Counting the Cost, and Paying It in Full:
The Missionary Experience in the Pacific Islands

- by Keith Carey

Starting this month, we will be teaming up with Ethne, an international network of intercessors to pray for the remaining unreached people groups. We will start where the International Date Line is; the Pacific Islands. In the coming months we will work our way west with the regions of Asia, then continue west to Africa, Europe, and finally to the Americas.

This issue of the Global Prayer Digest (GPD) is one of the hardest ones I have worked on. Why? The good news is that there are few unreached people groups in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and the Pacific Islands east of Indonesia and the Philippines.

It wasn't always this way. In the early 1500s, Spanish explorer, Vasco Nunez de Balboa "discovered" the Pacific Ocean. Less than 10 years later, Magellan brought a party of explorers and Franciscan missionaries to this part of the world, but their work was centered in the Philippines.

Then in 1778, English explorer, Captain James Cook, accidentally discovered the Hawaiian Islands while sailing from Tahiti to the West Coast of North America. Cook told of his discoveries, and it stirred the imagination of many a Briton. One person who was fascinated was a simple British cobbler named William Carey. As traders began to sail to the Pacific Islands, Carey wondered why Christians weren't doing the same. He had been studying Christ's final words in Matthew 28, and praying over maps while repairing shoes in his shop. It seemed that something was amiss when people were willing to lose their lives for world trade like Cook later did, but Protestants weren't willing to die for the cause of Christ. Carey's writings challenged Protestants in England and her American colonies to go as missionaries to a lost world.

Though Carey went to Bengal, India, his work challenged Christians in Great Britain. These believers formed the London Missionary Society (LMS) in 1795, and their first destinations were Tahiti, Tonga and Marquesas.

With great fanfare and a warm sendoff, the 30 missionaries and their families left on board the Duff in 1796.

Trials and Temptations
Each of the three mission teams, the ones for Tahiti, Tonga and Marquesa, faced trials and temptations. First of all, they were not the first Westerners to reach the Pacific Islands. Before them came sailors, who abandoned their ships to indulge in liquor and loose living with the local women. Having met Englishmen before, the Islanders weren't eager to have more of them arrive. These sailors usually did all they could to interfere with missionary work. To make matters worse, the local animistic religions often convinced people that if outsiders came, it would invite curses from the spirits.

The loose sexual morals in this part of the world were a snare to the early missionaries. Some of the single men gave in to temptation and abandoned Christian work for a hedonistic lifestyle. The local chief rewarded an early missionary in Tonga for doing so with a harem of wives.

Problems in Tonga included civil war. Three members of this first mission team were killed in the crossfire, and the other six hid in caves. Many of these original 30 missionaries returned to England.

Only four LMS workers remained in Tahiti despite overwhelming odds. After their ship, the Duff, was captured by the French navy, these four missionaries could no longer get basic supplies like food and clothing. Under these circumstances, their clothes eventually wore through and they had to forage for food.

A key standout in the Tahitian work was Henry Nott. Like some of the other single men sent to this difficult mission field, he married a local woman. Then the LMS made the mistake of sending him and his co-workers "godly" British women to marry. Under pressure from other missionaries, Nott annulled his marriage and married the woman from back home. Judging by the fruit of her life, the new wife was probably not even a Christian. She was verbally abusive with him. Her drinking problem led her to an early death a couple of months later.

These original missionaries to Tahiti got caught up in a violent rebellion against the morally degenerate King Pomare. The rebels were a genuine threat to the missionaries, who, out of necessity, allied themselves with the king. The only missionary who didn't flee at this time was Nott.

After the rebellion was squelched in 1815, the king professed to being a Christian believer. He wanted to be baptized. He denounced his gods, and gave 12 of his idols to the missionaries to be shipped to London as evidence of his new faith. The only problem was that he was also unwilling to give up his ungodly lifestyle. Nott delayed the baptism for seven years. When it did happen, 5,000 Tahitians were there to see it. The door was open for Tahitians to profess Christ.

Ripe Fruit in Hawaii
In the early 1800s, Hawaii became a favorite stopover for ships trading in the Far East. During these layovers, Hawaiian boys were sometimes invited to join the ship's crews. Some of these youths wound up in the United States.

One of those youths, Obookiah, was found crying at Yale College in New England because he had no opportunity to learn. A student named Edwin Dwight began tutoring him, and led him to Christ. He hoped that Obookiah would return to Hawaii to evangelize, but the young man died in 1818. This Hawaiian youth stirred more hearts in his death than in his life, and New England Christians became eager to send missionaries to Hawaii. The American Board of missions hastily rounded up a team of single men to go. The men had to find wives before setting sail, so the team was made up of seven couples, six of whom were newly weds. They were to be led by Hiram Bingham.

It was probably divine intervention that helped these missionaries bear fruit soon after their arrival. A new Hawaiian king had just come to power. He was against human sacrifice, idolatry and tribal warfare. The new leader welcomed the message of the missionaries.

Missionaries at that time were especially interested in improving the lives of the people to whom they went, and Bingham's team was no exception. Their board told them to "cover these islands with fruitful fields, and pleasant dwelling, and schools and churches, and of raising up the whole people to an elevated state of Christian civilization…" These zealous missionaries were also the descendents of the Puritans. This showed in their emphasis on hard work, good discipline and sexual restraint. None of these virtues were part of Pacific Island cultures. They laughed at the missionaries' insistence on hard work, and could not understand why adultery and fornication was wrong. As in other parts of the Pacific region, the missionaries were attacked by sailors who resented their efforts to turn island women away from casual sex.

But the Hawaiians were eager for schools and churches, especially after Kapiolani, one of the female chiefs, had a dramatic conversion. Before her conversion Kapiolani had a tremendous fear of Pele, the goddess whom Hawaiians thought lived in the volcanic crater of Kilauea. In front of hundreds, Kapiolani defied Pele by entering the crater and throwing in rocks and berries. She returned to the Hawaiians and told them of the unmatched power of Jehovah. This incident paved the way for Christianity to spread throughout the Hawaiian Islands.

And spread it did; missionaries went throughout the islands in the 1830s planting schools and churches. Bingham enjoyed a time of high esteem, and his words were well heeded by Hawaiian rulers. Though thousands embraced Christianity, sexual immorality continued despite the teachings and good examples of the missionaries.

Missionaries in Hawaii faced other challenges. Some began businesses, and became more interested in making money than in their Christian work. The less demanding Roman Catholic missionaries arrived, attracting those who didn't want the disciplined life preached by the New England Protestants. Later the Mormons came to turn people away from the Christ of the Bible. Yet through it all, Christianity endured. Today there are no indigenous groups in Micronesia, Melanesia or the Hawaiian Islands that have not been reached with the gospel. Many parts of the Pacific Islands are in a post-Christian stage, much like the nations of Europe. But as you will see in this issue, the Holy Spirit is reviving His Church in places like Fiji.

Pray for revival fire to sweep through all of the Pacific Islands leading to strong local churches and mission sending bases.

(With thanks to Ruth Tucker, author of "From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya" for most of the information in this article).

Let the Praises of God Go From the Rising of the Sun to the Place Where it Sets!"
This is the first month where we will partner with Ethne, an international network of intercessors. What changes can you, as GPD readers expect?

One is that we will have access to more information, much of it from "on the ground" missionaries throughout the world. Our prayer entries should be more accurate as a result.

Secondly, we will begin a full year of geographically-based issues. Instead of dealing with a topic like modernization or a particular industry and how it affects the unreached, we will begin in the world's far east (on the International Date Line) and work our way west. From the rising of the sun, to the setting of the sun, the Lord's Name will be praised! This month, we will pray for the unreached people groups in the Pacific Islands, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, and Australia. Here are the upcoming issues that we will cover in the coming year: