On this day in 1743, David Brainerd began his missionary work among the Housatonic Indians of New York.

As a young man at Yale, Brainerd had heard a message preached by Ebenezer Pemberton on the need for mission work among the Native Americans.  Even after he was expelled from Yale for publicly commenting that one of his professors had “no more saving grace than a chair” (Yale at that time was very cold spiritually, even though it was a Christian college.  Few of the professors were truly saved and many of the students knew it), David met up with Pemberton to learn more of the opportunity for mission work among the Indians.

Even though he felt unworthy of the task, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel gladly appointed him.  Eager and excited to start his new task, Brainerd plunged into the work soon.  Too soon.  Many people advised him to spend time with a veteran missionary  John Sergent, who was serving with his wife in Stockbridge.  John could have helped David prepare for his work and struggles that lied ahead.  But David would not tarry.  He plunged out alone, all alone, unable to speak their language, to complete the task given to him.

His first days as a missionary were lonely and difficult.  He wrote in his journal, “My heart was sunk…it seemed to me I should never have nay success among the Indians.  My soul was weary of my life I longed for death, beyond measure.”  For several weeks, he attempted to preach to the Indians without an interpretor, leading to a fruitless ministry and a miserable life.  Later, an interpreter came to help him and he stayed with the Housatonics for a year.  During his short stay here, he started a school for the children and began a translation a psalms.

Despite the hardships and discouragements, Brainerd refused to give up.  When his year assignment was up, Brainerd had a choice.  He had been offered the pastorate of several established churches (he was a skilled preacher and his reputation had been established when he did traveling evangelism before going to the Indians).  He could take one of these pastorates and live out a comfortable life.  Or he could accept another assignment from the society.  In March of  1744, David had to make his choice.  He spent hours praying and considering his choices.  Finally, he wrote, “I am resolved to go on still with the Indian affairs.”

David went on to serve mightily among the Indians.  But he had a rough and dreaded start.  How would the story of David Brainerd have been different had he tarried?  If David would have just slowed down and prepared for his task ahead, if he would have worked along side a mentor, if he would have learned the language, could he have avoided the depression and anxiety that marked his life?  No one has the answers to these questions.  But young men and woman preparing to go into mission work would do well to ask themselves these questions.  Because one day, people may be asking the same questions about you.

Source:

From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya

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On this day in 1931, Karl Bregenzer, a Moravian missionary, was murdered in Nicaragua at the mission station where he worked.

Earlier that morning, during family devotions, the Bregenzer family read John 15:13, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”.  But during family devotions, word came that the village where Karl had been faithfully serving for three years was about to be attacked by a rebel group that had been scouring the countryside.

Karl sent his wife and children away from danger with some of the men from his church, but he chose to remain in the village. His wife later reported “that morning Karl was much burdened with the souls that were still lost, and it was this that kept him there to give the Gospel to the
enemy, for ‘how shall they hear without a preacher’?”

“The Lord God is still alive!” These were reported as his last words to his wife. That Karl uttered these words under such circumstances seems amazing. Even more amazing is his wife’s response when she and her children had reached safety, “The Lord has been so good to us.”

Source:

Moravian History

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On this day in 1836, Narcissa Whitman, in a letter, wrote, “It seems to me now that we are on the very borders of civilization.  I have not one feeling of regret at the step which I have taken, but count it a privilege to go forth in the name of my Master, cheerfully bearing the toil and privation that we expect to encounter.”

Why was Narcissa writing this?  That day, she and her husband, Marcus, were preparing to depart from St. Louis, Missouri to work as the first missionaries among the Native Americans of Oregon.  St. Louis was the last major city   Aside from Eliza Spalding, the wife of a fellow missionary going out with them, Narcissa would be the first white woman to every settle in the Oregon region.  One can imagine the fear and uncertainty that laid ahead for these two brave missionary women.   Many others would have shrunk from such a task and responsibility.  But Narcissa gladly accepted the task she could fulfill for her Lord.

Too often, we forget how difficult it is for missionaries to leave the familiarities of their home and to adjust to an entirely different culture and atmosphere.  This is especially difficult for the wives of missionaries.  Today, just take a moment to pray for the wives of missionaries as they learn to live within a culture that is totally new to them.

  Source:

History Link

On this day in 1823, George Boardman writes in his journal:

By reason of bodily indisposition, I was detained from public worship this forenoon. Undisturbed by noise or company, I tried to give myself to God, and think I had an increasing desire, and an increasing evidence that it was my duty to become a missionary. My heart seemed to leap for joy, as my evidence increased, and I longed to go forth and preach the gospel. But on a sudden, the pangs of separation from every beloved object in America seized my mind, and distorted it with anguish unutterable. What! must I bid adieu to my dear, very dear parents, brothers and sisters, and friends? Must I die before the time? For what is it less than death to be separated from them, probably to see them no more on earth?

But at length it occurred to me, that it was Jesus, the dearest of all my friends, who called me to go; then I said, Welcome separations and farewells, welcome tears and cries, welcome last sad embraces, welcome pangs and griefs, only let me go where my Saviour calls and welcome toils, disappointments, fatigues and sorrows, welcome an early grave, if I may only preach to the heathen ‘the unsearchable riches of Christ.’ I feel that I shall go, Precious Saviour, go with me, that I be not alone.

Source:

Memoirs of George Boardman

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On this day in 1822, Missionary Benton Pixley and a doctor return from their visit to the Osage Indians.

Both Pixley and the doctor were part of a missions organization known as the United Foreign Missionary Society. This organization worked among the Osage Indians to establish a missions school for the Indians known as Harmony School. The team of missionaries consisted of ministers, a physician, blacksmith, carpenter, millwright, shoemaker and two farmers.

Pixley spent a lot of time with the Osage people. His primary reason for spending so much time with them was to learn the language. Pixley spent much of his time away from the missionary team with the other men of the Osage Indian tribe. He would go away with them for months as they traveled around the land hunting food during the summer and fall hunts. He spent much of his time, not only just with the Indian men, but also with their women and children. He would spend his evenings in the tents and rude bark homes of the Osage people listening to them talk.

Pixley discovered a big struggle within the clash of cultures of which he was at the forefront. The Indian people ridiculed Indian individuals who became educated through the missions school and who adopted anything of the culture of the missionaries. Pixley states in one of his writings, “I offered large wages to a young Osage, Milledoler, who has long attended school at Harmony, to induce him to remain with me through the present winter, and assist me in acquiring his language, he, at the same time, learning the English. This, he said, he would be glad to do, but remarked, ‘The Osages call me a fool.’ Although he understands much of our language, he can hardly be persuaded to speak a word of it in presence of the Indians.”

How willing are we to adopt the culture of the people around us who need to hear the gospel? Are we willing to adapt to their culture, language, and customs for the sake of the gospel?  Pixley saw the importance of immersing himself in a foreign culture to reach them with the gospel. He saw how it was more important that he learned their customs than it was for them to learn his.

On this day in 1798, Missionaries of the London Missionary Society to the island of Otaheite, known today as Tahiti, wrote a letter to their missions board. Originally, a group of missionaries had gone together to spread the gospel to a number of islands. However, after facing so much opposition and difficulties, within a year of arriving, a number of the missionaries decided to leave the work on the islands. To this occasion, the missionaries who decided to remain write:

“Dearly beloved brethren…The change that has taken place in out situation, by the sudden resolution of the major part of the society of missionaries to depart from this island of Otaheite for Port Jackson, in New Holland, we trust will nothing hinder that work which first induced us to offer our services to the directors of the Missionary Society, supported us under the heavy trail of forsaking parents, brothers, sisters, friends, etc, and still encourages us to abide the will of God on this island. We can only assure the directors of the Society, that our confidence is the strength of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose aid we depend upon, and whose servants we desire to manifest ourselves to be…

 We also humbly request the directors of the Society not to forget us either in their prayers or re-visiting us, if any opportunity for so doing should occur…if the directors should judge it prudent, and find it convenient, to send out a few presents for those who showed themselves most friendly to us, such as knives, scissors, axes, and such articles, they will be gratefully received. Experience has taught us the more we are encumbered about worldly things, the less concern we have for the conversion of the heathen; and the more we are detached from secular employments, the more, we trust, our minds will be attached to the propagation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

How willing are we to be like these missionaries? In the face of trials and upon their fellow Christians abandoning them to do the work themselves, they put their confidence in the strength of God, not in their own. When hardships come and serving God becomes very difficult and lonely, will we quit the work or will we thrust all of our hope and faith in our God? Then will we be the kind of people that these missionaries needed? Will we be people who pray for them? Will we go visit missionaries to help and encourage them? Will we support them financially so that they can use their energy to focus on their goal of spreading the Gospel? Serving God can get lonely and discouraging. If we are in that position, let’s put our faith and hope in our strong and mighty God. If we are not in the position, let’s encourage those who are with our prayers, encouragements, and support.

*Entries entered and written by Edward de los Reyes

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On this day in 1867, a missionary sailing ship called The Morning Star begins its work in the Pacific under the command of missionary Hiram Bingham.  The job of missionary ships like the Morning Star was to provide transportation to missionaries and supplies among the Pacific Islands.

This Morning Star was actually a replacement of a former ship by the same name.  For ten years, the original Morning Star had sailed across thousands of miles of the Pacific Ocean as it carried missionaries to areas like the Marshall Islands, Gilbert Islands, and Ponape.  The sight of the ship brought hope to both the missionaries and the inhabitants of the island.   But the years at the rough sea took its toll on the ship and it soon wasn’t able to sail anymore.

Bingham and the other missionaries realized that a missionary ship was essential in ensuring that continued spread of the gospel to the Pacific islands.  So they began to raise funds to build a new ship.  Bingham wrote an article glorifying the work of the Morning Star and pleading for money to build a new one.  And the money began to pour in…though from an unexpected source.

Forty-seven years earlier, Bingham’s father,Hiram Bingham Sr., brought the first group of missionaries to Hawaii.  Before they arrived, the island had no gospel light or witness.  But the Lord worked and soon hundreds of schools and churches were started throughout the island.  Even the government, its laws, and policies were changed.  In just a few short years, Christ had griped the heart of the Hawaiian people.

When Bingham Jr.’s plead reached the churches in Hawaii, the children took action.  Children Sunday Schools across Hawaii began to raise money.  Soon, the idea spread across the nation and thousands of Sunday Schools took up offerings to build the new Morning Star.  Over a period of two years, the children raised more than $28,000.  When the newly built Morning Star first arrived in the Hawaiian harbor, two thousand Hawaiian Sunday school children marched to the wharf to see “their ship”.

Source:

Story of the Morning Star

On this day in 1837, Josiah Brewer set sail from New York for Smyrna, a strategic city along the coast of Asia Minor, under the Western Foreign Missionary Society.  With him was his wife and a printer, Thomas Brown.  Aside from their other supplies, they took with them two printing presses.

Brewer had already spent several years in Smyrna under a mission society called The New Haven Ladies Greek Association.  When he had first arrived in the Mediterranean, he had hoped to settle in Jerusalem, to work among the Jews.  But at that time, Jerusalem was in a state of anarchy.  A friend he had made there recommended that he settle in Smyrna, which had a massive Jewish population and a much more stable political atmosphere at the time.  Brewer labored  here several years, where he established a strong mission base within the city.

When the Ladies Greek Association ran out of funds, Brewer was forced to return to the states and find a new sending base.  So he applied to the Western Foreign Missionary Society, where he was accepted.   Among his other accomplishments, Brewer wrote a memoir of his life and a challenge for others to get involved in the work.  Below is an excerpt:

 If any of your people who were inquiring the way of life are halting between two opinions, let them read the warnings which are addressed to the churches of the Apocalypse, in the midst of whose ruins I now write. Alas! the glory has departed from them all Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea are but the names of churches which were.  Their candlestick has been removed out of its place. Yet the promise and the providence of God encourage us to hope that he will restore the ruins of many generations. A holier cross than that borne by the crusaders shall take the place of the crescent which we now see on the top of the minarets and instead of the blood red flag with its drawn sword in the midst there shall float on these walls the white banner and branch of peace. But before that time arrives, there must doubtles be years of patient persevering and prayerful labor performed by missionaries here. Shall we hope then for the prayers of your people that in the countries around these seas the door may be fully opened for preaching the gospel of the grace of God and that the same grace may make the word effectual to salvation.

Source:

The Missionary Chronicles

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