.⁵ As the years passed, the Lord ministered to her and gave her new insight into what had transpired. In 1976, she shared these words at the Urbana Missions Conference:

“One word became unbelievably clear, and that word was privilege. He didn’t take away pain or cruelty or humiliation. No! It was all there, but now it was altogether different. It was with him, for him, in him. He was actually offering me the inestimable privileged of sharing in some little way the edge of the fellowship of his suffering. In the weeks of imprisonment that followed and in the subsequent years of continued service, looking back, one has tried to ‘count the cost,’ but I find it all swallowed up in privilege. The cost suddenly seems very small and transient in the greatness and permanence of the privilege.”⁶

In 1966, Helen Roseveare returned to the RDC and accepted the challenge to build a new hospital in a new location.

Arriving at the site, she discovered she had to build it from the ground up. A missionary doctor worked with her while she trained national doctors. Helen sent out an open invitation to the surrounding villages, and to her surprise, 20 candidates responded. Before they could begin their medical training, they had to help build the facility, so they made bricks and built the hospital. Unfortunately, they had no one qualified to build the roof. So when they finished the walls, their training went on hold as they prayed and waited on the Lord. Another missionary arrived whose wife needed urgent surgery. As it turned out, he was a roofer and was able to complete the 250 bed facility.

As time went on, the RDC officially recognized the new hospital which brought in governmental subsidies and more students. A new couple was appointed to oversee the mission, and by 1973, Helen’s time was drawing to a close. Her health was suffering, and she became embroiled in a student dispute with the leadership about finances. Before she left, she resolved the conflict with the students, who repented of their false accusations, and honored her by writing her songs for her farewell party.⁷

Helen Roseveare settled in Northern Ireland, where she remained active until she went to be with the Lord in 2016.⁸ She spent her later years writing, public speaking and encouraging new generations of missionaries to follow the call. She often revisited the word “privilege.” For all she endured: the hardships, the celibacy, the sufferings, etc., they all dissipated into what she called the great privilege of being used for the Lord. In this way, this energetic woman remains an example to missionaries everywhere.

Sources

¹ “A Woman of Whom the World Was Not Worthy: Helen Roseveare (1925-2016).” The Gospel Coalition. Accessed May 21, 2018. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/a-woman-of-whom-the-world-was-not-worthy-helen-roseveare-1925-2016/.

² “Mama Luka Comes Home.” Cross.tv. Accessed May 21, 2018. https://www.cross.tv/78482.

³ “Congo Rebels Reached Helen Roseveare.” Christianity.com. Accessed May 21, 2018. https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1901-2000/congo-rebels-reached-helen-roseveare-11630820.html.

⁴ Wiese, Bernd Michael, and Dennis D. Cordell. “Democratic Republic of the Congo.” Encyclopædia Britannica. March 09, 2018. Accessed May 21, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/place/Democratic-Republic-of-the-Congo/The-Congo-crisis.

⁵ ChristianFocus. “An Interview with Dr. Helen Roseveare.” YouTube. November 06, 2011. Accessed May 21, 2018.

⁶ Roseveare, Helen. Give Me This Mountain. Scotland: Christian Focus, 2006.

⁷ “Helen Roseveare.” URBANA. Accessed May 21, 2018. https://urbana.org/blog/helen-roseveare.

⁸ “Helen Roseveare.” Wikipedia. May 12, 2018. Accessed May 21, 2018. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik…

“Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, ‘where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.’ When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him” (Matthew 2:1-3).

There are four facts recorded in this Christmas-connected incident that reveal a few profound similarities between the wise men from the East and those who are serving as missionaries in other countries.

JERUSALEM’S INHABITANTS WERE UNAWARE OF GOD’S ACTIVITY

Jerusalem contained the largest population of Jews in the world at that time in human history. They were an ethnically and culturally distinct group of people that God revealed Himself to and interacted with in an unique way for more than 2,000 years. He bestowed on them a special position and purpose in His plans to graciously express His love for all of humanity.

But the religious leaders and the vast majority of the people themselves were not interacting with their amazing God in the way that He clearly prescribed that they should. And because of that, they were unaware that their God had just begun acting on their behalf by sending into their chaotic world the One that He had promised so long ago.

SIMILARITY

The vast majority of the people that missionaries now live among are not interacting with God in the way that He requires. And they too are unaware that He has already acted on their behalf. They have very little or no knowledge at all about the expression of their Creator’s love and grace that has already taken place, and the relationship they can have with Him through the One that He has already sent.

FOREIGNERS RECOGNIZED GOD WAS AT WORK

But God did reveal what He had done to a small group of people from a different country, culture and religion. At the same time that His Son transitioned into our broken and dark world from the cozy womb of His humble, earthly mother, He also placed an out of the ordinary star in the sky.

He knew that a few wise stargazers/astronomers from the East would recognize that this uncommon star was actually like an ornament that belonged to and drew attention to the King of the Jews that had just been born. And even more importantly, He knew these Gentiles would understand that this newborn King was a gift to all people, worthy of worship from a larger group of people than just the Jews.

SIMILARITY

Every missionary understands that although Jesus is the King of the Jews, He is also the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the WORLD, and that He is worthy to receive worship from individuals within every tribe, people, nation and tongue that He Himself created.

TRAVEL AND DECLARATION REVEAL HIS WORTHINESS TO BE WORSHIPED

Recognizing the majesty of this special child whose birth was announced like no other person’s in history, an intense passion to worship Him provoked them to depart from their own country, leaving behind their family and friends.

That passion also moved them to expend their own resources to purchase and then offer financially costly expressions of their regard for Him. And their zeal to worship Him also emboldened them to declare their desire to worship Him to people who were ethnically, culturally and religiously very different from them.

SIMILARITY

It was the wise men’s passion to begin worshiping Him face to face that produced their willingness to do the things I mentioned above. It’s the missionary’s existing personal and intimate worship of Him and their passion to share that experience with people in other countries that led them to take the following steps that resemble what the Magi did:

. It led them to travel a great distance, leaving behind everyone and everything that is familiar and comfortable.

. They’ve paid a significant cost financially to boldly proclaim Him in the hope of increasing the number of people who are giving Him the worship He deserves.

. They’ve also proven they’re willing to offer Him something that is more valuable than anything money can buy–their own lives and those of their wives and children, if necessary.

HIS ENTRY INTO OUR WORLD WASN’T RECEIVED AS GOOD NEWS BY MOST PEOPLE

The declaration of the birth of the King of the Jews was troubling to the civil leader, (Herod), the religious leaders and all of the Jews who lived in Jerusalem. Although it was troubling to them for different reasons, the reality is that the news of what God had already begun to do on behalf of all of them didn’t produce the joy that it should have. It wasn’t received as good news by the majority; it was actually troubling news to them!

SIMILARITY

The missionary’s presence and passion to worship the King of the Jews, who is also the Savior of all mankind, and their proclamation that God has already acted for the good of those they speak to, will also be troubling news to the majority of the people they share it with. But they share it anyway in the hope that some of the hearers will comprehend the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus for what it really is–the most amazing expression of love, mercy and grace ever seen on this planet.

HELP THEM SEE THESE SIMILARITIES

This Christmas season, why not encourage the missionaries you know and love by helping them to see the similarities between what they’ve done and what was recorded about these men from the East?

Let them know that as this text describes, God calls people from other countries and cultures to bring the message of His entry into our world. And that their obedience to this special calling provokes you to rejoice, especially at this time of year.

Perhaps you have heard of reluctant missionaries and pioneer missionaries, but have you ever heard of “a kind of missionary?” This was Patrick Collinson’s description of his mother, Belle Patrick, who as a young woman, went to Algiers, North Africa, to assist Lilias Trotter, noted pioneer missionary to Arab & Berber Muslims.

Belle Hay Patrick (1895-1972) was born August 22 in the Scottish fishing community of Anstruther.

She was the eighth of 10 children. Her son, Patrick, wrote, “Belle had more than her fair share of the Patrick brains, although she was not, at first, very practical, in the domestic sense. Her mother sometimes called her a “gey, haundless tottie (a happy but helpless little one).”¹ But with her “fair share of brains,” little Belle “learnt the entire book of Psalms by heart and never forgot them.” At the age of nine, she won a scholarship to the local secondary school, which eventually led to a scholarship at St. Andrews University. She qualified as one of the first three women lawyers in Scotland in 1925, but she never practiced. Instead she responded to a call to become a “kind of missionary” in Algeria. In her own words, “It was to be the Gospel instead of the Law.”²

SCOTLAND (1920-1925)

As a young woman, children were drawn to Belle. A prayer meeting that she started with five other friends at the end of World War I, soon began to attract children. Four little girls who had been skipping rope came one August evening to peer through the open windows at the women praying. Belle said to them, “If you want to see what we are doing, come inside. You’ll be less bother in than out,”³ and in they trooped. They sat in a row on the front bench. The women went through their usual routine of hymn-singing, Bible-reading, prayer and an address, and the girls were as quiet as mice. Belle wrote:

“I felt really sorry for them, prisoners of their own choice, in a cold dark room, while outside the sun still shone and other bairns were laughing and playing. So when our service was over I said, ‘You’ve been very good so I’ll tell you a story all to yourselves’, and I launched on my favourite pastime. They were still quite quiet but now it was not the quiet of boredom; they were entranced. When I finished and they reluctantly rose from their seats I said: ‘We’ll be back next week and if you come half an hour earlier I’ll be here to tell you a story and then you can go home without sitting through the meeting.’ Next week I was greeted by eight children, and week by week the numbers grew until I had over fifty, packed like herrings on the narrow benches. Then in walked the halflins, half-grown boys, adolescents. The South fishing had started and all the men and older boys had left, so there was nothing to do in the dead town. So what better than to break up the bairns’ meeting? By changing my style of story-telling I managed to keep them in reasonable control for the children’s meeting, but then they began to stay behind for the women’s prayer meeting!”⁴

Weeks later, after Belle had told a gangster type story and preached what she thought was a gospel sermon, she decided to confront the boys by appealing to their better nature. “And then a remarkable thing happened. Week by week we had prayed for revival, and now it happened. The boys were held to their seats by a power outside themselves; they were under conviction of sin. Our six lads went home converted.”⁵ It was the autumn of 1920, and there in East Anglia to the south, the last of the fishermen’s revivals broke out. She wrote, “Many of our local fishermen were caught up in the movement of the Spirit. When the campaign was over our Prayer Union group had grown from 6 to 60. Again I felt a concern for the children. So I started a children’s meeting for them, which met before the prayer meeting, and once again it grew by leaps and bounds until it was difficult to pack all the youngsters into the room. The reading room could hold about 80-100 adults, but on my register I had 200 children, with an average attendance of about 150, and mostly I had no helpers!”⁶

ALGIERS (1925-1927)

By November 1925 Belle Patrick found herself in Algiers at Dar Naama with beloved artist & missionary Lilias Trotter.

Belle’s son Patrick wrote, “I say ‘a kind of missionary’ since her role was that of secretary to the remarkable Miss Lilias Trotter, founder and leader of the Algiers Mission Band (AMB).” When Belle arrived at Dar Naama, she found Lilias, age 72 with a weakened heart and confined to her bed. Patrick wrote, “She lived with Miss Trotter and others in Dar Naama, the rambling house of a former Barbary corsair (pirate!) in El Biar, Algiers.”⁷

Her initial missionary posting was for one year. Lilias wrote one enthusiastic letter after another to Belle’s mother; she said, “I do look on her as one of God’s most special gifts to me of late.”⁸ She explained to Mrs. Patrick that Belle’s first task was in “getting the gospel to the Sufi Moslems, a brotherhood of mystics.” As Lilias saw it, Belle was accomplishing this by typing the text of her book The Way of the Sevenfold Secret, considered by many as Miss Trotter’s magnum opus.

Written with the Sufi brotherhood in mind, it was a book based on the seven I Am’s of Christ in John’s gospel. The next project was a beautifully illustrated oversized book, Between the Desert and the Sea. Miss Trotter had assembled the watercolor illustrations earlier in her confinement, and now she began to prepare the text with the help of her secretary, Belle.⁹

The intent of the book was to “make people care,” Lilias said.¹⁰ “The text reveals her intimate knowledge and love of a people and a land; the watercolours bring to life unforgettable images, exquisite and exotic.”¹¹ In her forward Lilias writes, “The colour pages and the letterpress are with one and the same intent—to make you see. Many things begin with seeing in this world of ours.” ¹² Belle saw. When she left Dar Nama for home in 1927, she went with the vision to tell of the ‘other sheep’ that Jesus had in Algiers (John 10:16).

At the end of her first year, Lilias told Belle that she could not see her as a missionary, “at least not yet.”¹³ Before heading back to the UK, she felt that it was necessary for Belle to learn more about the mission by joining some of the tournées (tours) undertaken in the interior of Algeria and Tunisia, as a colporteur, distributing Christian literature. She wrote to her mother some of her hair-raising adventures in places not yet frequented by tourism. The railway lines were often blocked by drifts of sand. When traveling by car, they were bounced around as shuttlecocks due to the deeply rutted roads, while other times they had to take off their shoes and stockings to pull the car through mud and mire and salt marshes.¹⁴

Miss Trotter and her team appointed Belle as assistant secretary of the AMB in London, England. She was to organize prayer groups that were springing up across Britain, and she was to be the “liaison officer” between the field needs and the prayer partners.¹⁵ Before Belle left Dar Naama, Miss Trotter had clarified her English and French wills—Belle’s “fair share of brains” and law degree must have been useful. But Lilias’ most personal legacy was her journals and sketchbooks to be distributed among her family and friends, including the contents of ” one hundred & twenty-five pigeon hole shelves and drawers.” Under Miss Trotter’s direction, Belle had organized the ordering of the contents of those pigeon holes into alphabetical order!¹⁶

LONDON

Meanwhile, before leaving Algiers, Belle had met a Mr. Cecil Collinson, Deputation Secretary of the AMB. Upon her return to Britain in 1927, “Mr Collinson escorted Belle and another missionary lady to the Keswick Convention in July. It was at the nearby Friars Crag on Derwentwater that he proposed marriage. By the end of the year they were married.”¹⁷ Belle later discovered that it had been Mr. Collinson who suggested the placement of Belle in Croydon, South London, as the assistant secretary of the AMB! Perhaps this foreknowledge had also influenced Miss Trotter’s remark to Belle that she could not see her as a missionary, “at least not yet.”

EGYPT

Cecil had retired from business in the 1920s as he felt a call to evangelize the muslim world, now devoting himself full-time to the home end of such missions as the AMB, the North Africa Mission and the Fellowship of Faith for the Muslims. Later in 1935, he was appointed Secretary of the Egypt General Mission (EGM), which led to regular visits to Egypt with Belle. It seems Cecil was a “kind of missionary,” too.

During WWII, the Collinson family lived in Highbury, North London, where their house was badly damaged twice by bombs. Belle & Cecil also ran a canteen for the forces. Cecil died in 1952 and in the 20 years of life remaining, Belle applied her astuteness in all directions. She actually typed Patrick’s Ph.D. thesis, and when he became a lecturer at the University of Khartoum in the SUDAN, Belle spent her winters there with him. Many of her old missionary friends were deployed there, and she took trips with them as challenging as those Algerian tournées 30 years earlier! She moved to Sydney, AUSTRALIA, with Patrick and his family celebrating her 74th birthday en route. In Sydney she was soon doing all the secretarial work for the local office of the Middle East General Mission (formerly EGM). She died of cancer, patiently borne, in January 1972. Belle’s book, Recollections of East Fife Fisher Folk, lay in a drawer unpublished for many years. Upon re-reading her remarkable book before publishing, Patrick remarked, “I think I always underestimated my mother.”

A “kind of missionary?”

Yes, of the very special kind. What was her legacy? Today we like to use the phrase “on mission” and a word derived from two words “mission” and “intentional,” that is “missional,” to describe an active walk of faith. Certainly those modern terms “on mission” and “missional” fit Belle Patrick well. Everywhere she ventured she was herself. She used her upbringing, education, talent, personality and Spiritual gifts, with the intention of bearing the name of Christ and making Him known. Her life spanned 77 years in six different countries. In each decade, in every nation she gave her all. At age 30, she had decided, “It was to be the Gospel instead of the Law,” and for the next 47 years, it was so.

In her 30s, Miss Trotter had made a similar decision—it was to be the gospel instead of a career in art. In her 70s she understood the necessary & supportive part Belle played in getting the gospel to the Sufi Brotherhood. Without a secretary to type her manuscripts, Miss Trotter’s final works may not have reached the audience she had hoped for.

The body of Christ was always meant to be a team of connected parts, working together with Christ as the head. Each part is a necessary part, not kind of a part. If anything, Belle’s life demonstrates to us a life picture of what the apostle Paul was trying to tell us in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27. Each part is a necessary, supporting part to the other, making up a whole. Perhaps we can conclude that there is neither a “kind of a missionary” nor is there a “kind of a Christian” either. Each believer is a necessary, living, active and supportive part of the whole.

“If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honoured, every part shares in its joy. You are the body of Christ. Each one of you is a part of it” (1 Corinthians 12:26, 27, NIRV).

¹ Recollections of East Fife Fisher Folk, Belle Patrick. Birlinn Limited, 2003.
² Ibid
³ Ibid
⁴ Ibid
⁵ Ibid
⁶ Ibid
⁷ Ibid
⁸ Ibid
⁹ The Love That was Stronger, I.R. Govan Stewart. Lutterworth Press, 1958.
¹⁰ Until the Day Breaks, Patricia St. John. OM Publishing, 1997.
¹¹ A Passion for the Impossible, Miriam Huffman Rockness. Harold Shaw Publishers, 1999.
¹² Between the Desert and the Sea, I. Lilias Trotter. Hunt, Barnard & Company, Ltd., 1928.
¹³ Recollections of East Fife Fisher Folk, Belle Patrick. Birlinn Limited, 2003.
¹⁴ Ibid
¹⁵ A Passion for the Impossible, Miriam Huffman Rockness. Harold Shaw Publishers, 1999.
¹⁶ Ibid
¹⁷ Recollections of East Fife Fisher Folk, Belle Patrick. Birlinn Limited, 2003. Friars Crag—John Ruskin described the view as one of the three most beautiful scenes in Europe.

We look forward to the next article in our missionary biography series, Pioneer Missionary to North Africa, Miss I. Lilias Trotter.

“Now let me burn out for God.” This was the impassioned prayer of a young Cornishman named Henry Martyn (1781-1812), missionary to India and Persia, a man who lived his short life with a sense of urgency that is rare in our generation.

Martyn was born in the town of Truro in the beautiful Cornwall region of southern England. Although he was a rather small and frail boy, he possessed a keen intellect, and his academic skill eventually made him a promising Cambridge scholar. When his father died suddenly in January 1800, Martyn was confronted with eternal, spiritual realities. He began to read the Bible, and soon after surrendered his life to Jesus Christ. His conversion was genuine, but as a young student at a prestigious university he was naturally drawn to a life of academic prominence, financial stability and leisure. He honestly confessed, “I could not consent to be poor for Christ’s sake.”

However, Martyn was surrounded by strong Christian influences and began to spend more and more time reading his Bible.

In fact, he began to treasure his times of solitude with God more than anything else.

His biographer insightfully observed, “A man cannot yield himself to such Companionship without being molded by it.”¹ What’s more, in his final year at Cambridge he was captivated by the writings of David Brainerd, an early missionary to the American Indians. Martyn experienced a total paradigm shift; this young man who claimed he could never be poor for Christ’s sake now felt compelled to forsake a prestigious career in order to become a missionary himself. He wrote, “I almost think that to be prevented going among the heathen as a missionary would break my heart.”

“I feel pressed in spirit to do something for God….I have hitherto lived to little purpose, more like a clod than a servant of God; now let me burn out for God.”

“I feel pressed in spirit to do something for God….I have hitherto lived to little purpose, more like a clod than a servant of God; now let me burn out for God.” What a testament to the transforming power of God and His Word!
This was not a decision Martyn made lightly, particularly when so many people thought he was throwing his life away, “Martyn’s decision startled his world almost as much as if he had proposed a flight to the moon.”² Yet he stated, “The flesh shrinks at times, but I do not regret having resigned the world…. Life is but a short journey, and then if I be faithful unto death, my gracious reward will begin.”

His sense of spiritual urgency drove him forward.

Martyn spent the next two years as curate of a church in Cornwall in preparation for missionary service in India. He began to develop an interest in Eastern languages; in fact, an Eastern grammar book was usually his “light reading” to relax with in the evening!

Because of his weak constitution and natural inclination toward comfort, he determined to practice self-denial and discipline himself in preparation for service: “I resolved on my knees to live a life of far more self-denial than I had ever yet done, and to begin with little things. Accordingly I ate my breakfast standing at a distance from the fire, and stood reading at the window during the morning, though the thermometer stood at freezing-point….To climb the steep ascent, to run, to fight, to wrestle was the desire of my heart.”

In addition to his preparations, Martyn found something else to absorb his interest at this time—a woman named Lydia Grenfell. He quickly fell in love with her, but because of his calling to India he hesitated to declare his feelings. She seemed interested in him as well, but because of a previous relationship she was reluctant to move forward, even after Martyn went to India and asked her to marry him and join him there. Sadly, after Martyn left they never saw each other again, although Martyn’s love for Lydia endured his entire life.

Martyn desired to go to India as a simple, poor missionary, but he needed to make sure his unmarried sister was provided for, so he agreed to be a chaplain for the East India Company. He sailed for India in the summer of 1805, where he studied and preached in Calcutta before going to Serampore to spend time with William Carey and his team. During this time he was greatly encouraged in his calling as a Bible translator.
Martyn was eventually sent to the towns of Dinapore and Cawnpore to serve as chaplain to the Company employees and soldiers in the area. The European community was very skeptical and uncomfortable with Martyn because of his religious “enthusiasm” and his desire to reach out to the Indian people. Yet he defiantly stated, “The more men speak of the impossibility of converting a native, the more will God’s power be displayed in bringing it to pass.”

And so, undaunted by the criticism and arrogance of his peers, he ministered to sick soldiers and invited poor people into his home; in fact, when he was given a larger house, he filled it with an assortment of characters—scribes, language tutors and translators who worked with him, as well as soldiers, beggars and others! Sure enough, because of his integrity and example, some of the hard-hearted Europeans in his congregation began to change.

Always desiring to redeem the time, Martyn opened four primary schools in the area to teach children to read and write Hindustani (modern day Urdu). He worked to provide Urdu with a standardized body of literature, and his work laid a foundation in Urdu translation for others to follow.

Word spread concerning Martyn’s language proficiency, and he was asked to produce an Urdu and Persian New Testament translation. He worked tirelessly on these translations, spending hours and hours in study. Even his free time was often occupied with study; in fact, his friend’s wife wrote that she was afraid to ride with him in his carriage because he would read while he drove, nearly killing them on one occasion! Here was a man who wasted no time!

Martyn was never a captivating, powerful speaker, and as tuberculosis began to take hold of him, preaching became painful. Yet he kept on, and even began to preach to beggars at his house. He wrote, “Study never makes me ill—scarcely ever fatigues me—but my lungs! Death is seated there; it is speaking that kills me. But the call of Jesus Christ bids me cry aloud, and spare not.”

In fact, he declared that he would rather preach the gospel to the poor in a way they understood than anything else on earth!

However, as the symptoms of tuberculosis escalated, Martyn decided he must go to Persia to translate the Persian New Testament before he died. In November 1810 he preached his last sermons in Cawnpore before departing. He wrote, “If I live to complete the Persian New Testament, my life after that will be of less importance. But whether life or death be mine, may Christ be magnified in me. If He has work for me to do I cannot die.” Martyn was in Persia a year and a half, during which time he worked on the New Testament translation and spent time interacting and debating with Muslims.

Martyn was known for his profound confidence in the Scriptures. He was absolutely convinced that the power of God’s Word could convert any soul. He believed that any other religious text—like the Quran—would be cast aside when compared with the powerful truths of Scripture. He therefore proclaimed the Gospel in complete confidence and boldness, sometimes in the face of intense hostility; however, because he had come to understand Muslim culture so intimately, he spoke with great respect and understanding as well. He wisely said, “I lay not much stress upon clear arguments; the work of God is seldom wrought in this way. To preach the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven is a better way to win souls.”

Sadly, Martyn’s health further declined in Persia; and yet instead of lamenting over his condition, he worked with an even greater sense of urgency to complete his New Testament translation and present it to the Shah, whose approval would legitimize the Book in the eyes of the Persians and allow for its circulation. The British Ambassador was able to gain this approval for Martyn in May 1812, and he arranged to have it printed as well.

Around this time, Martyn received a letter from Lydia and decided that since his work was now done he would try to get back home to Cornwall; yet the journey proved to be more than his weak body could handle. On October 8, 1812, as he lay dying, he wrote, “I sat in the orchard, and thought with sweet comfort and peace of my God; in solitude my Company, my Friend and Comforter. Oh, when shall time give place to eternity! When shall appear the new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness! There shall in no wise enter in anything that defileth.” Martyn passed into eternity the following week, October 14, 1812.

Although the life of Henry Martyn was brief, it was a life utterly invested in eternity, and therefore a life of enduring fruitfulness. Because he devoted himself to his relationship with Jesus Christ, and perhaps because he knew his life might be short, he lived with a sense of spiritual urgency that is at once inspiring and convicting for us today. As Reverend G.C.B. Davies put it: “He was always conscious that his life might be short; yet he could face the fact of death in the assurance that this hour would not come until his work was completed. Thus it was he could pray: ‘Increase my zeal that though I am but a feeble and obscure instrument, I may struggle out my few days in great and unremitting exertions for the demolition of paganism, and the setting up of Christ’s kingdom.”³

Surely Martyn is a compelling example of Paul’s exhortation to the Ephesians: “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise…redeeming the time” (Ephesians 5:15-16). May the life and prayer of Henry Martyn become ours, that our greatest passion will be to live with the urgency that will “burn out for God.”

¹ Constance Padwick, Henry Martyn: Confessor of the Faith
² Ibid

³ Ibid

“God is to me the great Unknown. I believe in Him, but I find Him not.” This is not something you would expect a strong Christian to say, let alone someone serving in ministry! Yet what if I told you that not only was this written by a godly Christian, but by the man considered the “Father of American Missions”—and not in his early days, but after he had been serving on the mission field for about 15 years?

As Christians we often unwittingly believe that as we mature in our relationship with the Lord, we will grow in our ability to rebound from and overcome trials to the point where they don’t even bother us that much. Yet if that were the case, how would we explain the recurring distress of David in the Psalms? The great “man after God’s own heart” exclaimed, “How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?” (Psalm 13:1, NKJV). How would we explain the agony of Jesus Himself, as He cried from the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46, NKJV).

Clearly while we do grow and mature as we draw near to the Lord, we may still experience a “dark night of the soul.”

This was the case with the great Adoniram Judson. Adoniram was raised in a Christian home in Massachusetts, but when he was in college, he was swept up by the intellectual fervor of the Enlightenment. He came to view Christianity as a religion of ignorance for weak-minded, superstitious people, not truly intelligent and sophisticated scholars. Because Adoniram prided himself on his brilliance and intellect, he walked away from the Lord.

However, once he graduated and went out into the great, wide world, he realized that nothing he pursued satisfied him; his lofty goals and dreams soon gave way to aimlessness and frustration. He began to experience a series of “wake-up calls,” culminating in the death of his closest friend, a Deist intellectual. At last, the Lord was getting this dynamic, stubborn young man’s attention, and he enrolled as a student at Andover Seminary.

When Adoniram finally committed his life to the Lord, it was a complete and utter surrender.

He desired to do something radical and unique for the Lord, and becoming America’s first missionary certainly fit the bill! Shortly after this, he read about the country of Burma, which so captured his heart that he decided he must go there.

At this time a vivacious, intelligent young woman named Ann Hasseltine also captured his heart. He fell madly in love with her, and a month after their acquaintance, he asked her dad for her hand in marriage. Although Adoniram made Mr. Hasseltine aware of the dangers and risks of missionary life, he consented; perhaps even more surprising is the fact that Ann did too! They were married in February 1812, and within two weeks, they sailed for Burma.

The Judsons faced incredible challenges and hardships in their early years in Burma: difficulty learning a complex language with no sentence structure, punctuation, or word separation; difficulty evangelizing a people with such low views of deity; constant scrutiny from a volatile government; no correspondence from home for the first three years; five years before the salvation of their first convert; and the deaths of all of their children in infancy.

Yet God gave them remarkable grace and endurance.

He blessed their ministry and it slowly began to grow. A small Burmese church was established with solid, faithful believers; in time, Adoniram felt he could confidently leave the church in Rangoon and move further inland. When the Judsons were invited to come live near the Royal Court in Ava, it seemed to be a wide open door to share the Gospel among Burma’s government leaders.

However, the political climate quickly changed due to impending war with England, and Adoniram found himself arrested and thrown in death prison on suspicion of conspiracy with the British! These were dire straits indeed; not only was the prison filthy, dark and rat-infested, but at night the prisoners were hung by the feet to a pole, so that only their head and shoulders touched the ground. At one point Judson and the other inmates were transferred to another prison and were forced to walk barefoot for 8 miles through the jungle. It was such a horrific journey for the weak, malnourished men that several died along the way; Judson himself even contemplated suicide.

Meanwhile, Ann was an amazing support to her husband. She constantly mediated on his behalf and smuggled food and other items to him. She even took the precaution of hiding his precious Burmese Bible translation when the authorities confiscated their house. Ann also gave birth to a baby girl during Adoniram’s imprisonment, but that didn’t stop her from following him from one prison to another. At one point she spent several months living in a storage room so she could stay near her husband. She contracted smallpox, spinal meningitis, and dysentery, to the point where she couldn’t feed the baby and Adoniram had to be released from prison to find other mothers in the village to nurse her! Miraculously, the little family survived, and Adoniram was released in 1825, but Ann and the baby only lasted a short while before passing away the following year.

Adoniram was devastated by the loss of his beloved Ann. Initially, he responded by becoming a workaholic, but as time went on, his production dropped off. He blamed himself for her death and attempted to destroy any vestige of pride or self in his life. He even made his family in America vow to destroy all of his letters and writings!

Adoniram began to avoid contact with others, and two years after Ann’s death, he went into the jungle to live in a hut as a recluse. He even dug himself a grave and meditated on death for hours on end.

It was at this point that he admitted, “God is to me the Great Unknown. I believe in Him, but I find Him not.” Certainly this was the darkest night of Adoniram’s soul. Could the God who seemed so distant and unknown truly be the “ever present help in time of trouble” that Scripture claimed Him to be, and that Adoniram so desperately needed?

Biographer Ruth Tucker gives us the answer: “There were no psychiatrists, there was no psychoanalysis, and there was no group therapy. There was, however, a tremendous outpouring of love and prayer by both his colleagues and by the native converts. But more important, there was a solid foundation to his faith that was able to endure even the most trying times of doubt.”¹ Because Adoniram’s foundation was sourced in Someone bigger than any circumstance or emotion, any trial or devastating loss, Someone bigger even than himself, he found that no matter how deep he sank into despair, no matter how far he drifted, that Someone was still ever present and would never let him go. This is truly one of the most powerful and wonderful things about our God—that when we can’t hold onto Him, He is holding onto us! As Deuteronomy 33:27 tells us, “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”

Over time, Adoniram’s depression began to lift, and the “Great Unknown” revealed Himself in a profound way, replacing despair with hope. Surely Adoniram could say with the Psalmist, “He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps” (Psalm 40:2, NKJV).

As Adoniram emerged from his seclusion, to his amazement, he found that everywhere he went there was remarkable spiritual growth and salvation taking place among the Burmese. He remarked, “I sometimes feel alarmed like a person who sees a mighty engine beginning to move, over which he knows he has no control!”

After years of toil, perseverance, patience and heartbreak, suddenly the floodgates were opening! Adoniram finally finished his translation of the Burmese Bible in 1840. He also remarried to a young widow named Sarah Boardman who had come to serve with her husband in northern Burma several years prior. They had a fruitful marriage and ministry; however, she passed away in 1845. Adoniram married once more in 1846 to Emily Chubbock, a popular children’s author back home in America. Their marriage lasted until his death in 1850.

The legacy of Adoniram Judson and his family had profound influence not only on the nations of Burma and America, but also on the world of foreign missions.

No doubt the enduring nature of that legacy was the foundation on which it was built—the great love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

And because Adoniram personally experienced the depths of that love and the strength of that foundation in his darkest hour, his life bore more fruit than it ever could have otherwise. No wonder Adoniram Judson, in his final days on earth, never ceased to repeat this refrain:

“The love of Christ
Boundless in its breadth
Infinite in its length
Fathomless in its depths
And measureless in its height.”

¹ Ruth Tucker, From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya

“But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Hebrews 11:16; 13:14).

This is the story of how a Christian sojourner willingly let her feet be “tied” for love’s sake.

Amy Carmichael (1867-1951) was an Irish born missionary to Japan and India. She spent her early years reaching out to the marginalized in Belfast, Ireland and later Manchester, England. At age 25, she was sent out as the first Keswick missionary to Japan. She served there as an evangelist for 15 months but developed what was called “Japan head” (she suffered with neuralgia) and was told to move to a more suitable climate.
She arrived in India at age 28 and immediately came down with Dengue fever. But having reached the land of her calling, where she would spend the next 50+ years, she set out to learn Tamil, and after 14 strenuous months, passed her language exam. Amy began evangelizing with a team of young Indian women whom she called “The Starry Cluster.” She loved itinerant preaching and sharing the gospel across southern India, fully expecting to carry on in this way indefinitely.

But one day, as He does, God changed everything.

He sent her a little girl, who had run away from the Hindu temple women, who were preparing her to be “married to the gods.” She was seven years old, and having heard of Amy and her love of children, had run away in hopes of finding her. As she told her story, Amy thought, “If these things are true, something must be done.” This was the beginning of the season Amy referred to as having “her feet tied.” In the Tamil culture, when a woman bore children, it was said that the children tied her feet to the home. Amy wrote, “Children tie the mother’s feet, the Tamils say…We knew we could not be too careful of our children’s earliest years. So we let our feet be tied for love of Him whose feet were pierced.”

In the ensuing years, Amy rescued numerous children from being sold into slavery, while others were brought to her for refuge, or like the very first child, found their way to her.

Biographer Iain Murray wrote, “She would not have let her feet be so tied had she not been convinced that God meant her to be the full time ‘mother’ of the family now gathered. Most of the children Amy took care of and taught were former temple children, entrapped in a dark life of temple prostitution.” She sacrificed what she loved most, sharing the gospel, itinerant preaching, evangelizing across Southern India, so that those little ones “could know not just physical freedom from slavery but ultimately spiritual freedom.”

Her highest calling became teaching each child God’s love for them.

As the Tamil proverb said, Amy’s feet may have been tied, but not so of the feet of hundreds upon hundreds of little children that were raised to know and love Jesus and later sent out to love and serve their countrymen. Although her feet were tied, in her 50s, Amy was known to drop everything and set off in the old Ford, with kindred spirits, to go out evangelizing. Amy’s children remember how she would suddenly appear and call them to go out preaching with her, and off they flew! Those journeys were exciting, with plenty of laughter as well as evangelizing. Though her feet were tied, Amy’s heart was ever free.
Amy’s home in Southern India became known as Dohnavur Fellowship and continues today. According to their website: “During the past 113 years, about 1875 girls and 670 boys have been rescued from situations of moral and physical danger and brought into the safety and love of the Dohnavur Family.” For more information, visit their website.

Also, enjoy other articles in this missionary biography series such as “How William Carey Expected Great Things from God” & “How We Know Our God Determines How We Live Our Lives”

¹ Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur by Frank L Houghton, SPCK, 1953.
² Amy Carmichael: Fragment’s that Remain, Triangle SPCK, 1987.
³ Amy Carmichael: Beauty for Ashes by Iain H Murray, Banner of Truth, 2015.

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” The words of Jesus in Matthew 28:19 have been the call to missions throughout the history of the Church. It was this verse that captured the heart and mind of a humble English shoemaker named William Carey in 1786 when he first proposed the formation of a missionary society at a meeting of local ministers. Compelled by Jesus’ words, Carey would go on to spearhead the great missionary movement of the 19th Century.

Carey was born in 1761 in a small English village and lived a life of poverty as a shoemaker.

After marrying at age 20, he also opened a school to support his growing family. He led such a life of obscurity that we would never have heard of him were it not for God moving on his heart!

Once William had accepted Christ, his interests began to expand. In his mid-to-late twenties, he started preaching and was named pastor of a small Baptist congregation. He also began to study various academic disciplines, excelling particularly in languages.

After reading about Captain Cook’s exploration of the Pacific, Carey was inspired to research foreign lands and peoples. As he filtered this information through his relationship with God, he realized that these countries represented multitudes of people who were perishing without the knowledge of the Gospel. This so grieved him that he would often break down and cry! Naturally, Carey’s vision expanded as he felt the Lord impress upon his heart the urgent need for foreign missions. He saw explicitly in the Bible God’s desire to make Himself known to all people, and so he confidently set forth to share this vision with the church.

At this time in English church history, it was commonly believed that the call to missions was an apostolic calling that did not apply to the church any longer. When it came to godless nations, God in His sovereignty would save souls in His own way; therefore Christians were free from any responsibility in this regard.

Thus when Carey proposed a missionary enterprise at that meeting in 1786, he was sharply reprimanded with the words, “Young man, sit down! When God pleases to convert the heathen, He will do it without your aid or mine!” This may shock us as Christians today, but this view persisted for years until Carey published An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use means for the Conversion of the Heathens. In this historic and revolutionary pamphlet, he addressed and confronted major concerns and excuses for not engaging in missions.

By the time the next ministers’ meeting rolled around in May 1792, Carey’s fellow ministers had at last become open to the idea.

Carey delivered a message at this meeting in which he made a famous statement: “EXPECT GREAT THINGS FROM GOD. ATTEMPT GREAT THINGS FOR GOD.”

And at last these ministers responded! Not to be overlooked is what a great step of faith this was; these men were poor, slightly educated, humble country ministers with no experience choosing to embark on what was then a virtually unknown venture!

Incredibly, the missionary society established by these humble men became the model for 19th Century missions’ organizations and essentially transformed 19th Century Christianity! Within a few years, all major denominations were inspired to form their own societies.

No wonder it has been said that this missionary venture “restored the Gospel to its central place in Christianity!”

As the Apostle Paul noted in 1 Corinthians 1, God truly has chosen the foolish, the weak, the base things of this world to show His power and glory, and these men in rural England are a beautiful example of this!

Not surprisingly, William Carey eagerly volunteered to be the first missionary sent out, and eventually he and his family departed for India with a man who had lived there previously, Dr. John Thomas. The group set sail on June 13, 1793, and arrived November 19 of that year.

From the start, Carey encountered obstacles, some of which would plague him for years. The East India Company, which monopolized the trade and occupation of India as a British colony, was hostile to “Christianization” and therefore to people like William Carey. The Careys were also ravaged by disease, and some of their children died. Dr. Thomas also proved to be a burden; although he was the mission’s financial manager, he had a habit of overspending and incurring debt, so that within a year he ran the Careys into bankruptcy!

To make matters worse, Carey’s wife began to manifest signs of mental illness following the death of their five-year-old son, Peter, spending the last 12 years of her life totally insane; she maligned William’s character and even chased him with a knife on more than one occasion. Toward the end of her life she had to be restrained in her bed, ranting and raving while Carey attempted to work and study in the next room. It is a testimony to the faithfulness and selfless care of her husband that she was able to stay at home and not be placed in an asylum. Through it all, William persevered in his work; amazingly, he chose never to speak ill of either Dr. Thomas or his wife, but to cast his burdens on the Lord.

What a powerful example of self-control!

Eventually his family moved to Serampore and was joined by new missionary families from back home in England. It was from Serampore that the ministry began to flourish. Together with William Ward and Joshua Marshman, Carey created a hub for Baptist missionary activity in India and became known as one of the greatest missionary teams in history.

Evangelism and preaching the Bible were the priority of the Mission; however, Carey’s first Indian convert did not profess faith until the end of 1800 (after seven years of ministry!). This was largely due to the pervasiveness of the caste system of Hinduism at that time. And yet beginning with this first convert and his household, one by one the Lord added to their numbers as many were emboldened by their fellow Indians to confess Christ. After 25 years of ministry in Serampore, there were about 600 converts with thousands attending services. What’s more, numerous mission stations in various districts of India were established.

As part of propagating the Gospel, Carey was driven by a firm belief in the need to translate the Scriptures into the vernacular of the people. He rightly concluded that once the Gospel transformed individual lives, it would in turn transform the culture as a whole.

For example, Carey’s translation work blew open the doors for written literature in India’s languages. Before he came on the scene, the language of Bengali had no printed literature, so this was a major improvement! Carey even printed secular literature and started the first newspaper ever printed in an oriental language. He thus paved the way for Bengali to become one of India’s primary languages. During his 35 years in Serampore, Carey made three translations of the entire Bible as well as multiple partial translations into a variety of languages and dialects.

By 1801 the British authorities discovered Carey’s translation work.

When they saw that he was not a political threat, they asked him to become the Professor of Oriental Languages at Fort William College in Calcutta, now Kolkota. Rather lofty for a self-educated shoemaker! Carey contributed greatly to secular and religious literature translation at Fort William. He also founded many schools throughout the country, including Serampore College in 1819, which trained up Indian nationals in evangelism and church planting. What’s more, his schools were some of the first in India to educate girls.

Although Carey loved and respected the Indian culture, he also worked to have horrific superstitious practices abolished, including sacrificing children to the gods, burning widows alive with their dead husbands, and burying widows alive. Carey petitioned the British government repeatedly for the abolition of such rituals, but it took at least 30 years for any legislation to be enacted! Yet when the final edict passed, the British Governor asked Carey to translate it! Undoubtedly, Carey found a way to bring the influence of the Gospel into every area, even when it came to science! Because he knew that astrology had a powerful grip on the Indian people, he introduced astronomy in his schools to demonstrate that the stars did not dictate human life, but were created by God and could be used for purposes such as navigation. As an avid botanist, Carey became the first person in India to develop forestry conservation as well as much of India’s agriculture and horticulture; there are even plant species named after him! By showing the nobility of God’s creation, he was able to help free people from superstition regarding reincarnation, which taught that some creatures were “souls in bondage,” and point them instead to their Creator.

As we can see through his contributions to India’s literature, education, legislation, and science, William Carey’s Christianity affected all areas of Indian culture.

Because he brought the Lord into everything he did, it affected everything he did!

He had a heart to see entire nations changed by the Gospel holistically—and it happened! He thus served as a model for future generations. Significantly, Peter Hammond noted of 19th Century missionaries “how comprehensively they sought to fulfill the Great Commission by ministering to body, mind and spirit. Their aim was nothing less than the total transformation of all areas of life in obedience to the Lordship of Christ.”¹

William Carey is indeed a powerful example of perseverance and confidence in the power of the Gospel. In times of great difficulty and little fruit, when many would give up or be counted a failure, he chose to cast every burden on the Lord and plod along with his eyes fixed on Jesus and His Great Commission. Although he has fittingly been named the “Father of Modern Missions,” at the end of his life he said, “Though I am of little use, I feel a pleasure in doing the little that I can. When I’m gone, say nothing about Dr. Carey—speak about Dr. Carey’s Savior.”

Enjoy the first article in this missionary biography series entitled, “How We Know Our God Determines How We Live Our Lives”.

¹ Peter Hammond, The Greatest Century of Missions

While much of the story of Saint Patrick, as he is commonly known, has been fabricated into legend, he was in reality a fascinating historic figure; in fact, he was a missionary to Ireland and one of the first Christian missionaries after the Early Church Era!

PATRICK LIVED IN THE EARLY 400S.

He was a Roman citizen living in Briton (modern-day England/Scotland), but when he was 16, he was captured by warriors from Northern Ireland. He became their slave, tending their pigs (and having to live like one!), for six years, during which time he truly committed his life to Jesus Christ. One day, he heard a voice say to him, “Soon you will return to your homeland.” Shortly thereafter he escaped captivity and boarded a ship bound for Europe.

Once back home in Briton, Patrick received his calling from the Lord in an unusual way. In the middle of the night, he had a vision of a man coming to him from Ireland with countless letters from the Irish people. As he began to read the letters, he said, “I seemed to hear the voice of the same men…and they cried out as with one voice, ‘We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us.’ I was deeply moved in heart and I could read no further, so I awoke.” Patrick recognized this as a clear call from God, but he wisely spent time equipping himself and growing in his Christian faith before returning to Ireland, the land of his captivity.

THIS WAS INDEED A UNIQUE CALL—ONLY GOD COULD PUT IT ON SOMEONE’S HEART TO GO BACK TO THE PEOPLE WHO HAD ENSLAVED HIM!

As Patrick ministered to the pagan people of Ireland, his influence spread far and wide; in fact, by the end of his life, only the “inaccessible south” of Ireland remained untouched by his ministry. He not only shared the Gospel everywhere he went, but he became one of the first Christians to speak out strongly against slavery. In fact, within his lifetime, the entire Irish slave trade was abolished!

HOWEVER, HIS LIFE WAS NOT WITHOUT TRIALS AND OBSTACLES.

In one instance, a British prince came and massacred Patrick’s newly baptized converts. What’s more, the druids, who practiced black magic, had a grip on the country and its kings that they would not easily relinquish! This is where most of the legends surrounding Patrick originate, as there are many stories of his wars with the druids and how God performed miracles to thwart their magic. Whether these stories were exaggerated or not, what is certain is that Patrick had great faith in his God. He once wrote, “Daily I expect murder, fraud, or captivity, but I fear none of these things because of the promises of heaven. I have cast myself into the hands of God Almighty who rules everywhere.” Clearly, his great vision of God compelled him. He had no fear because he knew God was almighty and trustworthy!

PATRICK HAD AN INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS CHRIST AND A TRULY INSPIRING MISSIONARY VISION.

He once wrote, “I am not able, nor would it be right, to be silent on such great benefits and such great grace as [God] has vouchsafed unto me in the land of my captivity, for this is our recompense, that after we have been corrected and brought to know God, we should exalt and confess His wondrous works before every nation which is under the whole heaven.”

“They will come from the east and the west, and they will recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, just as we believe that believers will come from all parts of the world. For that reason, consequently, it is indeed our duty to fish well and diligently, as the Lord admonishes in advance and teaches, saying, ‘Come after me and I will make you fishers of people…’ and again He says, ‘Go therefore into the entire world, proclaim the Gospel to every creature.’”

What incredible vision Patrick had of the glory of God, a vision that would be echoed down through the centuries by those who would take up the call of the Great Commission in obedience to the One who lovingly desires to draw all men to Himself. May we likewise take up that call, like Patrick, to “fish well and diligently” for the lost souls around us!