Spear-carrying cannibals setting his house afire, an irate chief stalking him for hours with a loaded musket, a native suddenly rising-up from a sickbed and holding him captive with a dagger to his heart—the life of John Paton reads at times like a lurid adventure story, with the hero saved at the last possible moment by his own death-defying heroics.
John Paton was a pioneering missionary for 49 years to the cannibals in the New Hebrides Islands. In trying to reach these violent people with the Gospel, not only did Paton face fierce opposition from hostile natives, but he endured great loss as well. Shortly after arriving to the New Hebrides Islands in 1858, his pregnant wife, Mary, gave birth to a son. Mary became sick with fever and died a few days later. Then a week later Paton’s son passed away, because he had no way to nurse the child. Despite these incredible trials Paton soldiered on.
By the power and grace of God, Paton slowly witnessed the cannibals turn to Christ. In 1897 he completed a translation of the New Testament into the Aniwan language, resulting in an explosion of the Gospel. In his autobiography he wrote, “I claimed Aniwa for Jesus, and by the grace of God these islands now worship at the feet of Jesus.” Today, over a hundred-years after Paton’s death in 1907, experts say that about 91% of the population of the New Hebrides (now called Vanuatu) identifies as Christian! What a testimony to the impact of a single life devoted to Christ.
But one wonders – where did a man like John Paton find such courage and resolve? According to Paton, he credits his father, James Paton, for the shaping of his soul. John was born in 1824 near Dumfries, Scotland, to a humble, God-fearing family. As the eldest of 11 children, he was forced to leave school at age 12 to work alongside his father in the family trade of stocking-making. Young John was influenced by his father’s prayers, which he said could be heard through the thin walls of the family cottage. He wrote of the power of his praying father:
“In my childhood home there was a small room, “the closet,” where father would go for prayer, as a rule, after each meal. We eleven children reverenced the spot and learned profound truths about God from father’s devotion to prayer. I can never explain how much father’s prayers impressed upon me. When on his knees and all of us kneeling around him in family worship, he poured out his whole soul with tears. We all felt the presence of the Savior. In my distress I could often hear the echoes of father’s cries to God and would hurl back all doubt with the victorious appeal, “He walked with God, why may not I?”[1]
Dads, what a call for us
to be prayer warriors for our families. The Bible says in James 5:16, “The
effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (NKJV). Dads just imagine
how we could change the direction and destiny of our children by teaching them
to pray. I praise God that I had a praying father and I learned to pray by listening
to my father’s prayers. Hey Dad or Grandpa – are you praying for your kids and
grandkids? Perhaps the greatest impact we can have on our youngsters is by wrapping
them up in our arms and letting them hear us pray. -DM
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