Old missionary biographies can be simultaneously the most uplifting and the most terrifying reads. One of most dramatic is John Paton’s, who died on this day in 1907.
Constantly in danger
Paton’s half-year journey to Tanna Island (in present day Vanuatu) started a fortnight after his wedding. Three months after arrival, and just days after the birth of their first child, both his wife and the child died. Paton buried them with his own hands, and his memoir speaks about the pain he felt as he struggled on for the next four years, until the population of the island drove him away. Among his many near-death experiences, perhaps the most dramatic was the four hours he worked while being followed by a man pointing a loaded gun to his head. Paton’s response? ‘Looking up in unceasing prayer to our dear Lord Jesus, I left all in his hands, and felt immortal till my work was done.’
Two decades earlier, the first two Christian missionaries to the islands had been killed and cannibalised minutes after their arrival. People told Paton he was a fool, many because he went to the islands and at least one because he left: ‘It would have been to your honour, and better for the cause of the Mission, had you been killed at the post of duty.’
Paton inspired many mission workers in his time away and returned to the islands – to an island called Aniwa – with his second wife. The trials didn’t go away – he lost four more children in early childhood and he was often sick and threatened – but after 41 years work, every adult on the island professed faith.
A cloud of witnesses
By the time he died, there were missionaries on 25 out of 30 of the islands of Vanuatu. Vanuatu today is estimated to be 90% Christian. The translation of the New Testament he worked on is still in use. The work Paton was doing is far from finished. Vanuatu has the highest language density in the world, with an average of 2,000 people speaking each language. People have lived and died to bring them the gospel, but many are still waiting for it in their own languages.
In this video from Wycliffe Australia, local colleagues explain how much workers are still needed in Vanuatu:
The same challenge that faced Paton, to die to self and live to Christ, is ours. Find out more about being a modern-day missionary and other ways to be involved.