December world evangelism history: It happened today!
TL;DR:
Explore one significant event in Christian missions history for each day of December. These milestones include the martyrdom of John and Betty Stam, Albert Schweitzer receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, and David Brainerd's ministry among Native Americans.
On this date in global missions outreach
"Since we are surrounded by so many examples ⌞of faith . . ." — Hebrews 12:1 (GOD'S WORD Translation)
December events, people, and movements in Christian missions history
December 1, 1999 — Several house church movements in China began a "missionary
month," embracing the aim of winning three others for Christ. [ Another story from China ]
December 2, 1946 — E. V. Steele founded the European Christian Orphanage and Mission
Society in Alberta, Canada. In 1953 the name was changed to World Missions Fellowship.
Now headquartered in Grants Pass, Oregon, this evangelical interdenominational sending agency
has missionaries doing evangelism, orphan care, and camping programs in India, Austria, Ireland,
Brazil, and Japan.
December 3, 1552 — Jesuit co-founder Francis Xavier died while awaiting
permission to enter China. Later accounts credited him with baptizing or helping bring large
numbers of people into the Christian faith across Asia.
December 4, 1674 — French Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette erected a mission shelter
on Lake Michigan, often described as the first European-built structure at the site of
present-day Chicago.
December 5, 1862 — C.T. Studd,
pioneer missionary, was born in England. Originally famous as a cricket star, he became a
Christian at age 21 under the preaching of D.L. Moody. Studd then dedicated his life and
considerable inherited wealth to Christ. In 1885 he and six others — the "Cambridge Seven" —
sailed to Asia to serve with the China Inland Mission. Studd later ministered as well in India and
Africa.
December 6, 1664 — Governor Richard Nicolls granted religious liberty to New York Lutherans,
allowing them to hold services and have their own pastors. This freedom helped establish a setting
in which churches could organize and support Christian outreach.
December 7, 521 — According to tradition, Irish monk Columba, missionary to Scotland and
founder of Iona and other monastic communities, was born in Donegal on this date.
December 8, 1934 — American missionaries John and Betty Stam were beheaded by
Chinese communists. The couple had met while attending Moody Bible Institute and married just
the year before their death. Publication of their biography caused hundreds to volunteer for
missionary service. [ Another story
from China ]
December 9, 1943 — M. T. Rankin of the Southern Baptist Mission Board reported that 40
missionaries from war-ravished China arrived in New York aboard the S. S.
Gripsholm.
December 10, 1953 — Albert Schweitzer, medical missionary to Africa, accepted the Nobel
Peace Prize.
December 11, 1910 — Norwegian missionary Lars Skrefsrud died. In 1862, when Lars
Skrefsrud asked the Norwegian Missionary Society to send him out as a missionary, they turned
him down. They didn't want an ex-convict representing them and Lars had just spent four years in
prison for theft. But he persevered and became Norway's best-known missionary. He worked
among the Santal people who lived north of Calcutta. He translated the Bible into the Santal
language and produced a hymnal using native tunes. He wrote textbooks and even published a
book of traditional Santal myths. He founded schools that taught such things as farming, animal
care, and carpentry. He also wanted to give the Santalese a church they could run themselves.
"It is the heathenism we want to get rid of, not the national character," he said. By
the time of Lars' death, there were 15,000 to 20,000 Santal Christians.
December 12, 2000 — Nanjing Publishing House printed a biography of Minnie Vautrin, an
American missionary who helped women and children escape death and injury during the
Nanjing Massacre, which was committed by Japanese invaders in December 1937. Vautrin was
a professor and president of a women's college in Nanjing from 1919 to 1940. After the massacre,
she hosted various professional training programs for the women and their families who had been
devastated and displaced.
December 13, 1938 — Norwegian missionary Peter Torjesen was killed in northern China
during a Japanese bombing raid. When Torjesen was just 18 years old, he was so moved during
a missionary service that when an offering was taken to support missions in China, he emptied
his wallet into the offering basket and added a small piece of paper on which he had written "and
my life." He gave nearly 20 years of his life to ministry in the provincial capital of Shanxi.
December 14, 2004 — The Free Methodist Church reported that more than half a million dollars
had been contributed for relief in Haiti following a Sept. 18 hurricane. The funds repaired
schools
and churches as well as restored family homes and belongings, met food needs, bought seeds for
gardens, and replaced lost farming tools.
December 15, 1843 — Albert B.
Simpson was born. He is regarded as the father of the Bible college movement. Though A.B. Simpson was primarily a
local pastor, he had a vision for
establishing a missions organization. So, he helped form two evangelization societies: The
Christian Alliance and The Evangelical Missionary Alliance. Those two groups would
eventually fuse into one. In 1881, Simpson would launch America's first illustrated missionary
magazine, The Gospel in All Lands. In his local church, Simpson's creative
missions passion gave birth to what local churches now call Faith Promise Conventions. [
missionary hymns by
Simpson ]
December 16, 1867 — Amy Carmichael, Scottish-Irish missionary to India, was born in
Millisle, Ireland. Raised a Presbyterian, she was influenced by the Keswick movement and
became a missionary under the Church of England's Zenana Missionary Society. She arrived in
India in 1895 and remained there without furlough until her death in 1951.
December 17, 1912 — Yale-educated Chicago native Bill Borden, heir to a fortune in real
estate and milk production, sailed for Egypt to study Arabic in preparation for planned missionary
service among Muslims in China. Borden had committed his inheritance and his life to the cause
of world evangelism. Only a few months after arriving in Egypt, he contracted spinal meningitis
and died. His story
inspired many young people to enter missionary service. [ more
on Borden ]
December 18, 1850 — A missionary group led by Allen Gardiner landed in Tierra del Fuego,
Patagonia. Tragically, supplies for the seven missionaries did not arrive until October 31, 1851.
The supply ship discovered that every member of the missionary party had died between June 8
and September 6.
December 19, 1950 — Missionary doctor Bill Wallace was arrested in an early morning raid in
Wuchow. Urged to flee from China during the communist takeover, he replied, "I will
stay as long as I am able to serve." Claiming they found a gun under the Southern Baptist
missionary's pillow, the Communists accused him of being a foreign agent. Brutal interrogation
followed, and Wallace died in his cell two months after his arrest. [ Another story from China ]
December 20, 1859 — The Washington Territorial Legislature chartered Whitman Seminary (now
Whitman College) at Walla Walla, Washington. The school, which was granted the first charter
to an educational institution in the territory, honors the memory of missionary Marcus Whitman
(1802-1847).
December 21, 1631 — The Spanish government supplied two soldiers for the protection of Pedro de Miranda, missionary to the Native Americans of Taos. On this bitterly cold day, the two soldiers entered the convent kitchen to warm themselves. They were followed by a group of Indigenous people who had become incensed against the Spaniards and killed the soldiers and then the priest.
December 22, 1838 — John Hunt was appointed as a missionary to Rewa, Fiji.
December 23, 1906 — Peter Friesen, who had already been commissioned as a missionary to
India, is ordained by the Evangelical Mennonite Brethren Church. The Friesens arrived in
Mumbai on March 7, 1907, and traveled the final 50 miles to Dhamtari by oxcart.
December 24, 1789 — Jackson Kemper, Episcopal missionary bishop, was born in Pleasant Valley, New York. In 1835, the Episcopal Church undertook to consecrate missionary bishops to preach the gospel west of the settled areas, and Kemper was the first chosen. He promptly headed west. Kemper recruited priests from among men already in the West and established a college in St. Louis to train them. He continually called for greater outreach to Native Americans, Bible translations, and church services in Native American languages.
December 25, 1931 — A 200-watt
transmitter in a converted farm building in Ecuador became HCJB, the world's first missionary
radio station.
December 26, 2002 — Two weeks after laying off nearly a third of its St. Louis office staff,
the Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod) World Mission organization eliminated 28 overseas
missionary positions — one-fourth of its career-missionary force. Eliminated were missionary
posts in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Central and South America.
December 27, 1846 — Friederich A. Craemer baptized the first Chippewa people as part of
the Lutheran mission effort in Michigan.
December 28, 1800 — William Carey, missionary to India, baptized Krishna Pal, his first
Bengali convert.
December 29, 1745 — David Brainerd, missionary to Native Americans, 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."
December 30, 2002 — An Islamic militant shot and killed three U.S. Christian missionaries
working at a Baptist-run hospital in Yemen. William Koehn, the administrator of Jibla Baptist
Hospital, Kathleen Gariety, a supplies purchaser, and medical doctor Martha Myers all died
instantly from bullets to the head. Pharmacist Donald Caswell was left in critical condition with
abdominal wounds.
December 31, 1821 — Rev. Jonathan Price, M.D., a medical missionary, arrived with his
family in Burma to join the missionary work of Adoniram Judson.
