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On November 20 John Williams was clubbed to death and eaten by cannibals on the island of Erromanga in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu). It was 1839 – and he was 43 years of age.
Born in London 27 June, 1796 at Tottenham High Cross, he came from evangelical stock, his father a Baptist and his [...]

This is the day that Hiram Bingham was born in Vermont, USA, in 1789.
He was nearly 20 years of age when Obookiah, a young Hawaiian lad, was found weeping on the steps of Yale College. He had arrived in America on a trading vessel. Led to Christ by a young Christian student, Edwin Dwight, it [...]

This is the day that Christian Friedrich Swartz was born in Prussia (now Poland), in 1726.
He has been described as “one of the most energetic and successful missionaries of the 18th century (Schaff/Herzog Encyclopaedia, page 2131).
His youth was spent at Halle, the centre of German pietism. Founded by Jacob Spener, this was a movement that [...]

This is the day that Thomas Charles was born in Wales. It was 1756.
Despite a Christian upbringing, it was not until the age of 17, when he heard Daniel Rowlands expounding Hebrews 4:15, that “he was conscious of a real conversion of heart”. It was 20 January, 1773.
It is interesting to note that there seems [...]

This is the day that … Jerome died in AD 420, at the age of 89.
Born in Europe just 300 years after the birth of Christ, Jerome had a good education and learned several languages.
At the age of 18 he was baptised and joined the church, probably just to please his godly parents!
He writes [...]

This is the day that … Adoniram Judson was born, in 1788.
He was to become America’s first foreign missionary. His passion for reaching Burma led to the formation of the first American Mission societies. He sailed from his homeland as a Congregationalist, and arrived in India as a Baptist, in 1812. En route his translation [...]

This is the day that … John Eliot was born, in 1604, at Widford, Hertfordshire, in England (Christian Hero Cards, by Ed Reese).
John was educated at Cambridge and became skilled in Greek and Hebrew.
Under the influence of Rev. Thomas Hooker, young Eliot embraced the doctrines of Puritanism … and was eventually forced to flee [...]

This is the day that … Edward Caswell was born in Hampshire, England, in 1814.
The son of an Anglican vicar, young Edward graduated from Oxford in 1836, and three years later became a clergyman.
But during his first ministerial charge he was caught up in the Oxford Movement, which resulted in his seceding to the Church [...]

This is the day that … Hans Egede arrived in Greenland in 1721. He was 35 years of age.

Accompanying him was his wife Gertrude (13 years his senior) and their little son, Paul, who was later destined to play a major role in reaching the pagan Eskimos with the gospel.

At the age of [...]

This is the day that … Samuel Crowther was consecrated as a bishop, in 1864.
Adijah was 13 years of age, a black boy living inland near the west coast of Africa, when the slave traders attacked. He never saw his father again, and it would be 25 years before he was to again meet his [...]