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Silhouette:
Margaret “Maggie” Whitecross
was born in 1841 in Edinburgh, Scotland. She grew up in the home of a preacher
and was an accomplished writer, musician, and artist. At the age of 22 she met
a man 17 years her senior named John Paton who had been serving the Lord as a missionary
to the cannibals on the island of Tanna in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu). He was
home on furlough after losing his first wife and infant son to malaria and
being chased off the island, narrowly escaping with his life. John and Margaret
were married in 1864, and they went back to the New Hebrides in 1866 along with
their two young sons. They were determined to set up a mission station on the small
7-mile by 2-mile wide island of Aniwa that was situated close to the island of
Tanna. The islanders were astounded that missionaries would return to the islands
after such treatment, and one native confessed, “If your God makes you do that,
we may yet worship Him, too.”
As on the other
islands, the natives of Aniwa practiced ancestral and idol worship along with infanticide
and widow sacrifice. They served many gods and lived barbaric lives that left
them in great depravity. They had no knowledge of the One True God that could
bring them mercy, grace, and peace. The natives were intrigued by the
foreigners and since they had never seen a white woman before, Margaret had to
endure much poking and prodding when she arrived as the local women checked her
out to see how much she was alike or different from them. John and Margaret lived
in a hut while three buildings were erected – one for them to live in and two
others to house the many orphans on the island. They began to learn the
language by using hand gestures until they were able to reduce the language to
written form.
John and Margaret began
translating, printing, and teaching the Bible. They dispensed medicines daily and ministered
to the sick and dying. They also taught the people about industry and tools. Sunday
services were held each week and Margaret’s class of women and girls, which
often had up to 50, became experts at reading, singing, sewing, and plaiting
hats. They eventually had trained enough native teachers to send them to preach
the Gospel to the other small villages across the island. The chiefs of the
villages around the island did not like how the Patons were gaining the ear of
the people and feared they as chiefs would no longer be listened to. There were
many times John and Margaret were threatened and feared for their lives and the
lives of their children, but they stood strong; sometimes even rebuking the
chiefs to their faces for their poor treatment towards them.
Although they
seemed to be making headway, they had long periods of sickness and felt the
acute loneliness that is often felt by missionaries even when surrounded by a
sea of people. A real breakthrough came when the island was in need of good
drinking water, and John told the villagers that he had prayed and knew God
would help them find a spring. He taught the men how to dig a well, something
they laughed at him for since they had only ever seen water come from the sky. When
water was finally discovered and they saw it was good for drinking, the chief
said, “No god of Aniwa has ever answered prayers as the Missi’s (teacher) God
has done . . . the gods of Aniwa cannot hear, cannot help us like the God of
Missi.” They decided that since what the missionaries had said about the “invisible”
water below the ground was true, what they said about the “invisible” God above
in heaven must be true as well. There was a great burning of idols at that time
and many hearts converted and turned towards God.
Within 15 years of
stepping foot on Aniwa, John and Margaret had seen every last person on the
island come to know Christ as their Saviour. Later on it was recorded that “. .
. more than 12,000 cannibals have been brought to sit at the feet of Christ,
and 133 of the natives have been trained and sent forth as teachers and
preachers of the Gospel.” The hearts of those who once lived barbaric lives now
lived in peace, and there was not a home on the island where the family did not
come together for morning and evening worship.
Her Story/My Story:
Margaret faced the same difficulties as many other
missionary women face, especially in primitive circumstances . . . the
difficulty of trying to set up a home that is as comfortable as possible for your
family with whatever limited resources are available to you . . . the
difficulty of raising a family in a godless society that doesn’t hold to the
same moral code, and in her case, thirsted for blood . . . the difficulty of
trying to learn a hard language in order to be able to communicate the love of
God to those you are living amongst instead of just saying a passing, “Hi, how
are you?”. . . the difficulty of living a life that no one else can understand.
Life on the island of Aniwa was difficult. But even in difficult times that
caused her to sigh, Margaret persevered and drew strength from the fact that
she knew Jesus’ watchful eye was ever on her. She once wrote home in a letter,
“If you came to be missionaries, you would find it uphill work indeed, to be
sacrificing your whole life merely for the sake of those who could not
understand your motives, and who know not what it cost you to give up home and
friends. But Jesus regards every sigh, and whatever is done for Him will
meet with a sweet reward even in this life; for He who has promised can never
disappoint.”
I’ll let you in on
a truth. Even the best, most dedicated missionaries sigh . . . sometimes a lot.
They sigh at their own failings. They sigh at the slow rate the nationals seem
to grow spiritually. They sigh when there are disagreements or
miscommunications with fellow missionaries. They sigh when the electricity
turns off for the umpteenth time in a day or when brown water comes out of the
faucet or no water comes out. They sigh when their kids pine away for friends
they’ve left behind. They sigh when the government changes the visa laws yet
again, causing them to pack their family up quickly and do a “border run”. They
sigh when they can’t find that one final ingredient they need to make a simple
dish for their family. They sigh whether warranted or not when they feel quite all
alone.
Bible Study: Sighing
I love studying
about the life of Christ. Probably 80% of the Bible studies I’ve done center
around His time on earth . . . His miracles . . . His life’s work . . . His
relationship with His Heavenly Father, but the one thing I love studying the
most is His humanity. I can’t relate to what it must have felt like to
perform the great miracle of the feeding of the 5,0001, nor can I
relate to the power it took to still the raging sea2. The depths of
forgiveness Christ showed to His accusers on the cross3 is
beyond my comprehension. But His humanity . . . His humanity I can relate
to. I can relate to crying with a dear friend because a loved one has passed
away4. I can relate to seeing the multitudes in dire need of
spiritual help and being overcome with compassion for them5. I can
understand anger at stubborn hearts who refuse Biblical teaching6,
and I can relate to sighing when after many long days of serving others someone
asks something more of you7.
A number of years
ago I wrote in my journal about this matter of Jesus sighing. I was studying Mark
5-7 and the stories of how He healed the Maniac of Gadera8 and a man
who was deaf and dumb9. He had healed the Syrophencian’s daughter10 and
a lame man brought to Him by his friends11. In the midst of these
great miracles, I read that Jesus sighed.
“He sighed.” It
seems like such a strange bit of information for Mark to share with us when
telling the story of Jesus opening the ears of a man and loosening his tongue.
Why did He sigh? Was He tired? Did He sigh because He knew those who would
witness the miracle would not heed His admonishments to not publish it? Was it
because everywhere He turned there was someone who needed His help? The Bible
doesn’t tell us, but a few short verses later we find Him sighing again. This
time it was because His enemies were questioning Him yet again12 . .
. questioning His deity . . . questioning His authority . . . questioning His
actions and His motives.
What I realized is
that although there were moments in Jesus’ ministry that caused Him to sigh, He
didn’t decide it was time to give up. Instead, He continued in the work He came
to do. It is a great example we should follow. We must know there will be times
in ministry and life that cause us to sigh, but like Jesus, we must not give up
and rest assured that He hears every sigh and is standing near to help us keep
on going.
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1. Mark 6:30-44
2. Mark 4:35-41
3. Luke 23:34
4. John 11:32-35
5. Mark 6:34
6. Mark 3:5
7. Mark 7:31-37
8. Mark 5:1-20
9. Mark 7:31-37
10. Mark
7:24-30
11. Mark 2:1-12
12. Mark 8:11-12
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*Disclaimer:
*Disclaimer:
I have chosen to highlight the life of these ladies because of what they have accomplished for the Lord not because I agree with their doctrinal beliefs. As with all study of man, our focus should be on the character traits they bestowed in their lives that allowed the Lord to use them, how the Lord used them, the methods of ministry they incorporated that allowed them to be effective, etc. We do not study man to get our doctrine. Our doctrinal beliefs should only come from the Bible. To that end you may find you don’t agree with the doctrine of a particular person that I write about, but I believe there is still much wisdom we can gain from studying their lives.
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