Missions

In January of 1956, Jim Elliot and four other missionaries gave their lives in Ecuador in their effort to reach the Waodani (Auca) Indians. This fierce group was known to attack any outsiders, but the vision for reaching them with the gospel compelled these young men to take the risk. Not long after they set up camp near the Waodani village they were attacked by warriors. Refusing to defend their lives with force, the missionaries were killed. The news flashed around the world, and the story of courage and sacrifice challenged many to take up the missionary cause.

A missionary to Africa told the story of an elderly woman who was reached with the gospel. Though she was blind and could neither read nor write, she wanted to share her new found faith with others. She went to the missionary and asked for a copy of the Bible in French. When she got it, she asked the missionary to underline John 3:16 in red and mark the page it was on so she could find it. The missionary wanted to see what she would do, so one day he followed her.

David Livingstone was a Scottish missionary and explorer who spent thirty-three years in the heart of Africa. He endured much suffering as he labored to spread the Gospel and open the continent to missionaries. This godly missionary once remarked:

In the 1840s, John Geddie left the pastorate of a church in Canada to take his wife and two small children to the South Sea Islands to begin a mission work there. After a voyage of more than 20,000 miles, they arrived in the New Hebrides Islands at Aneityum. The island chain was filled with cannibals, and more than twenty crew members of a British ship had been killed and eaten just months before the Geddies arrived on the mission field.

When James Calvert went out as a missionary to the cannibals of the Fiji Islands, the ship captain tried to turn him back, saying, “You will lose your life and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages.” To that, Calvert replied, “We died before we came here.”

Source: The Mission-Minded Family, Ann Dunagan

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

The one major and compelling reason why missionaries must continue to be sent is because it is God’s will. It is His method of bringing the Gospel of Jesus to the world.

Sometimes two objections are raised about this. First, some people say: Why not just send money to support missionaries from the Third World? They are a lot cheaper and usually more effective.

George Stott, a one-legged school teacher from Scotland, volunteered for missionary service in China. When asked why he with only one leg thought of going to China, he said, “I do not see those with two legs going, so I must.” Thus began his more than twenty years of missionary work in China.

Source: Twenty-six Years of Missionary Work in China, Grace Stott

At the one-hundredth anniversary of the arrival of missionaries in Zaire, Christians gathered to celebrate from that part of Zaire that was once called the Belgian Congo. Near the end of the celebration, a very old man stood to give a speech. He said that he would die soon and that he needed to tell something that no other man still living knew.

When Adoniram Judson graduated from college and seminary he received a call from a fashionable church in Boston to become its assistant pastor. Everyone congratulated him. His mother and sister rejoiced that he could live at home with them and do his life work, but Judson shook his head. “My work is not here,” he said. “God is calling me beyond the seas. To stay here, even to serve God in His ministry, I feel would be only partial obedience, and I could not be happy in that.” Although it cost him a great struggle he left mother and sister to follow the heavenly call.

David Livingstone was a pioneer missionary to Africa, who walked over 29,000 miles. His wife died early in their ministry and he faced stiff opposition from his Scottish brethren.

He prayed, “Send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. Sever any ties but the tie that binds me to Your service and to Your heart.”

Source: The Grand Weaver, Ravi Zacharias

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

Robert Arthington lived in a single room, cooked his own meals, and shared his friendship with students who were in need. Yet he gave tremendous amounts of money during his lifetime to Christian missions. When he died, his estate was worth about five million dollars which he willed to missions.

A young missionary, Herbert Jackson, was given a car to help him in his work. The car was a major asset, but it had one difficulty—it would not start without a push or a jump-start. Jackson devised a system to cope with the car’s inability to start. When he was ready to leave his home, he went to a nearby school and asked permission to bring some of the children out of class to help him push-start his car.

Faith honors God and God honors faith. For 10 years Robert and Mary Moffat labored faithfully in Bechuanaland (now called Botswana) without one ray of encouragement to brighten their way. They could not report a single convert.

Many years ago a young man went to China as a missionary with an income of $2,500 annually. A company decided that they wanted this young man to work for them and offered him a position with a $5,000 salary. He declined the offer, and it was raised to $7,000 and then to $10,000, but he still declined.

The company asked him if the salary was his sticking point and he answered, “Oh, the salary is big enough, but the job isn’t.”

Source: The Speaker’s Quote Book, Roy B. Zuck

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

Henry Martyn, a Cambridge University student, was honored at only 20 years of age for his achievements in mathematics. In fact, he was given the highest recognition possible in that field. And yet he felt an emptiness inside. He said that instead of finding fulfillment in his achievements, he had, “Only grasped a shadow.”

David Livingstone, pioneer missionary to Africa, received a letter saying, “Have you found a good road to where you are? If so, we want to know how to send other men to join you.”

Livingstone replied, “If you have men who will come only if there is a good road, I do not want them. I want those who will come if there is no road at all.”

Source: The Speaker’s Quote Book, Roy B. Zuck

“Do not think that any work God gives you to do in the world is on too small a scale for you to do it.”—T. DeWitt Talmage

“I have seen, at different times, the smoke of a thousand villages—villages whose people are without Christ, without God, and without hope in the world.”—Robert Moffat

“I have but one passion—it is He, it is He alone. The world is the field and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ.”—Count Zinzindorf

Ariana came with her missionary parents to visit family in the United States. During their stateside assignment away from Brazil, someone asked Ariana if she wanted to be a missionary when she grew up. The 5-year-old stated, “I’m a missionary now. I want to be something else when I grow up!”

Source: Mature Living

After witnessing to a band of people that had murdered some foreigners, David Livingstone wrote: “I had more than ordinary pleasure in telling these murderers of the precious blood which cleanseth from all sin. I bless God that He has conferred on one so worthless the distinguished privilege and honour of being the first messenger of mercy that ever trod these regions.”

Source: The Personal Life of David Livingstone, William Garden Blaikie

When Adoniram Judson was lying in a jail in Burma with thirty-two pounds of chains on his ankles which were tied to a bamboo pole, another prisoner asked, “Dr. Judson, what about the prospect of the conversion of the heathen?”

Judson replied, “The prospects are just as bright as the promises of God.”

Source: The Foreign Missionary, Arthur Judson Brown