Participants:
Series Code: ASIC
Program Code: ASIC190013S
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00:20 Good afternoon again, ASI family,
00:22 it's good to be here with you. 00:24 Thank you for your coming this weekend 00:28 to be a part of our ASI program. 00:30 You've been a blessing to us. 00:31 We hope it's been a blessing to you. 00:34 This afternoon as our theme throughout this weekend 00:39 has been Business Unusual. 00:41 We're talking about sacrifice unusual this afternoon. 00:46 You know, I'm wondering today 00:48 if we in our generation 00:50 really understand the concept of sacrifice. 00:54 Most of us live in a world 00:56 where we expect 00:58 or maybe even demand that our lives be lived 01:04 pain free, stress free, and sacrifice free if possible. 01:10 You know, it's a little bit of a different story though, 01:14 Jesus Himself said this in Matthew 16:24, 01:19 He said, "If any man would come after Me, 01:23 let him deny himself, 01:26 take up his cross and follow Me." 01:29 And Ellen White comments 01:30 on this in the book Acts of the Apostles, 01:33 where she says, 01:34 "Self denial and sacrifice 01:37 will mark the Christian's life." 01:42 Are those ideas just remnants of our past? 01:46 Or are they a reality that should apply to us 01:51 today still here in 2019? 01:55 Today's program 01:58 we'll focus on telling stories 02:03 of people who have lived their lives 02:06 in total abandon for the gospel. 02:09 These pioneers of our church willingly gave their all 02:14 and allowed God to use them to advance mission. 02:20 As Dr. Trim told us this morning, 02:22 as we were kind of enjoying this program. 02:26 Many of these people are unknown to us. 02:29 We don't know their names. 02:30 They're not recorded in books 02:33 that we regularly read. 02:36 But I believe today if that you will, 02:38 if you will listen, 02:41 you will be challenged. 02:45 God is still looking today for people 02:47 who are willing to step out 02:49 and advance mission 02:51 even if it requires sacrifice. 02:57 Dr. David Trim will be sharing with us today. 03:02 He was born in Bombay, India to missionary parents, 03:07 and spent his childhood in Sydney, Australia. 03:11 Educated in Australia and England, 03:14 he earned a BA in history from Newbold College 03:18 and a PhD in history from King's College in London. 03:23 Trim was on the faculty of Newbold College for a decade 03:26 and held the Walter C. Utt Chair 03:28 of History at Pacific Union College. 03:32 He currently serves as Director of the Office of archives, 03:36 statistics and research 03:39 and has been serving there since 2010. 03:44 So this afternoon, as we listen to these stories, 03:47 as we hear the passion of the lives of these people 03:51 who serve before us, 03:53 may we be inspired 03:56 to follow in their footsteps. 04:00 After our special music, Dr. Trim will be presenting. 04:35 Darkness around me 04:41 Sorrow surrounds me 04:46 Though there be trials 04:51 Still I can sing 04:58 For I have this treasure 05:04 My God reigns within me 05:09 And I am determined 05:14 To live for the King 05:22 I am determined 05:27 To be invincible 05:32 'Til He has finished 05:37 His purpose in me 05:44 And nothing shall shake me 05:49 For He'll never forsake me 05:54 And I am determined 05:59 To live for the King 06:08 This is the best part of the song right here. 06:10 Listen to these words. 06:12 Hell's gates are trembling 06:16 From our prayers ascending 06:21 Darkness is crumbling 06:26 From praises we sing 06:32 Our Sovereign victorious 06:38 Is marching before us 06:42 And we are determined 06:47 To live for the King 06:54 I am determined 06:59 To be invincible 07:04 'Til He has finished 07:08 His purpose in me 07:15 And nothing shall shake me 07:20 For He'll never forsake me 07:24 And I am determined 07:29 To live for the King 07:36 When I am weary 07:40 I'll look to His face 07:44 And when I am tempted 07:49 I'll trust in His grace 07:54 Yes, I'll trust in His grace 08:03 I am determined 08:08 To be invincible 08:13 'Til He has finished 08:17 His purpose in me 08:24 And nothing shall shake me 08:29 For He'll never forsake me 08:33 And I am determined 08:38 I am determined 08:43 I am determined 08:48 To live for my 08:56 King 09:13 Thank you. 09:14 Thank you for that beautiful item. 09:16 Good afternoon, friends. 09:18 It's great privilege for me to be with you this afternoon. 09:22 And I thank Steve Dickman 09:24 and the committee for inviting me to speak to you 09:27 and to share from our history. 09:31 But first, a word of Scripture from the Apostle Paul's 09:36 epistle to the Romans 12:1-2. 09:43 "Therefore, I beseech you, brothers and sisters, 09:47 in view of God's mercy, 09:49 to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, 09:53 holy and acceptable to God. 09:56 This is your true and proper service. 10:02 And do not be conformed to this world, 10:05 but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, 10:09 that you may test and prove 10:12 what the will of God is, His good, 10:15 pleasing and perfect will." 10:19 This is the word of the Lord. 10:25 On November 3 in 1920, 10:29 a young missionary called 10:31 Eva May Clements died in Rangoon, 10:35 the capital city of Burma today, 10:37 Yangon in Myanmar. 10:40 We know little of Eva's life 10:42 and there is no known photograph of her. 10:45 She had been born on July 25 1897, 10:49 near Bundaberg on the northern coast 10:51 of Queensland, Australia. 10:54 We know nothing more about her until September 1914, 10:58 when at the age of 17, 11:01 Eva took a position in the headquarters 11:03 of the Australasian Union Conference 11:06 in Sydney, Australia. 11:07 She worked there for more than five years as a stenographer. 11:11 The term we used to use in the church, it means a sec, 11:15 a secretary essentially. 11:17 She made a good impression. 11:19 When people remembered her later, 11:21 the term they would use to describe her 11:23 was regularly devoted to her work 11:26 and devoted to the Adventist Church. 11:30 In January 1920, the Southern Asia division 11:33 called for a stenographer to serve 11:36 at the division headquarters in Lucknow, India. 11:38 Today, of course, we probably wouldn't call 11:41 an administrative assistant as a missionary, 11:43 but when there's almost no members in the country, 11:47 you have to call everyone 11:49 who's going to work for the church. 11:51 Australian church leaders pass that call 11:54 for a stenographer on to Eva and she accepted. 11:58 On March 3, 1920, Eva May Clements sailed 12:02 from Sydney on the P&O steamer Ventura 12:05 which you see on the screen. 12:07 Having landed in what today is Mumbai. 12:11 She then took the train 12:12 for an 880 mile journey to Lucknow, 12:15 where she arrived safely on March 29, 1920. 12:20 She was assigned to assist the division president 12:23 John E. Fulton. 12:25 And Eva knew Fulton and his wife Susan 12:29 from Fulton's time as president of the Australasian Union. 12:34 Eva seems to have settled well into life in Lucknow. 12:38 According to her obituary, 12:39 she entered heartily into her work at the Lucknow office 12:43 and much enjoyed life. 12:45 She was popular among her new colleagues, 12:47 thanks to a bright disposition and spirit of helpfulness. 12:51 A former colleague in Sydney recalled that 12:53 in her letters that she wrote home, 12:56 she had no complaints to make concerning the climate 12:58 or culture in India. 13:00 And, in fact, in one such letter, 13:02 Eva wrote, "I want to tell you, 13:05 I'm glad I came to India." 13:09 She'd been there for less than five months 13:10 when around August 31, 13:12 she left with Susan Fulton on an itinerary to Burma, 13:16 intending to rendezvous in Rangoon with Elder Fulton, 13:20 who was then in Southern India. 13:22 Susan and Eva traveled first by rail to Kolkata. 13:25 Remember that, we'll come back to it later. 13:28 From Kolkata they traveled by ship 13:31 and small boat to Kamamaung, 13:33 a remote mission station in South East Burma. 13:38 And there they stayed for nearly three weeks 13:41 with the Fulton's daughter Agnes 13:43 and her husband Eric B. Hare, 13:45 and you can see them 13:47 on the screen on their wedding day. 13:50 The name Eric B. Hare will be known to many of you, 13:52 I suspect, because he later became 13:55 a legendary teller of tales from the mission field. 13:59 At Kamamaung they were nearly 80 miles 14:02 from the nearest European. 14:04 And I would guess that even now felt here 14:07 deep in the jungle remote, 14:08 I'm really getting into the mission field. 14:13 She and Susan Fulton enjoyed their time there, 14:16 but Eva suffered from an unknown fever. 14:20 Still it seemed to pass and in October, 14:22 they moved on to Rangoon, 14:24 where Elder Fulton had a series of meetings 14:26 culminating in a 10 day 14:28 general meeting of the Burma Union Mission, 14:30 effectively a mission session, a union session. 14:34 So in early October, Eva was kept busy 14:37 with Fulton's correspondences 14:38 as he tried to keep up with the business 14:40 of the division on the road. 14:41 Later in the month, 14:43 she spent time writing programs 14:44 and copying budgets for the Burma Union session. 14:48 She kept up this work, Susan Fulton wrote, 14:52 almost to the day she went to the hospital. 14:55 For unfortunately, Eva had developed appendicitis 14:59 and had to be admitted to Rangoon General Hospital. 15:02 On the penultimate morning of the Union session, 15:05 a Sabbath as it happened. 15:07 October 30, her appendix 15:09 was removed without complications. 15:12 Now, Rangoon General Hospital was a modern institution. 15:16 She ought to have recovered, 15:18 but the fever she had contracted 15:20 in Kamamaung in September had greatly weakened her. 15:25 When the Fultons visited Eva in hospital, 15:27 they noted that though she was quite cheerful, 15:30 she was anxious that 15:32 her illness might terminate fatally, 15:36 and sadly her fear was justified. 15:38 On the night of the 31st, she slipped into a coma. 15:41 She never regained consciousness. 15:44 In the early morning of November 3, 1920, 15:46 she passed away. 15:48 Without the strain and sickness of missionary service, 15:52 Eva would almost certainly have successfully recuperated 15:56 from a relatively routine surgery. 15:58 As Susan Fulton wrote, 16:01 "Her term of service in India was short indeed." 16:06 Full of grief she wrote too, 16:07 "We cannot understand 16:08 why one so young, so useful, so eager to serve, 16:13 and so greatly needed in the mission field 16:15 should be so suddenly taken away." 16:20 Eva May Clements was just 23 years old. 16:24 She had spent just seven months in the mission field. 16:27 In fact, from the time her call was voted 16:31 by the General Conference Executive Committee, 16:34 to the time she was buried was a mere 10 months. 16:41 Some of you, I am going to guess 16:44 are wondering why am I telling you this story 16:46 of an unknown and apparently unimportant 16:49 young woman? 16:51 Partly it is precisely because Eva seems so inconsequential, 16:56 she is not alone in being forgotten. 16:59 Friends, too often we tell 17:01 just the same few stories from our past 17:06 and we ignore dedicated men and women 17:08 who literally took their lives in their hands, 17:12 but could do so because they had put 17:14 their lives in the hands of the Holy Spirit. 17:18 And yet most of them are moldering in their graves 17:21 in obscurity and Adventist today 17:22 know nothing of them. 17:26 Another reason to telling you 17:27 about Eva May Clements is that though 17:29 she disappeared from history for nearly 100 years, 17:32 some parts of her story can be recovered. 17:36 We know little of what she thought or felt. 17:39 But at least we're able to piece together 17:41 a timeline for the last year of her life, 17:44 if not much earlier. 17:46 And we can do that to a degree impossible 17:48 for many other missionaries 17:50 and there were many, many Adventist missionaries 17:53 who died in the mission field. 17:56 Sometimes, all we know of them 17:59 is the date that they died. 18:03 Eva stands for them. 18:05 Her experiences remind us that every missionary had a story. 18:11 No matter how anonymous they were in death, 18:14 they were wives and daughters, 18:16 sons and husbands, beloved in life, 18:20 lamented in death. 18:25 And I'm also telling you this story 18:27 because Eva's fate was not uncommon. 18:30 And I don't just mean in dying in the mission field. 18:33 Eva story is so tragic partly 18:36 because her passing seems so pointless. 18:39 It seems almost meaningless. 18:42 She perished prematurely, 18:44 having never accomplished great deeds for Jesus 18:47 because she never had the chance to. 18:49 She was cut down in the prime of life. 18:53 And yet that was because 18:55 she was willing to give her life 18:58 in order that others might have eternal life. 19:03 And in that willingness to serve, 19:05 in her willingness to die, 19:07 her life was not meaningless, 19:10 not in the eyes of her Heavenly Father. 19:13 And yet many other missionaries died 19:15 having only had limited opportunities 19:17 to make an impact. 19:19 Friends, today we often have to romantic view 19:22 of missionary service. 19:24 In 1902, William Spicer, 19:26 then secretary of the Foreign Mission Board, 19:28 set things out starkly but clearly. 19:30 "Those who go into the fields" 19:32 he wrote, "must be ready to lay down their lives, 19:37 and at the least must be ready to lay everything 19:40 they have in the world upon the altar of service." 19:44 Spicer knew what he was talking about. 19:46 He had suddenly and unexpectedly 19:48 become superintendent of the India mission 19:51 when his predecessor Doris Robinson was struck down 19:54 with smallpox, a death that Spicer 19:58 witnessed at his bedside. 20:00 All missionaries, not just Adventists 20:02 had to be ready to lay down their lives. 20:05 In 1900, there were 17,400 20:09 Protestant missionaries worldwide. 20:11 More than 92% of them from Western countries. 20:17 Only one in six was working in Africa, 20:20 because at this stage as one historian writes, 20:22 "There were still no answers to the killer diseases, 20:25 malaria and sleeping sickness, 20:27 and we can add blackwater fever, 20:28 yellow fever. 20:30 In West Africa, for example, 20:32 the casualty rate among Western missionaries 20:34 was so high that in the late 19th century, 20:37 they were expected to live just two years. 20:42 And this poor life expectancy 20:43 was true of Adventist missionaries. 20:46 Often they quickly succumbed to 20:49 and they frequently died off a range of tropical illnesses, 20:53 various fevers and infectious diseases, 20:56 of course the two year average implies 20:59 both shorter and longer spans, 21:02 but all clustering around the two year mark. 21:05 And I'm going to give you a number of actual examples, 21:09 and I could if time allowed had many more. 21:11 Either Clements was far from unique 21:14 in the short period she served before dying. 21:17 The brief snippets of missionary lives 21:20 I'll share with you. 21:22 Lives cut short remind us of the cost of service. 21:28 They also remind us though of the cost 21:30 of building up this church 21:32 that we know and love today. 21:34 When the Seventh-day Adventist Church 21:36 was established 156 years ago, 21:40 there were only around 3,500 members 21:43 found only in the Northeast 21:45 and Midwest of the United States 21:47 and a handful in Canada. 21:49 Now its members are found all around the world. 21:54 We too easily take that outcome for granted. 21:58 It was achieved by God's blessing, 22:00 of course, but it was also achieved 22:02 by commitment and sacrifice to a degree that today is rare. 22:07 Past generations of Adventist willingly undertook 22:11 what the Apostle Paul called the Christian's 22:14 proper service to God, 22:17 presenting their bodies as living sacrifices. 22:22 This afternoon, I'm going to be telling the stories 22:24 of some martyrs of Adventist mission. 22:26 Stories come from a book that I've just published 22:29 with Pacific Press called A Living Sacrifice. 22:32 As I wrote it, I have to tell you, truly, 22:35 I was humbled and deeply moved 22:39 by what I found in the sources. 22:41 And I truly feel privileged 22:43 to share these stories with you today. 22:46 I hope that you will find them inspiring 22:49 and that you will want to share them in turn. 22:52 And if so, the book includes 22:54 most of the stories you'll hear, 22:56 as well as many others. 22:57 And so I hope it can be a valuable resource. 23:00 But one reason these stories are inspiring 23:05 is because so many of these missionaries 23:07 were young. 23:09 Many women, many were committed laypeople, 23:13 and some were self supporting rather than 23:15 on the church's payroll, 23:16 but all were willing to pay the ultimate price. 23:21 We still need that willingness, that spirit of sacrifice today. 23:25 As much as this church has grown, 23:27 there are still areas where the Adventist presence 23:30 is minimal and tenuous. 23:33 And so we continue to need missionaries today 23:35 and the people who support them. 23:37 The story of Eva Clements 23:39 and other forgotten heroes of this church, 23:42 the church for which they gave their lives. 23:46 These stories have the power to move us. 23:50 I believe they can inspire young and old 23:52 to recommit to the prophetic mission 23:56 of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. 24:01 On October 3,1895, a party 24:04 of American missionaries disembarked 24:07 at the port of Cape Coast, 24:09 which you see here in what was then 24:12 called the Gold Coast, 24:13 a British colony in West Africa, today Ghana. 24:17 They were not the first Seventh-day Adventists 24:19 in West Africa. 24:20 They actually joined the body of local believers 24:22 led by a man called Francis Dolphijn, 24:25 who had been convicted of the seventh day Sabbath 24:27 by reading Adventist literature. 24:29 And he wrote several times 24:30 to the General Conference saying, 24:32 "Please send us missionaries." 24:34 And in response eventually came a team 24:37 led by Elder Dudley U. Hale who you see on the screen. 24:42 Hale was accompanied by three other missionaries 24:46 of whom we know little, G. P. Riggs, a colporteur, 24:51 two nurses George and Eva Kerr, 24:53 along with the Kerr's two children. 24:56 The photograph that you'll see on the screen 24:58 now shows Hale, 25:00 the Kerr's and Francis Dolphijn, 25:03 he's the man standing in the middle at the back. 25:07 There's no known photo of Riggs. 25:10 Things didn't go well. 25:12 Twenty days had not passed after their arrival 25:16 before Elder Hale was stricken with the blackwater fever. 25:20 He recovered but by mid 1896, within eight months 25:24 of their arrival at Cape Coast, 25:27 both of Kerr's children had died. 25:30 Riggs was sent to Liverpool in England 25:32 suffering from dysentery, 25:35 but despite treatment Riggs never recovered, 25:37 and he died on January 8, 1897. 25:40 From his arrival at Cape Coast to his death in Liverpool 25:45 was just 15 months. 25:48 And by the spring of 1897, George and Eva Kerr 25:51 had suffered repeatedly from blackwater fever. 25:54 And on April 16, they two sailed for England, 25:57 having served for 18 months. 26:00 Hale trying to carry on. 26:02 He wrote, "For lonely, 26:03 I am left alone with the work here." 26:06 Well, in fact he had Dolphijn and other local believers, 26:08 but he was suffering chronic, severe malaria. 26:12 On June 3, 1897, he sailed for England. 26:16 Hale had been a missionary for 21 months. 26:20 Three of the original party had perished 26:22 and none had lasted even two years. 26:27 Meanwhile, on July 5, 1894, 26:30 a party of seven Seventh-day Adventists 26:32 had arrived in Bulawayo, 26:34 the new capital of the newest part 26:37 of the British Empire, Rhodesia, 26:39 which spanned what today modern 26:41 Zambia and Zimbabwe. 26:42 The Adventist established a mission station at Solusi 26:46 in present day Zimbabwe. 26:48 Most of them returned soon after to South Africa leaving 26:52 a South African layman Fred Sparrow 26:54 in charge of the property which today, 26:56 of course, is Solusi University. 26:58 You saw the picture before. 27:01 In July 1895, a second party of missionaries 27:04 arrived and they stayed. 27:07 They included Elder George B. Tripp, 27:10 who became the first superintendent 27:11 of the Solusi Mission, 27:13 and his wife Mary and his son George Jr. 27:17 George Sr.'s first wife had died 27:19 and he had married, only married in March, 27:22 and then immediately departed America 27:24 for South Africa. 27:25 And as we'll see 27:27 many missionaries married right before 27:28 they left for Foreign Service. 27:30 Other missionaries in the 1895 party 27:32 included Elder William H. Anderson, 27:35 known by his middle name of Harry, 27:38 he was only 25 and his wife Nora 27:41 who you see in the photo was younger, 27:43 though the photo was taken later. 27:45 They were also Dr. A.S. Carmichael 27:47 and Fred Sparrow's brother Chris 27:49 and his wife Mahalo. 27:52 They helped to manage the mission farm, 27:54 they were lay people. 27:55 And you can see Chris in this picture 27:58 is shown with some of the local farm laborers 28:01 in their families. 28:03 In 1897 Frank Armitage, another American missionary 28:06 joined the group at Solusi along with his wife Annie, 28:09 and their 10 year old daughter Violet. 28:13 They would serve as missionaries 28:14 less than 12 months because in 1898, 28:18 as Harry Anderson wrote to church leaders, 28:20 "An epidemic, almost a plague of malaria 28:24 swept across Rhodesia, and Solusi was not spared." 28:28 Dr. Carmichael contracted the disease on February 14, 28:31 two weeks later he died. 28:34 Elder Tripp conducted the funeral, 28:36 and the next day he collapsed. 28:38 On March 7, he died and was buried. 28:42 You see, his grave, his tomb here. 28:45 He had served at the mission just three years. 28:47 On the same day, March 7, Chris Sparrow's young daughter, 28:51 whose name we don't even know died. 28:53 Her mother Mahalo was sick, 28:55 but she survived for the moment, 28:57 but later she was laid to rest 28:59 by the side of her daughter in the cemetery at Solusi. 29:03 And on April 8, 1898, George Tripp Jr. died 29:08 and was buried next to his father. 29:13 Nora Anderson, the widowed married Tripp 29:16 and the three members of the Armitage family 29:18 were all suffering badly. 29:20 And so they were all sent by train to Cape Town. 29:23 But Annie Armitage never reached there. 29:26 She died and was buried 29:27 by the railway track along the way. 29:31 Now Harry and Nora Anderson were reunited at Solusi 29:34 and they raised a daughter there called Naomi, 29:36 but Solusi cemetery still bears silent witness 29:42 to the mortality rate of mission in Matabeleland. 29:47 Many missionaries are buried there. 29:52 But there are other graveyards that testify enduringly 29:55 to the high cost of proclaiming 29:57 the everlasting gospel to every nation, tribe, 30:01 tongue and people. 30:02 In June 1903, Joseph Watson arrived 30:06 in Malamulo Mission station in Malawi then, 30:09 what was called British Central Africa. 30:12 Now, Thomas Branch had only established 30:14 the Adventist Mission in Malamulo the year before. 30:17 So Watson was one of 30:19 the first Adventist missionaries 30:20 to serve there. 30:21 His family farmed outside the small town of Banbridge 30:25 in the north of Ireland. 30:27 Joseph and several other family members 30:29 had been converted in 1898 when Joseph was 36. 30:33 And by 1900, he decided to volunteer 30:35 for mission service. 30:37 He wasn't a pastor. 30:39 His job was to run the mission farm. 30:43 Sadly, Joseph contracted cerebral malaria, 30:46 and he died on December 11, 1903. 30:49 His grave is at Malamulo, you see it there. 30:53 He had only served as a missionary for six months. 30:58 On February 20, 1904, 31:02 Christian Wunderlich, 31:04 a layman in his 50's sailed from Hamburg 31:07 for Dar es Salaam 31:08 to join the recently founded mission 31:10 in German East Africa, today part of Tanzania. 31:14 Like Watson, Wunderlich was a layman too. 31:17 His job was to help with construction 31:20 of the mission buildings and he also managed 31:22 a steam traction engine. 31:24 But in 1905, he and two other missionaries 31:27 became seriously ill and were sent back to Germany. 31:30 Despite being treated at Friedensau seminary 31:33 for two weeks, Friedensau sanitarium, 31:36 I should say for two weeks, 31:38 Christian passed away on October 31, 1905. 31:43 He was buried in the cemetery at Friedensau, 31:45 you see his tomb, 31:47 and there he awaits the resurrection. 31:49 The president of the German Union 31:50 wrote that his modest tombstone 31:53 was placed where students would see it. 31:56 It's Friedensau's side of the seminary. 32:00 A place where students would see it 32:02 and be reminded of the spirit 32:04 that it takes to build up missions. 32:07 Christian Wunderlich had spent less than two years in Africa. 32:11 But meanwhile, starting from around 32:13 1905 Adventist mission in West Africa 32:16 finally started to make headway. 32:19 Three years later, Thomas and Catherine French, 32:23 both teachers accepted a call to work 32:25 in education in Sierra Leone, arriving there in May 1908. 32:30 Thomas was 25, Catherine was just 21. 32:35 Both suffered from malaria in Sierra Leone, 32:37 but both survived. 32:39 But after two and a half years, 32:40 they were moved to the Gold Coast 32:43 and to the mission station of Axim. 32:46 They've been there only a few days 32:47 when on January 17, 1911, 32:49 Catherine was taken ill with a severe attack 32:52 of blackwater fever. 32:54 This is how Thomas described it in her obituary. 32:58 She lived only one more day, 33:00 dying of heart failure on January 18, 1911 33:03 at the age of 24. 33:06 In writing of Catherine's passing, 33:08 Thomas articulates the bewilderment, 33:10 the distress and yet the determination, 33:13 typical of many Adventist missionaries in this period. 33:16 He wrote, "As I stood beside 33:18 my dying companion a few years ago, 33:21 and realized that my own strength 33:23 was fast failing, in my perplexity, 33:27 my mind turned to my brethren 33:29 and sisters at home, 33:30 who have so nobly supported this 33:32 cause by their prayers and by their means, 33:35 and the question came forcibly to me, 33:39 'What can this crisis mean?' 33:42 We appeal to our people at home to support 33:45 the languishing hands of our workers 33:47 in these heathen strongholds. 33:49 Brethren and sisters, seek God earnestly in behalf 33:53 of his cause in West Africa.'" 33:56 Thomas was exhausted mentally, 33:57 spiritually and physically, 33:59 and in February he was sent home 34:01 to regain his health. 34:02 He and Catherine were replaced in Axim 34:05 by two lay missionaries, C.E.F. Thompson 34:09 and his wife whose name we don't know. 34:13 We know little of Thompson, but he was Jamaican, 34:16 well educated, a skillful writer, 34:19 and his studio photograph shows 34:21 he was a very stylish dresser. 34:26 The Thompsons had served in Sierra Leone in 1908, 34:29 and then the Gold Coast colony in 1909. 34:32 Although Thompson was not ordained, 34:35 he was a successful soul winner. 34:38 The rare photograph you're about to see 34:40 on your screen shows members of the Nsymba Church 34:44 with David Babcock, 34:46 the West African Mission superintendent, 34:48 and Thompson who I have highlighted. 34:54 And, you know, we have many photographs 34:56 in the archives of white men 34:59 sitting in the middle of a group 35:01 of African's islanders, 35:04 they're very redolent of an age of imperialism. 35:07 It's nice to have a photograph, 35:09 in which there's a dark skinned man 35:12 sitting in the center as well. 35:16 In March 1911, he and his wife 35:18 replaced the Frenches in Axim, 35:20 but Thompson contracted Bright's disease. 35:23 He eventually left Ghana to seek treatment 35:26 for his failing kidneys, 35:27 but he stayed too long, he left it too late. 35:31 And after having served in West Africa 35:33 for fewer than four years, C.E.F Thompson died 35:36 in Freetown on March 25, 1912. 35:41 Less than two weeks later, Charles Lindsay Bowen, 35:44 known as Lynn, who was age 31. 35:46 His wife Ida, who was four years older, 35:49 and their daughter Ethel, 35:50 who was six sailed for South Africa. 35:52 They took up station at Tsungwesi Mission 35:54 in what was then Rhodesia, today Zimbabwe, 35:57 though it's 400 miles east of Solusi. 36:00 The photograph here that you'll see shows Lynn 36:03 before he left the US. 36:05 No, that's the... 36:07 There we go, thank you. 36:08 The only photos we know of Ida and Ethel 36:11 are from their passport photos 36:13 taken in 1920. 36:17 In 1913, there was an outbreak of smallpox at Tsungwesi 36:21 and Lynn contracted the disease. 36:23 Chris Sparrow brought supplies 36:25 from Solusi and he stayed to help nurse the sick. 36:29 Ida recorded, "Lynn had complications 36:33 which made it very difficult 36:35 and painful for him to breathe." 36:37 Sparrow later described Lynn's three weeks of suffering 36:40 in frankly grueling detail 36:42 and recorded his final painful prayer, 36:44 "That if it was the Lord's will for him to recover, 36:47 it might be speedily, 36:49 and if not that the Lord released him 36:51 from the agony he was in." 36:54 On June 2, 1913, Lynn Bowen passed away, age 32. 36:59 He had served at Tsungwesi just a year. 37:03 News of his passing was received the next day 37:06 at the 1913 General Conference session, 37:09 which probably seems remarkable, 37:12 but the telegram had reached Tsungwesi 37:14 and Ida had wired the GC headquarters. 37:17 Her telegram had a simple but profoundly sad message. 37:21 "My husband died yesterday at 1 pm." 37:27 It was not Africa alone 37:28 where Adventist pioneers risk death. 37:31 It was a danger too 37:32 in Central America and the Caribbean, 37:34 so close to the United States. 37:36 For example, Albert and Ina Fischer 37:39 went as missionaries to the newly acquired 37:41 American colony of Puerto Rico 37:44 to open up the work in May 1901. 37:47 You see a photograph of Ina here. 37:50 Less than six months later, Albert became seriously ill. 37:56 After 36 days during which he suffered 37:58 five severe hemorrhages, 38:01 Albert died of typhoid fever in Mayaguez on March 23, 1902. 38:06 Elder A.J Haysmer who helped to nurse 38:08 Albert on his deathbed hinted the grief felt by the widow 38:12 writing back to the States that Ina who survived her fever 38:16 knows that the Lord has made no mistake, 38:19 although she cannot now see why this blow has come. 38:23 But his report dwelt on Albert. 38:26 He was afraid, Haysmer wrote that 38:29 many would think that he and his wife 38:30 had made a mistake in coming to this field. 38:33 He wished me to express his strong belief that 38:36 the Lord had sent them and that they did not regret 38:39 the movie they had taken, 38:41 but that if the Lord should call him 38:43 to rest awhile, 38:44 he was glad to be found at his post of duty. 38:48 And Haysmer concluded his report, 38:50 "Who will step in and carry on the work begun." 38:56 In 1905, Charles Enoch, a nurse in Mercer 39:00 who worked at Portland sanitarium 39:02 went with his wife, 39:03 also a nurse and their young child 39:06 to the West Indies as medical missionaries. 39:09 The Enoch family landed at Barbados in November, 1905 39:12 and open treatment rooms in Bridgetown. 39:15 But in 1906, they relocated 200 miles 39:18 to the southwest to Port of Spain, Trinidad 39:20 where Charles's brother George 39:22 had served since 1901. 39:26 The Enoch's opened a new treatment room, 39:29 but they weren't able to treat Charles himself 39:32 when he contracted yellow fever. 39:34 On February 1, 1907, 39:37 he suffered with the intense symptoms 39:40 of that virulent disease and died four days later. 39:43 He had been in Trinidad for one month 39:46 and in the Caribbean for a little over 14 months. 39:51 But he was neither the first 39:52 nor the last Adventist missionary 39:54 to die in Trinidad. 39:55 In fact, there's another missionary, 39:56 Ovid E. Davis wrote, 39:58 "This makes three of our workers 40:00 laid away in Port of Spain." 40:03 But Charles's brother George Enoch 40:05 was almost upbeat. 40:07 He used words similar to those that Haysmer 40:09 had used about Fischer. 40:11 "I am thankful" George wrote of his brother, 40:14 "that he died at his post of duty, thankful. 40:18 We have no regrets to offer, but take this bereavement 40:21 as one more link to bind our lives on the altar 40:25 of missionary endeavor." 40:27 Now, George acknowledge that 40:28 "Our hearts are bowed in sadness," 40:31 but his real concern is evident when he writes, 40:34 "still the thought presses heavily upon us, 40:37 will this branch of the work in the West Indies 40:40 which we strove together 40:41 so hard to get upon its feet, 40:44 be now left to languish 40:46 for the lack of consecrated workers?" 40:49 Friends, again and again missionaries cared 40:52 as much for the future of the work 40:55 as they cared for themselves, 40:57 or their deceased friends and family. 41:01 Later that year age just 23, Robert Price was called from 41:05 Kansas to the Watchman Publishing House in Trinidad. 41:08 Robert and his wife Betsy accepted the call. 41:11 And in September, 1907, 41:13 with their two year old son Robert Jr., 41:15 they sailed from New York to Port of Spain. 41:17 On May 26, 1908, Robert was stricken with fever. 41:22 Four doctors attended him, 41:25 but he passed this life on May 31. 41:28 Although delirious with pain for much of his last 36 hours, 41:33 he was conscious in intervals and an hour before he died, 41:37 he asked the Adventists around his bed to sing to him, 41:41 Jesus lover of my soul. 41:46 Robert Price was buried in Port of Spain, 41:50 having been a missionary in Trinidad, 41:51 not quite eight months. 41:56 Other islands far from the Caribbean 41:58 could also be dangerous places in terms of disease. 42:01 In 1897, two missionaries, 42:03 new missionaries landed on the largest island 42:06 of the Japanese Archipelago Honshu. 42:09 The first Adventist missionaries to Japan, 42:12 William Grainger, along with his wife Elizabeth 42:14 age 53 and 52 respectively. 42:18 At their age, it was courageous 42:20 to accept a call to go as missionaries to Japan. 42:23 In the photograph, you'll see in a moment, 42:25 this is a wonderful photo. 42:26 William and Elizabeth are pictured in Tokyo 42:29 with a local person 42:31 who was studying the Bible with them. 42:33 But in early October 1899, 42:35 having been in Japan for two years, 42:38 Grainger contracted an unknown fever, 42:41 and after suffering for more than three weeks, 42:43 he died on October 31, 1899. 42:48 In June 1902, two young physicians, 42:51 Alfred Martin Vollmer and Maude Otis graduated 42:55 from the American Medical Missionary College. 42:57 They're shown here in photographs 43:00 that were taken for their graduation. 43:04 The following spring Alfred accepted a call 43:06 to serve at the sanitarium in Samoa. 43:09 And perhaps the call was conditional on him 43:11 being married, 43:12 which was typical of the era because soon after, 43:15 on July 14, 1903, 43:17 the two former classmates were married. 43:20 He was 27, she was 24. 43:24 They sailed in October and arrived in Apia 43:27 in Samoa on November 12, 1903. 43:29 And in Apia almost 10 months later, 43:32 their only child, a daughter, Dorothy was born. 43:36 A colleague wrote of how Alfred loved the work in that field 43:39 and left only when compelled to on account 43:43 of his health for Alfred had contracted tuberculosis. 43:47 In October 1905, not quite two years 43:50 after arriving in Apia, 43:52 Alfred sailed for the States for treatment 43:54 and his family with him. 43:57 The colleague who I quoted a moment ago 43:59 wrote that Vollmer left with the deepest regret 44:02 but by then he was very sick. 44:04 In fact, it was thought he might die on the voyage. 44:07 But his obituary observes, 44:09 the Lord was merciful 44:10 and spared his life to reach his home. 44:14 But Alfred didn't long survive his return, 44:16 the obituary soberly records, "He suffered a great deal 44:20 in the last three weeks of his life." 44:23 Alfred Vollmer died on February 15, 1906, 44:27 eight days short of his 30th birthday. 44:30 Maude was left husbandless at the age of 27, 44:34 and Dorothy fatherless at 18 months, 44:38 the result of just 23 months of mission service. 44:44 The Vollmer's had been joined in Samoa by Sarah Mareta Young, 44:48 a Polynesian woman 44:49 who had graduated as a nurse 44:51 from Sydney Sanitarium in Australia in 1903, 44:54 and went to Samoa in May 1904. 44:57 Four months after Vollmer's death, 45:00 in mid July, 1986, Sarah died of pneumonia. 45:03 According to an Adventist physician 45:05 who worked with her, 45:06 she was loved by all who knew her. 45:08 And her last letter to friends from Samoa survives. 45:13 It was written on the first of July, 1906, 45:16 not long before her death, and the letter urged, 45:21 "May many more be found who are ready to say, 45:25 'Here am I, send me.'" 45:30 Sarah perished two years and two months 45:33 after she joined the staff of Samoa Sanitarium. 45:37 In January, 1915, 45:38 two young Australians Hubert Lenard Tolhurst, 45:41 and Pearl Philps were married, 45:43 and you can see Pearl in this picture 45:46 taken with her family eight years earlier. 45:49 You can see they had many daughters. 45:52 When they married Hubert was 25, Pearl just 24. 45:55 Both were graduates 45:56 of Australasian Missionary College, 45:58 today's Avondale. 46:00 And within weeks of their wedding, 46:01 they sailed for the Tonga archipelago. 46:05 Four years later, 46:07 the global influenza epidemic reached Tonga. 46:11 Although Hubert and Pearl 46:14 toiled long hours ministering to the sick 46:16 and stricken people, 46:18 as a colleague recorded, they succumbed themselves. 46:23 And then Pearl contracted pneumonia 46:26 and gradually grew weaker. 46:27 She died literally in Hubert's arms 46:29 on March 14, 1919, four days after her 28th birthday. 46:35 Hubert wrote Pearl's obituary 46:38 for the Australian church paper. 46:40 His anguish could not easily be articulated, 46:44 given the emotional constraints of the era. 46:49 But as with other grieving spouses, 46:51 it becomes evident in little points of detail 46:55 that would only be noted in a loved one. 46:59 It is there for example when he writes, 47:01 "She suffered much, 47:02 knowing no bodily comfort for many weeks. 47:05 And often the cough was most distressing." 47:09 He ends the obituary, 47:11 the writer had to conduct the service. 47:15 As with Ida Bowen's telegram 47:16 from Tsungwesi six years earlier, 47:19 go, terseness in the face of tragedy, 47:23 hints at depths of emotion. 47:27 Not long before Hubert and Pearl married, 47:29 another pair of Avondale graduates were wed. 47:32 In late 1914, having just graduated, 47:35 Norman Wiles volunteered to serve in the New Hebrides, 47:38 today's nation of Vanuatu. 47:41 But Norman was single, 47:42 and the Australasian Union committee 47:44 felt that a missionary ought to be married. 47:47 But the committee members could see a solution 47:49 because Norman had been friends at college 47:52 with a woman called Alva Butz, 47:54 who herself was the daughter of American missionaries 47:56 who served right across the South Pacific. 47:58 And so the Union Executive Committee suggested 48:01 that he could marry her. 48:04 Initially she wasn't happy. 48:07 But she later wrote, 48:09 "Norman never proposed in the usual way. 48:12 We simply felt that 48:13 if this was the action of the committee, 48:15 the Lord was leading and that settled the matter." 48:20 They were very happily married, I'm happy to say. 48:23 They married, in fact, on December 14, 1914, 48:26 you see them here, and in 1915, 48:28 they sailed for the Island of Action 48:31 in the New Hebrides where they were stationed 48:32 for several months. 48:33 In February, 1916 when Norman was 23, 48:36 and Alva 21. 48:38 These are astonishingly young people. 48:40 They became the only missionaries 48:42 of any church on the Island of Malekula. 48:46 The tribes living there were known as 48:48 warlike cannibals and they had murdered 48:50 and eaten both missionaries 48:53 and European traders before. 48:55 But Norman and Alva spent time 48:58 getting to know the local people, 49:00 learning their languages and making friends, 49:02 and this is evident in this wonderful photo. 49:06 It's one of my favorite Adventist photos 49:08 because I want you to... 49:09 I hope you can see. 49:12 Do you notice how relaxed they are? 49:15 These are people with whom they feel comfortable. 49:19 But by November 1917, Norman was suffering badly 49:22 from repeated attacks of malaria. 49:25 After two and a half years in the mission field, 49:27 church leaders in Australia recognize that, 49:29 "Brother and Sister Wiles had been working to the point 49:32 of breaking down their health, 49:35 and therefore they were brought home. 49:36 Norman pastored in Australia for two years, 49:39 but in January 1922 to their delight, 49:42 they returned to Malekula, January. 49:46 Less than four months later 49:48 on the 1st of May, 1920, a Sabbath, 49:51 Norman succumbed to blackwater fever. 49:54 Four days later Elva confided her anxiety 49:56 to her diary in terms that is still distressing to read. 50:01 "Hard as it all was, 50:03 my Father strengthened my faith. 50:06 Again and again I pled that if it could be 50:09 to His honor and glory, my darling might be spared. 50:14 But he gave me strength to add, 'Thy will be done.'" 50:19 On May 5, 1920 Norman Wiles 50:22 died after five days of terrible suffering. 50:26 Alva washed her husband's body, dressed it in a new shirt, 50:31 covered it in a linen shroud. 50:34 And then with the help of the local tribes people, 50:37 she buried her husband. 50:41 Norman was only 27 years old when he died. 50:44 Alva was 25 when she was widowed. 50:47 In both periods in the New Hebrides together, 50:49 they had not served three years as missionaries. 50:52 Well, we could tell stories 50:54 of China, 50:58 of Southeast Asia, of the Middle East, 51:01 but time doesn't permit. 51:03 We'll go to the Southern Asia division, 51:04 which is the home to the remains 51:06 of many Adventist missionaries. 51:08 Earlier I mentioned the death of Doris A. Robinson, 51:11 that you see on the screen, 51:13 but he didn't die alone. 51:15 Frederick W. Brown, 51:17 a nurse, his wife, Catherine, a teacher, 51:20 and their two children sailed for India on December 14, 1898. 51:24 This was the teaser I gave you this morning 51:27 when I said, "What would you do 51:28 if you were told to leave an area 51:30 because of illness." 51:31 They arrived in Calcutta on February 9, 1899, 51:34 where they joined the staff of the mission 51:37 located on Bowbazar Street, you see a group photo here. 51:43 But in the summer, Fred and Katie 51:44 was sent northwest to Ranchi, 51:46 the capital of the state of Bihar, 51:48 among the first Adventist missionaries 51:50 to work in the north of India and that part. 51:53 But in the autumn of 1899, 51:55 as smallpox epidemic broke out in Bihar, 51:58 most of the, if not all of the British 52:01 colonial officials and merchants left the region, 52:05 and they advised the Adventists, 52:07 leave until the epidemic has run its course. 52:11 But instead the Brown family remained, 52:14 and they were joined by 52:15 Robinson and his wife Edna, who you see here. 52:18 The four missionaries actually moved to Karmatar, 52:23 where there was a small Adventist school 52:24 and orphanage and where the epidemic 52:26 was raging with particular intensity. 52:29 All four worked closely with smallpox victims 52:32 and all four contracted the disease. 52:36 Edna Robinson and Katie Brown suffered 52:38 but survived, their husbands were not so fortunate. 52:42 On December 21, 1899, Fred Brown passed away, 52:46 having served as a missionary for little more than 10 months. 52:50 Eight days later, Doris Robinson passed away too 52:53 after three years in India. 52:55 Robinson's deputy William Spicer traveled up 52:58 from Calcutta and as he later wrote, 53:02 "I was with him in his last conscious hours. 53:05 I told him that if he must lay down his work, 53:08 then perhaps God would use that 53:10 to draw attention to India's needs. 53:14 He replied with his swollen lips, 53:16 'Perhaps, perhaps I hope.'" 53:21 They were his last words, spoken on December 29, 1899. 53:26 He and Frank Brown 53:28 were buried together in Karmatar 53:29 and here you see a near contemporary photograph 53:32 of their graves in the cemetery. 53:35 Twenty one years later, 53:37 of course, Eva Clements died in Rangoon. 53:42 Her death after only seven months 53:44 in the mission field ended a bad year 53:47 and a half for the Southern Asian division, 53:49 during which six church workers died. 53:53 There was another missionary in American had died in Burma, 53:56 and four American 53:58 and British missionaries died in India. 54:01 Friends, if you calculate the mortality rate 54:04 for Adventist in the Southern Asia division 54:06 in those two years, 54:08 it was two and a half times 54:09 worse than the mortality rate 54:12 for other Europeans and British in India. 54:16 Adventists were two and a half times 54:18 more likely to die. 54:21 Well, 1919 and 1920 may have been 54:24 especially bad years. 54:27 But had they? 54:28 And in fact, how dangerous was mission service? 54:32 Individual stories are often moving, 54:35 but are they indicative of wider trends? 54:37 You know, my job title includes the word statistics in it, 54:40 and I'm contractually obliged to share statistics 54:43 in every presentation I give. 54:47 So what's the trend? 54:49 To what extent are the stories 54:51 that I've been telling you typical 54:53 for Adventist missionaries? 54:55 You can see from this chart, 54:58 it shows the annual number of missionary deaths 55:01 in the mission field, 55:02 the deaths each year from 1903 through 1939 55:06 when the Second World War started. 55:08 I want to draw to your attention 55:11 that despite the death toll, 55:14 there were always enough volunteers 55:17 to replace the fallen 55:18 and indeed to add to their number. 55:21 You can see in this next chart, 55:24 that the number of new missionaries 55:26 going out always exceeded the number of deaths. 55:29 Those at the back won't be able to see too well. 55:31 The blue line shows the number of new missionaries 55:33 being sent out. 55:35 The red line shows the number of missionary deaths. 55:39 There were always more men and women, 55:42 mostly young men and women willing to go. 55:48 But at the same time, friends, 55:49 let's not understate 55:51 what they were signing up to do. 55:54 The last chart brings home powerfully 55:59 what they faced, 56:01 because this shows the death toll 56:03 calculated as deaths per 100 new missionaries. 56:08 And for those of you at the back who can't see, 56:10 I think you can see the trend. 56:11 And what you can see is that in certain years, 56:14 you're getting 12, 14, 16 56:17 of every 100 missionaries dying. 56:20 Those aren't such good odds. 56:25 If the mortality rate of Adventist missionaries 56:27 in India after World War I was bad, 56:29 the death toll of Adventist missionaries 56:31 in general up to World War II 56:33 was such that no one could be sanguine 56:36 about going as a missionary. 56:41 And yet, and yet, and yet 56:45 committed men and women still went to the mission field 56:50 and they served there if they survived, 56:52 often for decades. 56:54 In my book, 56:55 you'll find stories of missionaries 56:57 who served for 30, 40, 50 years, 57:02 in addition to the stories of missionaries who died. 57:05 And here is the astonishing thing, 57:08 the humbling thing, all the Adventists 57:13 who went as missionaries, 57:15 up to around 1940 went, 57:18 knowing that there was a very strong chance 57:22 that they would die in a foreign land. 57:24 This is what I think. 57:26 Those of us who live where the church 57:27 is strong need to commit ourselves 57:30 to contributing 57:32 in whatever way we can 57:33 to the work of the church in the areas where it is weak. 57:38 How can we contribute? 57:40 By praying, by using technology skillfully, 57:44 by giving and some of us, by going. 57:48 But the key point is, each of us has a part to play 57:52 and the contribution to make, how can we let them know. 57:58 We need each of us to recommit ourselves 58:01 right here right now to the mission 58:03 of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. 58:07 With this audience, you may think, 58:09 well, surely that's a given that you're committed. 58:11 I just want to challenge you and challenge myself, 58:14 how committed are you? 58:15 Are you willing to do whatever it takes? 58:19 That was the case with the people 58:20 whose stories we've told. 58:22 We need to recapture that Spirit, 58:25 the Spirit of selfishness, 58:28 which led many Adventists in the past, 58:31 and will require some in the future 58:34 to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice. |
Revised 2021-02-08