Early Church
One of the first widely publicized martyr stories in the post-apostolic era was that of
Polycarp
He assembled a large crowd at Geismar, where the sacred oak of the Thundergod was located, and with the people looking on in horror, he began chopping down the tree.
Boniface
He struggled to make headway in the very difficult Huron language.
Paul Le Jeune
He spent thirty-three years as the overseer of a worldwide network of missionaries who looked to him for leadership.
Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf
Through his influence, who (in retrospect) symbolically ushered in the “Great Century” of foreign missions, the evangelism of the world began to be viewed as a primary obligation of the Christian church.
William Carey
She called out to some grieving Christian friends, “Give out the Word to the brothers and sisters; stand fast in the faith, love one another, and don’t let our suffering become a stumbling block to you.”
Perpetua
Often referred to as the “Apostle of the North
Anskar
Often referred to as the “Apostle to the Indians.”
John Eliot
He sent a proposal “for the conversion and enlightenment of the Greenlanders
Christian David
Two years after they had sailed from America, they were serving alone in Burma, spending up to twelve hours a day in language study.
The Judson's
His ministry was to the Goths, a barbarian tribe outside the Roman Empire living in the area of present-day Romania.
Ulfilas
They would have their own alphabet devised by This missionary, and the gospels and liturgy in their own language
Cyril
He witnessed a revival among the Indians
David Brainerd
To the Moravians, he was a rigid and doctrinaire Lutheran who was more concerned with teaching his cold orthodoxy than with saving souls
Hans Egede
The Karens had a long tradition that white men would one day bring the “book of life” to them, and thus they were open to the teaching of the missionaries who had a book.
The Boardman's
He was sold to a farmer of Slemish, where for the next six years he herded swine.
Patrick
He soon discovered that a ministry focused on children was more effective than one focused on adults.
Francis Xavier
In 1746 he helped establish Gnadenhuetten, a Christian Indian village in Pennsylvania that became a prosperous farming community of some five hundred Indian residents
David Zeisberger
He worked among the people, and personal evangelism was simply conducted during his daily contacts with them. For a time he worked as a day-laborer, butchering, tanning hides, threshing wheat, pruning fruit trees, and doing other farm chores; and after a time he acquired livestock of his own as well as his own garden.
George Schmidt
The vast majority of his students came to his school only for the secular education, and of these thousands there were only thirty-three recorded converts during his lifetime.
Alexander Duff
The switch from “home” missions to “foreign” missions at the age of forty-two was motivated “for the love of Christ
Columba
He was permitted to locate in Peking and continue his mission work near the emperor’s palace, while living on a stipend from the imperial government
Matthew Ricci
Baptist missions to the Indians began with
Isaac McCoy
He was the premier Moravian missiologist whose writings became required reading for many early missionary candidates. His mission theology was taken primarily from the apostle Paul, whose tent-making vocation was particularly applicable to Moravian methodology.
August Spangenberg
HE presided over an era of rapid growth of the Methodist Church in India, with mass movements of converts into membership, and expansion into Southeast Asia.”
James Thoburn