p. 15 | Fijian Missionaries Leaving for Distant Islands

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 16, 1909

Fijian Missionaries Leaving for Distant Islands

A MISSIONARY, in describing the home-leaving of a Fijian band of missionaries departing for distant islands, says: “On my return to Suva, I had the pleasure of being present at a farewell meeting given to nineteen native missionaries, who, with their wives and children, making a party of ninety, were leaving for work in the distant islands. It was a most impressive gathering, the fine Jubilee church being thronged with interested worshipers, and the brethren, mostly in their fresh, white suits, sitting at the head of the building. Going into this foreign work is often a greater sacrifice to them than to us, for they are lovers of home and friends, and many of them felt their position keenly; one who had been a helper in the missionary's family, could scarcely control his voice to speak. A fine-looking man, who, after furlough, was returning to work in New Guinea, said: ‘Our mission is to save souls, but here is a life that I have saved,’ lifting up a colored child, who was being buried alive as a baby when he rescued him. He added, ‘I leave my people, the country of my ancestors. I have no land now; heaven is my land.’” Who knows but some of these missionaries may have been sent to New Guinea by the loving Father above, there to learn from our workers the fuller meaning of the gospel contained in the third angel's message?