You Think You Have It Bad!

Sometimes we complain about our circumstances, our inconveniences, our sacrifices.  When we are reminded about the true sacrifice of missionaries that have gone before and opened the doors to fields all over the world we can put our own experience in true perspective.  The next time your internet goes down or your cellular phone doesn't have a signal think about this story.

You Will Be Eaten By Cannibals!  Lessons from the life of John G. Paton  by John Piper (an excerpt)

What Kinds of Circumstances Called for Courage in Paton's Life?

He had courage to overcome the criticism he received from respected elders for going to the New Hebrides.
A Mr. Dickson exploded, "The cannibals! You will be eaten by cannibals!" The memory of Williams and Harris on Erromanga was only 19 years old (They had been killed and eaten the same day they arrived in the New Hebrides islands). But to this Paton responded:

Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms; and in the Great Day my Resurrection body will rise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer. (p. 56)

This is the kind of in-your-face spiritual moxie that would mark Paton's whole life. It's a big part of what makes reading his story so invigorating.

He had courage to risk losing his loved ones and to press on when he did in fact lose them.
 
He and his wife arrived on the island of Tanna November 5, 1858, and Mary was pregnant. The baby was born February 12, 1859. "Our island-exile thrilled with joy! But the greatest of sorrows was treading hard upon the heels of that great joy!" (p. 79). Mary had reaped attacks of ague and fever and pneumonia and diarrhea with delirium for two weeks.

Then in a moment, altogether unexpectedly, she died on March third. To crown my sorrows, and complete my loneliness, the dear baby-boy, whom we had named after her father, Peter Robert Robson, was taken from me after one week's sickness, on the 20th of March. Let those who have ever passed through any similar darkness as of midnight feel for me; as for all others, it would be more than vain to try to paint my sorrows! (p. 79)

He dug the two graves with his own hands and buried them by the house he had built.

He had courage to risk his own sickness in a foreign land with no doctors and no escape.
 
"Fever and ague had attacked me fourteen times severely" (p. 105). In view of his wife's death he never knew when any one of these attacks would mean his own death. Imagine struggling with a life-and-death sickness over and over with only one Christian native friend named Abraham who had come with him to the island to help him.

The most common demand for courage was the almost constant threat to his life from the hostilities of the natives.
 

This is what makes his Autobiography read like a thriller. In his first four years on Tanna when he was all alone, he moved from one savage crisis to the next. One wonders how his mind kept from snapping, as he never knew when his house would be surrounded with angry natives or his party would be ambushed along the way. How do you survive when there is no kickback time? No unwinding. No sure refuge on earth. "Our continuous danger caused me now oftentimes to sleep with my clothes on, that I might start at a moment's warning. May faithful dog Clutha would give a sharp bark and awake me. . . . God made them fear this precious creature, and often used her in saving our lives" (p. 178).

My enemies seldom slackened their hateful designs against my life, however calmed or baffled for the moment. . . . A wild chief followed me around for four hours with his loaded musket, and, though often directed towards me, God restrained his hand. I spoke kindly to him, and attended to my work as if he had not been there, fully persuaded that my God had placed me there, and would protect me till my allotted task was finished. Looking up in unceasing prayer to our dear Lord Jesus, I left all in his hands, and felt immortal till my work was done. Trials and hairbreadth escapes strengthened my faith, and seemed only to nerve me for more to follow; and they did tread swiftly upon each other's heels. (p. 117)

What Did His Courage Achieve?

We have already seen one main answer to this question, namely,
The entire island of Aniwa turned to Christ.

Four years of seemingly fruitless and costly labor on Tanna could have meant the end of Paton's missionary life. He could have remembered that in Glasgow for ten years he had had unprecedented success as an urban missionary. Now for four years he seemed to have accomplished nothing and he lost his wife and child in the process. But instead of going home, he turned his missionary heart to Aniwa. And this time the story was different. "I claimed Aniwa for Jesus, and by the grace of God, Aniwa now worships at the Savior's feet" (p. 312).
The courageous endurance on Tanna resulted in a story that awakened thousands to the call of missions and strengthened the home church.

If you would like to read this John Piper article in its entirety go to:


http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Biographies/1482_You_Will_Be_Eaten_by_Cannibals_Lessons_from_the_Life_of_John_G_Paton/ 

Grace,
Mike & Annette