World Missions History Month by Month
A Significant World Missions Event in Each Month of the Year
It's not easy to decide which world missions event to feature for each month of the year. After all, there are two thousand years of happenings to choose from! So, think of these 12 events as "significant" rather than "most important."
January
- January 20, 1870 — Clara Swain, the first female missionary medical doctor, arrived at Bareilly, India. (more January events)
February
- February 4, 1786 — John Marrant, a free black from New York City, preached from 2 Corinthians to "a great number of Indians and white people" at Green's Harbor, Newfoundland. Marrant's cross-cultural ministry would lead him to take the gospel to the Cherokee, Creek, Catawba, and Housaw tribes. (more February events)
March
- March 11, 1812 — Fire engulfed missionary William Carey's print shop in Serampore, India. The fire destroyed a massive polyglot dictionary Carey had compiled, grammar books he had written for two Indian languages, his sets of type for 14 Asian languages, and whole versions of the Bible he had translated. Undaunted, Carey said, "The loss is heavy, but as traveling a road the second time is usually done with greater ease and certainty than the first time, so I trust the work will lose nothing of real value . . . We are cast down but not in despair." News of the fire touched hearts in England, bringing in funds and volunteer labor. (more March events)
April
- April 17, 1937 — As Mussolini's troops occupied Ethiopia, missionaries from Sudan Interior Mission were forced to leave. Upon returning in 1943, they found that the church had grown from 48 to 18,000 members despite persecution.
May
- May 25, 1892 — Isaac Stringer answered a call to work among the Inuit of the Mackenzie Delta region. His two-month trip from Toronto to Fort McPherson involved various modes of transportation. He left by railroad on May 16 and by May 25 had reached Edmonton, where the railroad ended. From there, he faced 2,000 more miles of trails and streams. Before leaving Edmonton, Stringer purchased a year's worth of supplies and sent final telegrams to family and friends.
June
- June 24, 1809 — William Carey completed translating the Bible into Bengali. Carey, a Briton, is often called "the father of the modern missionary movement."
July
- July 1, 1871 — Many Torres Strait Islanders (Australia) commemorate this day as the Coming of the Light Festival. Missionaries of the London Missionary Society arrived in the Torres Strait and landed on Erub Island.
August
- August 27, 1727 — A band of 600 Moravians in Herrnhut (Saxony, Germany) launched what became known as the hundred-year prayer meeting: a round-the-clock prayer chain that lasted a century. Within 65 years, they had sent out 300 foreign missionaries!
September
- September 19, 1882 — The Salvation Army "invaded" India. Authorities feared riots and mass unrest, so Mumbai police lined up quayside at Apollo Bunder for the "army’s" arrival. When only four Salvation Army officers stepped ashore, the police superintendent asked, "When will the rest of your army land?" Major Frederick de Lautour Tucker replied, "We are the whole Army."
October
- October 15, 1932 — A small party of supporters gathered in Liverpool, England, to send Gladys Aylward, a 28-year-old parlormaid, off on a dangerous missionary trip to China. Though turned down by a mission agency, she became one of the most remarkable single-woman missionaries in modern history. Her dramatic rescue of a hundred orphans is told in the movie The Inn of the Sixth Happiness. (more on Aylward)
November
- November 5, 1858 — John and Mary Paton landed on the island of Tanna in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu). Warned he might be eaten by cannibals, John Paton said, "If I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether my body is eaten by cannibals or by worms."
December
- December 29, 1745 -- David Brainerd, missionary to Native American Indians, wrote in his journal: "After public worship was over, I went to my house, proposing to preach again after a short season of intermission. But they soon came in one after another, with tears in their eyes, to know what they should do to be saved. . . . It was an amazing season of power among them, and seemed as if God had bowed the heavens and come down... and that God was about to convert the whole world."
Representative Missionary Martyrs
January
- January 8, 1956 — Five American missionaries were killed in Ecuador by the Waorani tribe (earlier called "Auca") whom they were trying to reach.
February
- February 5, 1597 — Twenty-six Japanese Christians were crucified for their faith by General Toyotomi Hideyoshi in Nagasaki, Japan. By 1640, thousands of Japanese Christians had been martyred.
March
- March 24, 1927 — Chinese Communists seized Nanking, killing missionary John E. Williams. A little more than twenty years later the Communists took control of the whole country and banned Christianity.
April
- April 8, 1901 — After nearly 30 years of church planting in New Guinea, Presbyterian missionary James Chalmers and missionary Oliver Tomkins were killed and cannibalized.
May
- May 20, 1862 — Presbyterian missionaries George and Ellen Gordon, serving on the island of Erromanga (now Vanuatu), were murdered by natives who mistook them for slave traders.
June
- June 7, 2002 — American missionary Martin Burnham and a Filipino nurse were killed during a rescue raid after being held hostage in the jungle for over a year. Burnham's wife Gracie was freed but wounded.
July
- July 13, 1968 — Wycliffe missionary Henry F. Blood died in Viet Cong captivity five months after his capture during the January Tet Offensive. Though he made only one convert in nine years, that convert, Tang, later led many Vietnamese to Christ.
August
- August 6, 1942 — English missionary Vivian Redlich was beheaded by the Japanese in Papua New Guinea. He chose to remain at his post despite the invasion.
September
- September 17, 1597 — In an uprising against Spanish rule, Guale Indian leader Juanillo killed Spanish missionaries Miguel de Aunon and Antonio de Badajoz on St. Catherine's Island, Georgia, ignoring warnings of an insurrection.
October
- October 9, 258 — During persecution under Emperor Decius, missionary Denis and two other church leaders were arrested and beheaded in what is now Paris, France. Their bodies were thrown into the Seine River.
November
- November 29, 1847 — Missionary physician Marcus Whitman, his wife, and 12 others were killed by Native Americans in Washington's Walla Walla Valley. The Whitmans unknowingly spread measles to the local people, who died in large numbers and blamed the missionaries.
December
- December 8, 1934 — American missionaries John and Betty Stam were beheaded by Chinese Communists. Their story inspired hundreds to volunteer for missionary service.
— compiled by Howard Culbertson, hculbert@snu.edu
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