On this day, August 21, 1732, two men bid farewell to their families at Herrnhut in Germany and set off for St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. The purpose of their mission? To work as slaves beside the African Slaves on a sugar plantation. They ended up working on that plantation for seven years. What did they bring with them for this undertaking?
The gospel.
After seven years on the sugar plantation they set up a church where slaves from the plantations were allowed to attend.
I’m sure these Moravians missionaries had an influence on the slaves, but I wonder if their actions preached the gospel to the slave owners as well. For it’s not just those who are monetarily poor who need the gospel.
It makes someone today wonder what sort of community these missionaries came from.
A community of prayer.
In August of 1727, five years before the missionaries left, a prayer meeting began at Herrnhut. This prayer meeting continued for 100 years. The atmosphere of praise and worship to the Lord launched a missions movement not only to the West Indies but across the world.
Before these men left their families, they declared the reason for what they were about to do: that the Lamb would receive the reward for His suffering.
This was the beginning of the modern missions movement. A missions movement that’s still going on today.
What role will you play?
You can look on my links page for some incredible examples of missionaries alive today who are giving themselves just as wholeheartedly as those two men in 1732.
