July Missionary History: Events in World Evangelism
TL;DR: Explore significant events in Christian missions history for every day of July. Highlights include missionary pioneer John Ross's birth on July 6, the opening of the Lausanne Congress on July 16, and Willis Folsom's reflections on cross-cultural language challenges on July 28.
Christian missions history that happened in July
"Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses . . ."
— Hebrews 12:1 (2011 NIV)
Fulfilling the Great Commission: Events, locations, people and movements in world evangelism
July 1, 1871 — Many Torres Strait Islanders (Australia) commemorate today as the Coming
of the Light Festival. This was the day that missionaries of the London Missionary Society first
arrived in the Torres Strait where they landed on Erub Island.
July 2, 1950 — Evangelical pastor Martinez Quintana stepped outside a house in Colombia to
face the angry mob beating at the door. "Down with the heretics!" they screamed. The mob had
already burned the homes of several evangelical families. Inside pastor Quintana's home,
Christians prayed for his life and for their own. Martinez tried to reason with the crowd, but they
weren't buying it. Finally, a policeman stepped forward and shot the pastor in the head.
Then, the mob proceeded to blow up the evangelical church building.
July 3, 1838 — William Richards, missionary to Hawaii since 1822, resigned from his
mission to accept the request of King Kamehameha III Kauikeaouli that he become the king's
personal translator, chaplain, counselor, and political adviser. Richards had already completed
translating one-third of the Bible into Hawaiian.
July 4, 1825 — Missionary J. Jeffreys died while sailing from Madagascar to the Isle of
France (present-day Mauritius). He was 31 years of age.
July 5, 1948 — Far Eastern Bible Institute and Seminary opened in Manila with 20 students.
It was born out of the vision of American soldiers who had helped liberate the Philippines
at the end of World War II and who had fallen in love with the Filipino people. On September
21, 1945, soldiers and chaplains crowded into the tiny living room of a missionary home
that had survived the war. In prayer, they committed themselves to starting the Far Eastern Bible
Institute and Seminary. Three years later, it happened.
July 6, 1842 — Birth of John Ross (1842-1915), who has been called "one of the most
effective missionaries of his generation." Making China his home for almost four decades, Ross
also became the father of Protestant churches in Manchuria and Korea. He understood eleven
languages, made respected contributions to Bible translation and commentaries, and was forward-looking in the theory and practice of missions.
July 7, 1873 — Southern Baptists appointed Lottie Moon as a missionary to China. In the
fall, she set sail for Tengchow. She learned the Chinese language and adopted Chinese
dress, thereby earning great respect from the Chinese people. Lottie spent most of her missionary
years in Tengchow and Pingtu, teaching in mission schools and ministering to women.
July 8, 1862 — Arthur Stephen Paynter, mission pioneer, was born. In 1897, he founded the
India Christian Mission in the Kumaon District of North India. In 1904, the ICM headquarters
moved to Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka (Ceylon). The work is now known in India and Sri Lanka as
the India Christian Mission Church.
July 9, 1737 — George Schmidt, the first Protestant missionary to South Africa, arrived. As a
Moravian, Schmidt had already suffered brutality in the prisons of his homeland for the crime of
sharing his faith. In Africa, Schmidt became determined to share the gospel with the Khoikhoi
people, historically called "Hottentots" in European accounts.
July 10, 1990 — Death at age 92 of Donald McGavran, missionary to India and "father" of
the modern Church Growth movement.
July 11, 1850 — Annie Armstrong was born. She later became a prominent Southern Baptist
missions leader and served as the first corresponding secretary of the Woman's Missionary Union.
In 1934, an annual offering collected for the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board was named in
her honor.
July 12, 2002 — Lamin Sanneh, professor of Missions and World Christianity at Yale
Divinity School, received an honorary doctor of divinity degree from the University of
Edinburgh, Scotland. Sanneh's books include: Abolitionists Abroad: American Blacks
& the Making of Modern West Africa, Whose Religion is Christianity?: The Gospel
Beyond the West, West African Christianity: The Religious Impact, The Crown and the
Turban: Muslims and West African Pluralism, Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact
on Culture, Piety & Power: Muslims and Christians in West Africa, The Jakhanke Muslim
Clerics: A Religious and Historical Study of Islam in Senegambia,
Encountering the West: Christianity and the Global Cultural Process, and
Religion and the Variety of Culture: A Study in Origin and Practice.
July 13, 1968 — Wycliffe missionary Henry F. Blood died in Viet Cong hands, about five
months after his capture during the January Tet offensive. During nine years of mission work in
Vietnam, Blood made only one convert. However, that one convert, Tang, would lead many
Vietnamese to Christ.
July 14, 1912 — E.L. Arndt set out for China. Arndt laid the groundwork for the China
missions work of The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod.
July 15, 2001 — Canadian missionary David Waines was arrested, detained, and interrogated
for his opposition to two Liberian secret societies. "We are in a battle against injustice," fellow
missionary Ralph Bromley said. "The secret societies are a prominent part of Liberian culture.
[They] pressure girls into female circumcision, early pregnancies, and compliance with sexual
abuse. Boys are forcefully initiated into these societies and made to comply with the societies'
strategies to keep women, children, and the uninitiated terrified of being sacrificed for ritualistic
purposes. . . . We will not back down from this battle."
July 16, 1974 — Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization opened in Switzerland with
2,500 participants from 150 nations. Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association,
the congress gave visibility to the broad evangelical movement committed to world
evangelism.
July 17, 1996 — Matthew Alexander, a senior from Wake Forest University, headed to
Marseilles, France, for a summer of volunteer work with Youth With a Mission. He never made
it. Minutes after takeoff, Matthew's Paris-bound flight, TWA 800, exploded in midair and
plummeted into the ocean off Long Island. There were no survivors.
July 18, 1804 — Birth of Dan Beach Bradley (1804-1873), pioneer missionary to Thailand.
Bradley arrived in Siam (Thailand) in 1835 at age 32. His professions included: evangelist,
doctor, printer, writer, government advisor, and unofficial American Ambassador. Bradley loved
the Thai people and made contributions to public health, schools, prison reform, education for
women, and care for the mentally ill. He performed the first surgical operation in Thailand and
published the country's first newspaper. Although Bradley saw relatively few people embrace
Christianity during his lifetime, his medical, educational, and publishing work made lasting
contributions to Thai society.
July 19, 1649 — Edward Winslow, governor of Plymouth Colony (in what is now
Massachusetts) helped to organize the Society for Propagating the Gospel in New England. The
purpose of the Society was to evangelize the native people who had helped the beleaguered
colonizers through their first winter, in which Winslow lost his own wife.
uly 20, 1816 — Adoniram Judson completed his first Christian tract in Burmese. The three-part work presented the historical, doctrinal, and practical dimensions of Christianity.
July 21, 1827 — Johann Jaenicke, pastor of Bethlehem Church, Berlin (Germany), died. A
quarter of a century earlier, he had founded a mission seminary from which 81 foreign
missionaries had been sent out.
July 22, 1860 — Moritz Braeuninger, missionary to Native Americans, was shot by
Indians.
July 23, 1860 — Missions pioneer William W. McConnell was born on this day. In 1891,
McConnell became the first missionary sent out by the Central American Mission.
July 24, 1900 — Ferdinand Hamet, a Dutch missionary in Mongolia, was murdered at age
59.
July 25, 1899 — Stuart W. K. Hine, an English missionary, was born. During the 1920s,
while he and his wife were ministering in Eastern Europe, they encountered a Russian version of
the Swedish hymn "O Store Gud." They learned the hymn and began singing it as a duet. Hine's
experiences in the Carpathian Mountains and among Christian communities in the region later
helped inspire the English verses that became known as "How Great Thou Art."
July 26, 1864 — Death of Fidelia Fiske, American Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions missionary to the Nestorian Christians of Persia. In June of 1843, she had landed at
Orumiyeh, Iran. Her services as a nurse in Urmia and her missionary work in the
countryside and among mountain tribes gradually won her respect and helped set an example that
contributed to the improvement of the lot of Persian women.
July 27, 1834 — Along the Snake River in the northwestern U.S.A., local mountain men and
Native Americans gathered to hear Methodist missionary Jason Lee preach the first Protestant sermon
delivered in Oregon Country.
July 28, 1861 — Missionary Willis Folsom wrote in his diary about the language
obstacles faced by cross-cultural missionaries: "This day I tried to preach in Choctaw and in
English at Buck Creek . . . but got confused."
July 29, 1824 — Russian Orthodox missionary John Evseyevich Popov-Veniaminov — who
came to be called "Apostle to America" — arrived on the Aleutian island of Unalaska.
July 30, 1750 — Christian Friedrich Schwartz, one of the foremost Lutheran missionaries in
India, arrived in Tranquebar. Schwartz had gone under the auspices of the Danish-Halle mission
largely because of A. H. Francke's influence. Remarkably, just four months after Schwartz's
arrival, he was able to preach his first sermon in the Tamil language.
July 31, 1834 — Marcus Whitman applied to the American Board of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions for appointment as a medical missionary. He was rejected because of ill
health.
