Missionary Stories

Missionaries are ordinary people who often face extraordinary circumstances because they want others to know about God. They bless many, and yet, the following collections show they are often equally blessed.

We hope the following stories will give you insights into the life of a missionary and inspire you.

> Reminiscences of a Missionary Wife
> Volunteer Service in the Solomons
> A Dream and an Inner Voice
> Braving Cannibals & Crocodiles

I remember the Fijian days so well, even though nearly seventy years have slipped by. I have happy memories, anxious memories, memories of ups and downs. Time has wiped away some of the heartaches and disappointments and somehow I can smile at things that upset me when I was young. I will never forget the many times God intervened on our behalf.

My husband was headmaster of Samabula Indian School, a day and boarding school. There were about one hundred and fifty pupils. There was a house master for the boy boarders. They taught mainly in English. There were only a few girl boarders.

Ted, my husband, had a big task in front of him. He had to supervise the running of the school, including purchasing of food for the boarders on a very tight budget, he taught and tried to learn Hindi. No wonder he was always on the go. I don't think he would have been able to do it without the help of his assistants and our friends.

Samabula Indian School, Fiji

I had my own problems though. I hope I may be forgiven for mentioning a few.

The first few months were rather trying. I was pregnant and really felt the heat. Waiting for the furniture to be made meant the house wasn't as tidy as I would have liked. All things come to those who wait, they tell us, and they were right: the new furniture and the new stove finally arrived. Then there was the problem of the children. We had no way of sending them to school in Suva, so I taught them by correspondence. A Mrs Hoodless was head of that government department and the lessons were easy to follow.

On 2 May, Ronald Edward Butler was born at Nurse Morrison's private hospital in Suva. Dr Paley delivered him. The doctor looked after us all while we were in Fiji.

We did our shopping at Bums Philips. They delivered our groceries and we became good friends with the head grocer, Mr Spears, and the dear old lift driver. I still have a chopping board, carved out of Fijian wood, he made for me.

The office rang and said that there was a second-hand car for sale. It was in pretty poor shape, but the tyres were fairly good, so we bought it for $26. We painted it and repaired the upholstery, but we soon learned that cars don't run on paint and upholstery. That car kept us poor! However, one of our senior boys had a driving licence and he drove our five and seven-year-olds to the Grammar School each morning and Ted picked them up in the afternoon. We had the use of a piano, so we were able to have music lessons for the children.

Some of the mothers brought their babies to me to ask my advice on how to care for them. One baby boy was very sick and I persuaded the mother to let me look after him. With Dr Paley's help, in a couple of weeks I was able to hand him back, all well again. The mother could speak only a few words of English, and I could speak only a few words of Hindi, but we became very good friends.

Download the Journal of Pacific Adventist History, December 2003 (part three), to read more.

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Volunteer Service in the Solomon, Vanuatu & Kiribati Islands, 1975-2000

The Prevention and Treatment of Oral Disease

I was standing by the campfire at a weekend gathering for Aboriginal families at Grassy Head, about 30 kilometres north of the city of Kempsey, when one of the men came over to me. Putting his hand on my shoulder he said, "You are now one of us." Acceptance is necessary if people are going to remember at least some of the material a speaker presents. I was encouraged to hear this expression of appreciation.

I was to present dental health lectures and to provide treatment in response to an invitation from the organisers of the camp. They accepted me because I was willing to sleep on the ground with all the rest of the campers, and didn't go to a motel when the truck carrying the beds failed to arrive. My attendance at this camp was the beginning of a 26-year period of volunteer service in the Pacific Islands. 

Altogether I visited 26 islands in the countries of Tonga, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Kiribati. I found that learning the language of the people and eating local foods helped to cement good relationships.

On a 1976 visit to the Solomon Islands I was working at Talikali, in West Malaita. When it was almost meal time the minister asked if I would like some food. I replied that I would happily have some. He piled my plate high with tapioca patties and gave me a glass of water. We worshipped after the meal and the minister thanked the Lord for the visitor who ate the food put in front of him.

We follow strict protocol every time our clinical team visits a village for the first time. We arrange date and time of arrival over the radio and announce these in the local media. We contact the minister of religion and the village chef on arrival. With their support the team then contact the clinic nurse and the headmaster of the school. Then we select a suitable site - usually this is a location outside, under a tree.

Having to perform dentistry on the road side!

Now the real work commences. If there is a school teacher in the team he would give simple lectures to a combined gathering of the upper grades in the school. During this time several adults are treated until the arrival of some of the children.

I was refused entry into one village even though the chief's wife was suffering from a raging toothache and indicated that she really wanted me to help her. The power of religious prejudice won out on that occasion.

I look back over many years of satisfying volunteer service. Perhaps one person stands out in my mind. Her name is Tagini.

Tagini, before and after her tumour was removed

She had a massive tumour in her mouth. Fortunately, at the time, Dr Marion Barnard and his daughter Dr Jo-Ellen (USA) were doing volunteer medical work there. They removed a massive tumour from her mouth and I made a denture for her. On my last visit to the Solomon Islands I called at her home-a grass hut erected over a mangrove swamp. When she remembered me tears came to her eyes and to mine. Now blind she lives alone. We talked for awhile and as I departed she requested I pray for her. What a wonderful change will take place when our Saviour returns soon. Then people like Tagini will be restored to full health and joy.

Download the Journal of Pacific Adventist History, December 2003 (part two), to read more.

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A Dream and an Inner Voice

How the Seventh-day Adventist Mission came to Inland Wewak in the Sepik area of Papua New Guinea.

by Robert Jonathan as told to Shirley Tarburton

God sends dreams even to unbelievers to prepare the way for His message and messengers. This was certainly how it happened in Wewak and inland on the Sepik and Karawari Rivers.

The first Seventh-day Adventists visited the north-eastern coast of New Guinea in 1942. Four teachers from Mussau Island went to Madang to teach reading and writing to the children there and to begin evangelistic outreach. They were successful from the beginning despite the fact that the country was in the grip of World War II.

After the war, mission leaders decided to extend the work further west into the Wewak area. At a meeting in 1949, S H Gander was requested to survey the region. In November 1949, Pastor Gander and his team sailed out of Madang Harbour and headed in a north-west direction for the Sepik River, about a hundred miles away.

As soon as they arrived at Wewak, they investigated the possibilities of beginning work in the town, but were disappointed to be told that the Roman Catholic Mission was well entrenched and there was no way they would be allowed to work there. Gander and friends were surprised to learn that theirs was the first Protestant Mission boat to come to the area. Gander decided to return to Madang. On the way back they surveyed the various villages along the river Sepik. Everywhere they went the people requested that the Seventh-day Adventist mission send someone to their village.

After five weeks, the group arrived back in Madang and made their report. Over the next two years (1950-1952), New Guinean missionaries replied to many of the requests made to Pastor Gander.

In 1952 Gander to return to the Sepik district intending to establish the work of the Adventist church especially at Wewak. The missionaries wanted to establish their headquarters in Wewak and to explore ways of extending the reach of the Adventist message along the coast westwards and inland into the mountain area. The problem was not much had changed in the region. The Roman Catholic Church continued to dominate the area. No Protestants were allowed to evangelise there.

Gander prayed to God for guidance. He believed he heard a voice that said, "In the morning take four helpers and go to the Wewak coast. There you will meet a man who will be waiting to see you." Early the next morning, Gander and four other people set out for Wewak.

Ours was a chiefly family with a great deal of power and influence in this area. About this time, in Musuhagen, a heathen mountain village some two days walk inland from Wewak, my uncle, Porei, also received a message. The people there knew nothing about Jesus or the plan of salvation. They worshipped the spirits and the devil often gave them magical powers to do evil things-even kill people. Everyone lived in fear. Not long before this, a number of people had died. My other uncle, Porei's brother, who was a devil priest and also a great warrior could do anything he wished because of his high status and satanic powers. He even used his supernatural power to influence battles between tribes, making sure our tribe won. He enjoyed using the evil powers to accomplish his wishes.

Porei had a dream. In this dream he was standing watching a small, white ship heading towards the shore. The captain was a white man, and on board were a number of New Guinea men with clean clothes and shiny white teeth. The white man called out to him and said, "We will be coming to your village in three weeks. Tell the people in all the villages to come and meet with us because we have a very special message to bring to you all."

In the morning he told everyone about his dream. The news spread quickly. His brother joined him in going to other villages up in the hills to announce the coming of the white man. Many had never seen a white man. Some thought they were the spirits of our ancestors who were visiting to give us comfort and peace in these times of trouble.

After spreading the news of the coming visitors, my uncle hurried up the steep trails and across the mountain ridges to meet the expected group. He spent two nights on the way and was anxious in case he would arrive too late and miss them. However, as he was nearing the end of the bush trail approaching the shore, he saw a man coming towards him. How pleasantly surprised he was to see that it was the very man he had seen in his dream.

He learned the visitor's name was Pastor Gander. Back to the village they went. The villagers were happy to welcome the special visitors. People from other villages were also interested to hear what the "special" people had to say, so the missionaries separated in order to visit other places.

The evil forces opposed the power of the gospel, but God's power was stronger than the devil's. Soon people's lives began to change. As people forsook the evil forces, the Holy Spirit gave them a new hope. The people began to worship the true God of heaven in a bush church they themselves built.

Download the Journal of Pacific Adventist History, June 2003 (part one), to read more.

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The story of evangelist Daniel Teta.

He stands only five feet tall with a broad nose and deep, soft eyes. His tight, curly beard and silver-streaked hair frame a gentle face and a big white smile. But Seventh-day Adventist minister Pastor Daniel Teta has braved cannibals and crocodiles to share Jesus with the people of Papua New Guinea.

To sit and story with Pastor Teta is fascinating. He mixes English, pidgin, and hand gestures to piece together a summary of his ministry and the remarkable work of the Adventist Church in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. This is a small part of his story.

Pastor Teta is from Tari, in the Southern Highlands. He is currently ministering in two districts in the Koroba area. He is caring for four established Adventist churches and 26 so-called "hand" churches, while serving as an evangelist at the same time. He originally worked for the government and can recall the day when his cousin invited him to listen to a White missionary who visited his village telling the people about the God in heaven and about not eating pigs. After discovering this God, Pastor Teta began his ministry as a church volunteer in 1964. He became a full-time evangelist in 1969 and developed a strong desire to minister to cannibals in the hill tribes. He believed that God would make it possible.

An opportunity came while he was ministering on the coastal area of the Western province in 1972. Pastor Teta recognized a group of passing visitors as cannibals after supplying them with salt, matches, soap, and razors. The chief invited Pastor Teta to visit the cannibals' village on the Nomad River, and promised protection. The two agreed that Pastor Teta would visit in a week's time, but Pastor Teta decided he would delay the visit a few more days to ensure his safety--he didn't want to be ambushed. Despite attempts from the local police to persuade Pastor Teta not to go into this dangerous area, he secretly began his full-day journey on foot.

Pastor Teta arrived at the village to a warm reception by the chief. Pastor Teta decided to cool down at the river, where he watched three men trying to catch a 12-foot (3.7-meter) crocodile. Using their skill and instinct, the men worked for some time to lure the animal into their handmade trap, but with no success. Finally, they decided to leave the water. Pastor Teta then thought he would take a look.

Crunch! Before Pastor Teta knew what had happened, the crocodile had attacked and clamped its teeth across both Pastor Teta's arms and dragged him to the deepest, darkest part of the river. Pastor Teta can remember looking into the animal's big eyes wondering how he would free himself. When you talk with Pastor Teta, he describes the bottom of the river in detail. "I could see the turtles swimming by and the fish swimming about in a frenzy as they tasted my blood," he says. For a moment Pastor Teta wondered if he would die, but the biblical story of Jonah came to mind. "I began to feel peace," he says. "I knew that God had saved Jonah in the belly of a fish, and that He would save me. I knew that God had sent me to these people--the Lord has a thousand ways to protect those who are in His work."

Eventually getting one arm out of the jaws of the crocodile, Pastor Teta reached for a small stick on the bottom of the river and tried to hit the crocodile in the eye. This caused the crocodile to thrash its body from side to side in a death roll, which almost severed Pastor Teta's arm. "I didn't think about breathing," says Pastor Teta. "Instead, I began to pull the crocodile to shallow water." He would later discover that he had been under the water for a long time.

Finally breaking free of the crocodile, Pastor Teta dragged himself to the bank of the river, where the chief, the three men, and village boys who had been searching for him stood. The fire that had been burning had long since died out. The chief killed the crocodile with his axe and helped Pastor Teta stem the rapid loss of blood. Pastor Teta's arm was stripped of skin and full of crushed bone.

That afternoon, as it started to get dark, Pastor Teta was impressed to leave the village because the sight of blood may have encouraged the cannibals to eat him. Pastor Teta's new friend, the chief, held and supported him as they began an 18.6-mile (30-kilometer) journey to a main road. Pastor Teta doesn't remember much of the journey because he repeatedly blacked out and regained consciousness as the hours passed. But the chief later told him that despite his injuries and unconsciousness, he had walked the whole way.

At Death's Door

Once at the main road, Pastor Teta opened his eyes to see two young men approaching. He described them as clean and in white sago leaves and traditional dress. "They were so clean and very tall. The chief with me was frightened. I asked them to go for help by contacting the nearest police station." Pastor Teta watched the men walk off into the distance side by side, rather than one behind the other, as is the custom in Papua New Guinea. He then blacked out again. He knew he had seen angels. Pastor Teta woke to muffled voices, with the chief still by his side and cradling his head. Help had arrived.

At this point Pastor Teta--completely yellow because of the loss of blood--asked the chief to bury him in the chief's village if he should die. Pastor Teta could tell that those around him thought he wouldn't survive. "On the inside I still believed God had work for me to do, and that if He wanted to, He was able to save me."

The next three months would see Pastor Teta undergo operations and an amazing recovery in the Balimo Hospital in the Western province. With determination he managed to keep his arm, not allowing the doctors to amputate because, he argued, "I need it for evangelism." Pastor Teta told the doctors, "I don't need to worry about infection, because the Lord has brought me this far--just do your part in repairing the arm, and God will do the rest." Further operations at Sopas Adventist Hospital helped Pastor Teta to regain full use of his arm and his fingers.

Finally, Pastor Teta was on his way home. He recalls arriving back on a Monday in his village and on the Wednesday setting out again on the long journey to find the Nomad River and the cannibal chief. When he arrived at the village, the chief led Pastor Teta to an abandoned hut where his picture scroll, Bible, and bags lay. Thinking he had died, the villagers had not touched his belongings.

The villagers realized that a miraculous power had saved Pastor Teta. He began to work with the cannibals who, in time, became Adventists, along with many other inhabitants of the highlands.

Today, Pastor Teta smiles as he tells of God's love for the cannibals of Papua New Guinea and how God used him to minister. He is married to Esther and has six children, who have supported him as he has evangelised.

Daniel Teta, baptising people in Papua New Guinea

This year alone Pastor Teta will baptise more than 100 people. When you ask him about his technique, he says, "I have a team of 10 who help carry my amplifier and generator to the top of a valley. We set it up, and I preach for a week. My message is broadcast all through the valley. Gradually, people come out of their homes to listen, and as they do, they invite me into their villages to share more and conduct Bible studies." Recently Pastor Teta has been working with 36 people. He tailors his message to the specific needs of the people he is working with.

The Lord keeps opening up villages to this enthusiastic evangelist who, despite the odds, continues to share a message of hope.

by Bronwyn G. Mison, former Communication director for the South Pacific Division, located in Wahroonga, New South Wales, Australia.