This Week - 1907
John Paton
Missionary to the New Hebrides Island, John Paton died at age 82 at Canterbury, Victoria, Australia.
John Paton, referred to as “missionary to the cannibals,” was raised in Scotland by Christian parents who dedicated him to foreign missions before he was born. Three weeks after being ordained, in March 1858, John and his young wife, Mary Ann, set sail from Scotland to the South Pacific. After some initial preaching in the islands, John went to Australia to raise money from Presbyterian Churches for his New Hebrides mission. Most of his support came from children in Sunday Schools eager to have a part in a missionary enterprise.
Four months after arriving in Tanna (New Hebrides), John lost his wife in childbirth. Their new-born son was buried alongside his mother 17 days later. Only his great love for his Savior Jesus sustained John. The cheapness of human life and the horrifying extent of cannibalism on the islands became more and more obvious. On one occasion, three women were killed in a human sacrifice and eaten in order to secure the recovery to health of an ailing chief.
In 1866, John moved to Aniwa, where numerous dangers awaited him. Frequently, he was chased away by clubs or the occasional musket aimed at him as he sought to bring the Gospel to these cannibals. When John asked one of the chiefs about two large baskets of human bones that he had gathered, the chief responded with pride: “Ah, we are not Tanna men! We do not eat the bones!”
The first convert on Aniwa was chief Namakei. His brother, who had tried to shoot Paton, also became a Christian. Other astounding testimonies followed. Murderers of their own children were brought to Christ. One man was brought to Christ by his second wife, for whose sake he had murdered his first wife. One young boy, who was converted, expressed his regret that now he would be denied the honor of becoming a murderer!
Paton spent a total of 30 years in the South Sea islands among cannibalistic people groups.
Pray for unreached people in the South Pacific. Many islands, especially around Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, still need credible witnesses for the Gospel of Christ.
Pray for our cross-cultural workers, especially those working among remote tribes and people groups, to have wisdom and discernment in sharing Jesus, and have persistence and resilience in their lives and ministry.
Information from https://www.frontlinemissionsa.org/missions/john-paton-missionary-to-cannibals-gcm-2016
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