Allen Gardiner: Not in Vain

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[00:02:05] I'm Elise and in every episode I'll bring you a new martyr and or missionary. The cold and the brave. In this episode we're talking about Alan Gardner, missionary to Patagonia. Before we dive into Alan Gardner's story, I wanted to let you guys know that there is

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[00:03:13] You can tag us on any of our social media platforms which I will also link in the description of this episode. Alan Francis Gardner is born in 1795 in Berkshire in a little village about 50 miles outside

[00:03:26] of London and ever since he was a little boy he wanted to be a sailor. He grew up in an upper middle class genteel family and he was kind of the oddball of his family.

[00:03:36] Everybody else was content to be status quo so to speak but he wanted desperately to be a sailor and so from an early age he began training himself to live like what he presumed

[00:03:47] a sailor would live like, forgoing his blanket and his pillows and any kind of comfort that he saw a sailor lacking on the normal day to day. And by the time that he was 14 years old he had entered the naval academy during the

[00:04:01] Napoleonic Wars when the height of English pride and patriotism and every single sailor especially the young ones that entered in that had never seen combat and didn't know what war was like were really excited to beat the French.

[00:04:15] But as fate or I suppose providence would have it, Gardner's ship saw absolutely zero combat while he served. Despite this his commanding officers made sure that they were battle ready because they

[00:04:26] trained them as though they could at a moment's notice see a French ship on the horizon they'd need to engage in battle which is smart but they saw nothing. But even so they were able to go visit a lot of little islands and places they would stop

[00:04:41] into and that was one of Gardner's favorite things. He would go on shore with his journal ready and be writing down things about the people and about the food and about the animals and the plants that he saw.

[00:04:51] But at the same time sailors have a certain reputation when they enter a port of doing all sorts of things that they really shouldn't be doing. And Gardner was not immune to this and this worried his parents back home because they

[00:05:04] were a Christian family and at this point in his life I think Gardner was the only one of their family who was not a believer and so this caused some concern for his parents back at home wondering what their son was getting up to.

[00:05:19] Later on he gets transferred to another ship and he does see combat but not the combat he was expecting to see. This is during the war of 1812 so instead of fighting the French he's fighting another upstart and this is the Americans.

[00:05:34] His first combat experience was capturing the USS Essex and the effects of seeing war up close after hearing about it for so long, after kind of longing to engage in it, it

[00:05:45] causes some concern about the afterlife for him because he sees how easy it is to go on to the next life. And so he buys a Bible but he hides it from the rest of his crewmates and there doesn't

[00:05:56] seem to be evidence that he was reading at this point or there was no change in him whatsoever. But when his ship arrives in harbor in China he receives two letters that tell him that

[00:06:06] his mom is dead and this seems to be where the shift in his mind happens. There's not enough information about his relationship with his parents or other things to kind of

[00:06:18] get an inner working into his head at this point but we do know that he goes to a Chinese temple that he's there visiting and in the Chinese temple he gives his life to Christ.

[00:06:30] This is the moment where everything changed in his life in the sense that he became a professing Christian. He wasn't ashamed of having a Bible in his bunk berth, I'm not sure what they call it

[00:06:41] on naval ships but he was very openly a Christian and as his ship continued to dock around the different ports in South America and Asia he realized that there was a certain empty ritualism that was existent in Buddhism and in Roman Catholicism and that was what he

[00:07:00] was used to seeing at port after port after port until his ship arrived in Tahiti. And Tahiti was different, usually when you come to port you're greeted by all these different merchants trying to hawk their wares to you, it's loud, it's so overwhelming.

[00:07:15] But when they arrive in Tahiti it is the exact opposite of that. Everything's quiet and it's clean and it's orderly and there are no merchants trying to bowl you over to sell you whatever it is that they have for you.

[00:07:28] And when he comes ashore he realizes there are church services going on but they're Protestant church services and as he asks around he realizes the history of Tahiti. So in 1796 which is about 20 years before Gardner arrived there, a group of missionaries

[00:07:44] from what would later become known as the London Missionary Society landed in Tahiti and they were met with antagonism from local priests, the people were not very interested, there was a lot of political upheaval and just a lot of animosity from other European

[00:08:02] settlers and it looked like it was going to be a complete wash until the king of Tahiti decided that he wanted to become a Christian and he asked to be baptized. And then the rest of his subjects followed likewise.

[00:08:16] But then that began an actual genuine conversion of a lot of the different islanders and within 20 years you see a complete change and the change was evident in both their spiritual condition and also their social condition.

[00:08:30] The living conditions in Tahiti were far superior to many of the other port towns that Gardner had visited. And seeing this left a lasting impression on Gardner. He decided that he wanted to become a missionary to South America and when he goes back to

[00:08:44] England he approaches the London Missionary Society about not only joining them but then also specifically he wanted to be sent to South America. But the London Missionary Society is not interested at all.

[00:08:57] And then he goes to a couple other societies and no one's interested in South America and no one's interested in him because he's not a clergyman, he's not ordained, they're not looking for his kind of missionary.

[00:09:11] So instead he decides to grow where he is planted and continues in the Navy. He gets married and he has four kids. And there's an eight year gap in his life where there really isn't anything that's known of him or at least particularly noteworthy.

[00:09:25] We do know that he takes command of a captured ship and then after this he assumes that he'll get command of another ship and he never does. And there's no explanation as to why.

[00:09:36] Then in 1834 his wife becomes sick and it's clear that she's dying and he makes a promise in her presence and then with her blessing that he would spend the rest of his life going to share the gospel to people who had never heard it before.

[00:09:50] So after she dies he heads to South Africa in order to share the gospel with Denguene who is the king of the Zulu people. Just a smidgen of background on the Zulu people and on the current climate in South Africa at this time.

[00:10:09] The Dutch hold South Africa but they have a rather tenuous grasp at this point because the English are encroaching and then you have some problems with the Zulu kicking out and killing a lot of the other tribes in the area.

[00:10:23] The Zulu are the largest tribe in South Africa and their new king whose name is Denguene had risen to power five years earlier in 1828 after killing his half brother and then with the help of another brother and his half brother's bodyguard. He's a really bad guy.

[00:10:41] He was murderous, treacherous. He had an insane god complex that he had been installed as the god over the Zulu people and as a result the other more inferior tribes needed to be wiped out.

[00:10:55] Those that did survive became refugees in a place called KwaZulu-Natal which was a coastal province in the east and they lived particularly in a city called Port Natal. When Gardner arrives he makes friends with a Polish guy whose name is Birkin who is fleeing

[00:11:12] from political upheaval in his own home country of Poland and I looked into this and it's rather interesting. This particular political upheaval was called the November Uprising and it was a fun little

[00:11:27] side jaunt in this episode and so if you want to look it up, it's just kind of interesting to know random things that happen around the world. But anyway, while they are on their way to Port Natal, they are surrounded by a menacing

[00:11:41] group of marauders who are looking to rob them and one of them takes Gardner's penknife and is attempting to shave himself rather unsuccessfully. So Gardner has this idea of if I can shave this guy then I think that would make him happy and we would be left alone.

[00:11:59] Now why he thinks this, no idea, but he does and he shaves this guy who has never been shaven before and Gardner gives him the very fashionable English mustache, everything else is clean

[00:12:11] shaven but when this guy takes a look in the mirror he is very upset and Gardner has used the entire sharpness of the blade in order to cut through this guy's never before shaven beard.

[00:12:22] And so he tells the guy, hey this is what an English warrior looks like, you look like an English warrior. And so the guy goes away very happy and leaves them alone and they're free to continue on to Port Natal.

[00:12:36] When they arrive there Gardner tells the settlers his plan to go share the gospel with King Dungain and they say I don't think you want to do that, I don't think you realize exactly how awful that this guy is and he probably won't even let you live.

[00:12:52] But Gardner quotes the Great Commissioner then and says I have to go to all people and that includes King Dungain here. So he sets off and Birkin stays behind to look for whatever job opportunities happen to present themselves for a guy fleeing from political upheaval.

[00:13:10] Several weeks go by and Birkin comes back to the spot where Gardner had left and he's looking across the river and he's worried what happened to Gardner, did he even find Dungain, is he dead?

[00:13:24] And as he's staring across the river envisioning every horrible terrible thing that could possibly happen to Gardner, he sees Gardner coming down the river looking like a drowned rat with all of his clothes in tatters and his shoes literally tied in straps around his

[00:13:39] feet and he says what on earth happened to you? Gardner tells him that at first it's going really well. He arrives, he's welcomed very warmly, he tells Dungain that he would love to have a

[00:13:51] mission station set up so that he can tell the Zulu people about the Great Chief and about the afterlife, what happens when you die and all the different basics of the gospel.

[00:14:02] And Dungain is interested in this and he seems like oh yeah you can totally set up a mission station here. But then something happens and it's not clear if he gets other visitors that kind of come

[00:14:14] in and kind of change his mood or not but Dungain becomes kind of vindictive and Gardner can tell that he's on thin ice. So in the middle of the night he flees for his life and has made it back to Port Natal

[00:14:29] with nothing except for his tattered clothing and tattered shoes. The citizens of Port Natal want him to stay on there and start a mission station so he does stay there for several months to help them get it up and running but that's not

[00:14:44] why he came and he still keeps thinking about Dungain. So he goes back and weirdly enough Dungain doesn't seem at all miffed that he left several months prior in kind of a weird way. This time Gardner's brought gifts.

[00:14:58] He brings a looking glass and then portraits of the English royal family. That one confused me I'm really not sure why it must be like a cultural thing that doesn't make any sense anymore but he brings a telescope which absolutely fascinated Dungain and so

[00:15:15] he's in a really good mood. And so after this presentation of gifts he offers Gardner the entire territory beyond the mountains and then down to the sea. And Gardner is overwhelmed by this gift but he knows that he can't really accept it for himself.

[00:15:30] So he asks if he could give it to his king instead to Britain and the British were quickly becoming a thorn in the side of the Dutch and in Dungain's mind it was a good idea to

[00:15:42] be on the good side of the British because he kind of had his money pinned on them winning. So Dungain agrees to this and then Gardner approaches the real reason for his coming.

[00:15:55] Gardner said that he still wanted to do that which will be the greatest good to you and your people. And then he says before we knew his truth we the British people we were a poor people

[00:16:05] but by learning his words and keeping them we have become a great people and you are now a great people but I wish you to know these words that you may become even greater.

[00:16:17] God has given men a book in which they could learn about him and his ways and it was from this book the Zulus could be taught if only Dungain would allow a Christian teacher to come and live among his people.

[00:16:28] And he says that's why I've come is this something that you would be amenable to. Dungain agrees that they can install a missionary there and that he would guarantee the personal safety of that missionary.

[00:16:41] So Gardner goes back to Portnatal and he's very happy everything's gone really well but when he arrives back in Portnatal he receives the sad news about Birkin's death by drowning. The ship that he was on was wrecked and everybody who was on it had been killed.

[00:16:56] And then he goes on to pin a very touching letter to his friend which I won't read here but it's quite nice. This land grant that was given to Gardner who in turn gave it to England became the city

[00:17:09] of Durban which is the third largest city in South Africa. With his recent successes Gardner goes back to England to try to generate interest in people going to share the gospel with the Zulus and he saw himself merely as the facilitator of good opportunities.

[00:17:24] He wasn't a minister, he was a soldier and he wanted people better than him to reap the harvest while he would go around kind of opening those doors and possibly sowing those seeds.

[00:17:35] While he's back in England as a minor celebrity having secured a large swath of land for the British Empire he falls in love with a lady named Elizabeth who is half his age. He is 40 and despite her parents' reservations about their disparity in age they are married

[00:17:51] in 1836 and then eight months later he and his family sail to South Africa. And Francis Owen comes along with them as the first Church Missionary Society missionary in South Africa. Right before they arrive Gardner's only daughter who is 12 years old gets sick and she dies

[00:18:11] and she is the first European to be buried in Durban and her gravestone can still be found in the small mission cemetery there. Gardner's journey sets out more subdued than he had anticipated but he's still faithful

[00:18:25] and Gardner and Owen go to Dingane and within a few weeks there's a house and a little school that are built and then Owen is firmly installed as the teacher of the Zulu people. However not long after his installation there are tensions and conflicts that arrive that

[00:18:43] were rather inevitable. So the Dutch and the British and the Zulu and all the other tribes are in a lot of conflict with each other and it kind of becomes a situation of the enemy of my enemy is my friend and

[00:18:55] so there's different sides are all battling against each other and it just is not possible to maintain a mission station there with safety and so their dream has to be abandoned. And Owen was lucky to escape with his life that's how bad and how quickly that the situation

[00:19:13] just unraveled. Within 10 days Gardner and his family are headed out away from South Africa on their way to Rio de Janeiro and as South Africa disappears in the background Gardner writes his thoughts. Our feelings on this occasion it were not easy to describe disappointed but not cast

[00:19:33] down thankful for having been permitted to engage in any work which might contribute towards the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom on earth conscience of our own unworthiness willing to be used or laid aside at his good pleasure the pruning knife has been applied

[00:19:48] and what had looked like a flourishing branch had been lopped off. So you might be thinking why South America so soon after a South Africa and I think the answer is simply that he felt called to go reach out to all of the unreached people groups

[00:20:03] and specifically the native tribes the indigenous peoples of those areas and he had a lot of experience docking in South America and he knew how that worked in the different people who lived there and then also not forgetting the Lord's influence as well.

[00:20:22] The last time the Gardner had been in Brazil that was 20 years before and it's still been a part of Portugal and it had recently declared its independence and in Gardner's opinion it looked a lot better than it had 20 years before but he wasn't looking to stay in Rio

[00:20:36] de Janeiro so he is only there for the basic minimal amount of time to get the information he needs and then he's looking towards the tribes. So he crosses the Andes mountains into Chile in the dead of winter. It's a dangerous trip.

[00:20:50] He meets with the chief of a tribe out there past the last Chilean government outpost and the chief brings together 45 other chiefs. They're very hospitable and they are willing to have a mission post put into their territory

[00:21:05] and they do want to learn more about his religion but there is another tribe a very antagonistic tribe. They hated the Spanish and all foreigners by default and so they are unable to grant

[00:21:19] his request so he tries for another tribe and then they refuse to have foreigners among them because some of their people who had been sick and had been doctored by a French naturalist who had been passing through a while back had died despite the medication

[00:21:33] or perhaps because of it they weren't sure and they weren't going to take a risk. The other huge factor for just a complete no-go in this area is the influence of the Roman Catholics.

[00:21:45] They are deeply opposed to any kind of mission work that is not Catholic in the area and they are quite adamant about it. So after he just can't go any further in that area of South America he attempts to go to

[00:22:02] New Guinea which is held by the Dutch who were Protestants and he's thinking well there's no Catholic influence here it shouldn't be a problem but once again it's a no-go because

[00:22:12] the Dutch official who was in charge of letting him in said you might as well try to instruct the monkey as the natives of Papua. Don't interfere with the natives they'll never be any different and Gardner tries to argue

[00:22:23] and tell him that these are men they're not animals and that the Great Commission applies to them as well but it's no use this Dutch official will not be moved and so Gardner goes

[00:22:34] back to Chile in search of more native tribes and when he arrives he is thwarted by a friar who has spread such salacious rumors about him that he is unable to do any good so instead

[00:22:47] he leaves a stack of Bibles behind along with other religious pamphlets and those are all burned. And through this he realizes that he is never going to gain a foothold anywhere that the Catholics have already gone and he thinks about the area south of the mainland and so

[00:23:08] he writes this. Now if you're looking at a map of South America which I had to look at multiple times for this episode Patagonia is the southern tip of South America. Tierra del Fuego is even a little bit further south from that it's not quite connected to

[00:23:54] the mainland because it's an archipelago but it's close enough. Now if you look right and a little bit up you're looking at the Falkland Islands which are situated 400 miles away really close to Antarctica and I did not I'm terrible at geography

[00:24:08] I didn't know how close they were to Antarctica I was like wow it's so cold. Of course it's cold it's so close to Antarctica but anyway the Falkland Islands were first inhabited in 1766 by the British and the guy who discovered the islands was like I don't

[00:24:22] I don't really want to fight for these things there's really no purpose in it and the British were like no we're going to fight for these and in less than a hundred years it had changed hands six times between the French the British the Spanish and the Argentinians.

[00:24:35] Even today it's a disputed matter between the British and the Argentinians as recently as 1982 the Argentine army went in to take it and they didn't take it but in 2013 the native Falklanders were asked to vote on who they would like to belong to and they all

[00:24:54] voted overwhelmingly to remain a territory of the British. When Gardiner arrives there is a population of 24 people it is not a particularly populous destination by any means it's a beautiful place but because of its proximity to Antarctica

[00:25:10] it's incredibly bleak and desolate at the same time and during this time it serves as kind of a ship's graveyard so ships that are too damaged to go anywhere else just stay put there. So Gardiner commissions a damaged ship and he sails it across to Patagonia in Argentina

[00:25:28] north of Tierra del Fuego with the help of a very very drunk crew. When he arrives he meets an interpreter who can introduce him to the tribes this guy is an Argentinian of Spanish descent who has been living there among the tribes for about

[00:25:43] 12 years his name is San Leon. San Leon gives him a lay of the land he tells him there are five tribes there who speak all the same language and then there's the tribes in Tierra del Fuego down south who

[00:25:53] speak a completely different language two of those languages are considered to be language isolates which means they are completely unrelated to any other known languages. The tribes that Gardiner interacted with there in Patagonia seem to like the idea of him

[00:26:09] coming to stay and they understood the reasons why him sharing about his God and what happens after death because in Patagonian culture there was a very definite death was death

[00:26:22] was the end if you were good you went to the moon and if you were bad you went to the sun I think it is but it was either way very final and all of your belongings which were

[00:26:32] not buried with you were then burned and then if you had any horses those would be killed and I was thinking about children and wives and I don't know what would happen there

[00:26:41] I'm not sure if they were quite to that level but it is a natural question but there doesn't seem to be any information on that. While Gardiner is there the chief of the Wanhachi tribe comes back his name I believe is pronounced

[00:26:55] Wasal but I'm not sure about this but he had been away on a trading expedition and he comes back with a hundred and twenty horses and he is in the company of an African-American guy

[00:27:05] named Isaac who proved to be a better interpreter than the other guy Saum Leon so Gardiner asks him to be his interpreter and he agrees and Wasal is very welcoming to Gardiner and he's

[00:27:16] excited about the prospect of him coming to stay and Gardiner goes back to the Falkland Islands filled with hope about his dreams of a mission station there coming to fruition. I forgot to mention that Gardiner's family is actually staying there on the Falkland

[00:27:33] Islands with him so they're all there together and Gardiner is writing letters to the Church Missionary Society the London Missionary Society and he's hoping that they will be able to send resources and people to help get this thing started and he gets some letters back

[00:27:49] but they all say the same thing there are too few resources we can't expend ourselves that far there is not a lot of interest for that and it's just a complete bust in that

[00:28:01] way and so he goes back to England thinking that his presence in person will help. Back home it's the same story not only are the missions agencies not interested but neither is the average person despite his impassioned plea and despite a very well laid out plan.

[00:28:20] Even so Gardiner is able to create a committee of eight men of which he became the secretary and they were created for the purpose of serving the tribes in Patagonia and they decided to name themselves the Patagonia Mission Society because they were to the point and they didn't

[00:28:37] think that this would be a very long lasting mission they were hoping that once they had proved how successful that it could be to minister among the Patagonians that one of the other societies would pick them up.

[00:28:52] Gardiner returns to Patagonia with a young clergyman named Robert Hunt in tow. Hunt is young and not yet ordained and so he is given a book of catechisms to memorize and basically become a catechized minister which seems to be in lieu of ordination at

[00:29:09] least know the catechisms well enough that you can recite them and teach them. I'm not entirely sure but that's kind of the idea that I got. When they arrive in Patagonia there is no Wassall to be found anywhere.

[00:29:22] Now the ship that took them is anchored offshore and Gardiner goes into the interior to see if he can find Wassall and he leaves Hunt there on the shore. A few days go by and the ship's captain is getting pretty irritated.

[00:29:36] He doesn't want to stick around, he wants to keep going and Hunt you have to imagine the anxiety of this poor young man stranded in the middle of nowhere. He doesn't know what has happened to Gardiner. Is Gardiner still alive? Has he been killed?

[00:29:52] Has something horrible happened to him? If I don't go back with this ship and I choose to wait for him am I just going to end up dying and meeting a very similar fate and he's very stressed.

[00:30:02] And the ship's captain after four days says, okay I'll give you one more day but I'm leaving in the morning so you're going to figure this thing out whether you're coming or going.

[00:30:11] And Hunt is praying and praying and praying and on the dawn of the fifth day Gardiner walks out onto the shore as a total answer to prayer for Hunt and his relieved but he has returned

[00:30:23] empty handed so they choose to wait there on the shore because they're positive that they'll come back around it's just a matter of time. So they have their supplies there, they're able to set up a couple of little hut things

[00:30:36] that also lock and while they're there left alone the ship has gone on but a deserter from the Argentine army comes and he tells them about how San Leon who was that interpreter that he was using at first and then kind of replaced him with Isaac, he's working

[00:30:52] with the Chilean Catholics in order to convert the Patagonians with gifts. For this Gardiner is sure that neither Argentina nor Chile really cares one lick about these people it's not a it's not an important area to have it's not there's no strategic importance

[00:31:11] in it whatsoever to Gardiner and so he's surprised to hear about this. This deserter tells them that he knows where Wasal is but he's not going to take them because he's exhausted.

[00:31:22] One of the people he deserted with turned on him and tried to kill him and he says that well if they come for me I don't care I'm just gonna die I'm too tired.

[00:31:30] They lock him in the kitchen where he's safe but then a few days later they're forced to turn back because they just can't get anywhere. Hunt is really not a very strong individual and he slows Gardiner down quite a bit and

[00:31:41] they can't go very far so they head back to a little settlement. They aren't there very long before Wasal comes to them with his family and from this moment on they realize this is a very different Wasal than they met before.

[00:31:55] Gardiner and Hunt realize that they are expected to do everything for Wasal and that everything that belongs to them now belongs to Wasal. They share it but it's a very disproportionate sharing because Wasal's family is taking more

[00:32:09] of it and Wasal and his kind of cohorts are taking more than their fair share and it's just not a great situation. And this ship comes by and asks them hey would you like us to take you back and Gardiner

[00:32:23] still thinks he can work with this situation so he says no it's fine. And this ship as soon as it's kind of gone out of sight Wasal asks him for alcohol and Gardiner tries to explain to him that it's just used for medicine.

[00:32:38] Wasal doesn't care and Gardiner doesn't have much of a choice so he gives him everything except for what is absolutely essential and Wasal takes it and splits it among his basically eight chosen friends and they lock themselves away and they begin a drunken riotous party.

[00:32:56] And as this is going on there's a Chilean ship that comes by and they get invited aboard that and this is the ship that is carrying the same priest who has been making headway

[00:33:06] with the tribes by offering them not only food but also tobacco and alcohol which is where Wasal got the taste for this stuff and began demanding it from Gardiner. They realize the situation is a lot more difficult than they thought it was going to be so the

[00:33:21] Chilean government is making a play for the territorial claim over this area and they need the tribes on their side. Meanwhile the Argentinian side is doing the exact same thing and now it's a mess because

[00:33:34] no matter who wins whether it's Argentina or Chile they're both Roman Catholics so it's going to be the exact same problem for Gardiner that it was further up north in South America where he's going to be completely foiled and just shut out at every possible turn.

[00:33:52] So he realizes the door is entirely closed on Patagonia and so on a few days later a British ship comes they hop on board to head back to the Falkland Islands and then go back

[00:34:03] to England but as they're coming on board there's a storm that's been kicking up in the ocean and they lose majority of their belongings coming on board and Hunt loses his journals and he's very sad about it.

[00:34:16] As for what happens to Hunt after they come back he later becomes ordained as a minister for the Church Missionary Society and he goes to North America to work among the different people groups there predominantly in Canada I believe.

[00:34:32] After this failed attempt Gardiner goes back briefly into Bolivia there is some mild success he's able to install a native Spanish speaker there at a mission station and it looks like it's going to go well he leaves thinking aha this is great and then not long after he's

[00:34:48] there he is then recalled due to civil unrest in the area. There's like a basically a government overthrow so it's impossible for him to remain and this is yet another setback for Gardiner which turns his thoughts back to Tierra del Fuego.

[00:35:04] I want to give a little bit of history about Tierra del Fuego because it's just so interesting. Tierra del Fuego in Spanish means land of fire it was given this name by Magellan who came

[00:35:16] through and saw all of these fires and it's unclear whether he thought this was a natural phenomenon or whether he knew it was just people huddled around fires but either way the name stuck.

[00:35:28] There were a few different tribes that lived there some of them were coastal and then a couple of them were more in the interior despite being so close to the Antarctic and how cold that it was these tribes only wore a loincloth but they would grease their bodies

[00:35:45] in order to keep their body heat in and they would sit in kind of a squatting motion so as to kind of keep all of their body heat close to their core and then they would light these fires on their boats or around their small like little families.

[00:36:03] And so that's all the little dotted fires that Magellan saw when he was coming through. In the early 1820s the HMS Beagle which is a scientific exploratory vessel was making its way through the area and docked in Port Famine.

[00:36:18] Shortly after docking the captain of the ship locks himself in his cabin sinks into a deep depression and then 14 days later he shoots and kills himself. So then there is a temporary captain that is installed and then later a man named Fitzroy

[00:36:34] becomes the captain and takes over for the second journey of the Beagle through this area. This is the journey that Charles Darwin goes on. While they're exploring Tierra del Fuego their whale boat is stolen and among other things

[00:36:48] and Fitzroy sees how they're living and he has an idea if he can take some of these younger people from the tribes and he can teach them English bring them back to England and kind

[00:37:00] of civilize them teach them about Christianity perhaps then when they come back to Tierra del Fuego they can help be a gateway which would enable them to Christianize the area. So with this goal in mind he takes four teens on board and Charles Darwin writes down his

[00:37:18] thoughts on them. He said these poor wretches were stunted in their growth their hideous faces bedobbed with white paint their skin filthy and greasy their hair entangled their voices discordant their gestures violent and without dignity viewing such men one can hardly make oneself

[00:37:33] believe they are fellow creatures and inhabitants of the same world. It is a common subject of conjecture what pleasures in life some of the less gifted animals can enjoy how much more reasonably the same question may be asked with respect to these barbarians.

[00:37:59] When Steve Richardson was seven months old he and his parents moved to Papua New Guinea to bring the gospel to a tribe of violent cannibals. After weeks of preparation they made their first contact.

[00:38:09] Steve and his parents traveled to the remote tribe via canoe and as they rounded the final bend in the river they were shocked by the sight of 400 Sawi warriors armed to the teeth waiting for them.

[00:38:20] The Sawi had never seen a white person before and had never been exposed to the outside world. They were truly living in the stone age with axe heads made from rocks and zero exposure to modern civilization.

[00:38:32] In their eyes Steve's family were workers of the deepest magic they had ever witnessed. Steve's parents possessed a white metal box that could consume a person and then disappear into the sky for weeks on end before reappearing with a completely different person inside.

[00:38:46] The Richardsons also possessed magical potions that could cure the sickest man on his deathbed. But the one thing the Richardsons wanted to share the most with the headhunters was the story about a god who died for his enemies.

[00:38:58] What would transpire next would change the course of history for this entire people group and capture the imaginations of millions more. Listen to Steve share his one of a kind story on episode 65 of the Compelled podcast. Search for compelled on your favorite podcast app or visit compelledpodcast.com.

[00:39:17] Again that's compelledpodcast.com. One of these teenagers was named Jimmy Button and Jimmy is the one that everyone puts their hopes in. He's the most interested in English, he grasps it the quickest, he's interested in all of

[00:39:40] the fine things that England has to offer, he's the most interested in Christianity and they stay in England for a couple of years and they are brought back to Tierra del Fuego in the company of a young missionary teacher and tutor who will serve to hopefully open

[00:39:58] the doors of Christianity to the Tierra del Fuegans with the help of these three teenagers because I forgot to mention that when they arrived in London one of them died because of a smallpox.

[00:40:09] So there's three of them left, two of whom got married and then there's Jimmy Button who is unattached and this missionary teacher who were installed into the community. But as soon as they land and begin setting things up they realize this is not going to

[00:40:24] work because the tribesmen kind of come from every direction and they immediately begin snatching everything from these three teens and from this missionary teacher. And this is while the ship is still there so you can imagine what would happen after the ship was gone.

[00:40:40] So they recall this missionary teacher and they're unable to make any real headway. Now it's 26 years later that Gardner is headed back to this area and he is hoping to find Jimmy Button and this married couple.

[00:40:56] He heads there with five companions only one of which is remembered that is Joseph Irwin. He's a ship's carpenter from Bristol and he's the only one who's not there for religious reasons and he doesn't seem to be a believer.

[00:41:09] They run into the exact same problem that the crew from 26 years ago had where the pilfering made it absolutely impossible for them to stay and Gardner realized that they needed a big boat to live on until there was enough camaraderie for them to remain unbothered on shore.

[00:41:26] And so he begins dreaming of this 100 foot boat that he can take and kind of anchor offshore and then direct things from the Falkland Islands. So with this idea in mind they pack up almost as soon as they got there and then head back to England.

[00:41:42] Gardner's going on about his great plans and what he thinks will really work and nobody cares because David Livingston is all the rage now and Charles Gutsloff has just come back from Hong Kong.

[00:41:53] And so these thoughts of China and Africa are where people's hearts and minds are at and not South America. Gardner continues to ask and to petition for support and none is forthcoming.

[00:42:06] So then he modifies his request and says well I can make it work if I have two smaller launches which are 26 feet long by eight and a half feet wide and then if they can have a couple

[00:42:17] of dinghies and just one lady comes forward and produces the money that they need. So then these launches are commissioned and the supplies are ordered. They have enough food for six months fishing equipment and a barrel of gunpowder to hunt

[00:42:32] the wildfowl and other creatures that are in the area. So the plan was that after these six months they would have another six months of supplies sent to them from England to the Falkland Islands and then forwarded to them there at Tierra del Fuego.

[00:42:49] And it seems like a foolproof plan. This time the company consisted of Joseph Irwin who was the ship's carpenter from before. He was coming again because he loved Gardner so much. He said that it's like heaven on earth to be with him.

[00:43:03] He is such a man of prayer which says a lot to Gardner's character because Irwin is not a believer. Along with Irwin there were three Christian fishermen from Cornwall. There were Babcock, Bryant and Pierce and they're all named John so for the sake of clarity

[00:43:20] they'll be referred to by their last names which I guess I already do anyway. There's also a waiter whose name is John Maidment who was studying to become ordained and there's a doctor who had a flourishing medical practice but felt convicted to shutter his practice

[00:43:34] and his name is Robert Williams. He arrives last minute because nothing was going right for him. He couldn't properly close his practice, he couldn't sell his house, there were so many problems.

[00:43:44] So he had to get his brother-in-law to have power of attorney over all of his things and then just hop on the boat almost as it's heading out of the harbor. And it's this crew that leaves on Saturday, September 7th, 1850.

[00:43:58] Before they had arrived on the boat almost none of this mission group actually knew each other. Gardner and Irwin knew each other and it seems that Pierce and Bryant knew each other but other than that everybody else was complete strangers.

[00:44:10] And Williams does us the great honor of giving us his insights into the people of the mission and Williams because he's a doctor studies people and he's really good at it and he writes down all of his thoughts.

[00:44:22] He says that Babcock who was the last to join the mission was naturally timid and apprehensive until actually in the midst of danger and difficulty. And then he behaved with the utmost calm and composure taking everything in stride.

[00:44:35] And then Bryant was all fire and zeal and it's through him that Pierce had been led to Christ. So Bryant after a church meeting finds Pierce and says, where are you heading? Are you going with me?

[00:44:48] Are you going to heaven or will you go your own way and be lost forever? And Pierce who was formerly rather ambivalent about Christianity and about God in general said that he was determined that Satan should not jam me any longer with his unbelief.

[00:45:03] And so with or without a witness I would believe and so I did believe and he tells Williams of course then I was saved. Irwin was out of the odd man out not because he was a bad guy in fact he was actually absolutely

[00:45:16] fantastic but he was there not because he believed in the mission necessarily but because he believed in Gardner and he loved Gardner. But Williams was content that with people like Bryant on board that Irwin would hear lots and lots about the gospel.

[00:45:33] John Maitland was an unordained missionary who had served in kitchens and as a waiter so he had a lot of restaurant experience and Williams says that he is an example of patience and humbleness and kindness and he suffers greatly at all times when exposed to the

[00:45:46] sea because of seasickness. And then on to his thoughts about Gardner Williams is very conflicted. He and Gardner really could not be more opposite in every possible way because Williams was accustomed to kind of a softer life. He's a doctor he comes from a well-to-do family.

[00:46:07] Gardner came from a well-to-do family but since he was young he'd been away at sea and then now he'd been spending a lot of time in very difficult positions wandering the world. So he was a more hardened individual and he wasn't too sure about Williams.

[00:46:23] He thought I don't know if Williams has what it takes he seems like a real softy and in the same way Williams was like I don't know that he actually cares about anybody because he's just so hardened.

[00:46:36] They were different even the way that they viewed this voyage for example Williams was like oh my goodness I can't believe how uncouth everyone is. How does how do they stand it this captain is a believer how does he stand his you know

[00:46:46] his crew behaving in such coarse ways and then Gardner writes down in his journal that oh I can't believe we have such a wonderful crew aboard these people are so nice and so kind and so gentle.

[00:46:59] So Williams is going through this internal crisis Gardner is absolutely unaware of it in any way shape or form but two months into the voyage Williams is finally able to get into his element because unfortunately several of the crew came down with typhus and other

[00:47:14] ailments and without Williams it's it's highly unlikely they actually would have survived. By the time the journey was complete in about four months their misgivings about each other seemed to have been quietly resolved without a word being said just the nature of watching

[00:47:30] each other seemed to assuage any doubt so they had about each other. When they arrived on the island they set up camp in Banner Cove while the launches were being built and then history went on to repeat itself because they kept getting pilfered

[00:47:46] from and kept getting bothered by the natives but they didn't feel like that was any concern because it was just proof that their plan was going to work. When Gardner had come through previously he had left a couple of goats with the hopes that

[00:48:00] they would increase and they had to seven so they gave two of the goats to the captain as a thank you for the dogs they would be bringing with them there on Tierra del Fuego.

[00:48:11] Now these dogs are mentioned in passing it's it's a mom and then her two puppies. Now these dogs are never mentioned again it seems they met an unfortunate fate of pilfering themselves so that's kind of sad.

[00:48:24] Gardner's plans were as they always were that he would not remain in Tierra del Fuego very long. He was thinking that if he were a single man he would spend his days in Tierra del Fuego

[00:48:35] his feelings are summed up in one sentence here he says not that I am tired of the work but I am too old and would gladly resign a work for which I am not qualified.

[00:48:44] So he was thinking that in six months when they got restocked they would be set up enough that he would be able to head out and then bring more people in. Almost right away they realized there were lots of problems with their two launches.

[00:48:58] They named them the Pioneer and the Speedwell and they had intended to use these two boats to kind of look around the island for suitable places for not only stashing their food supplies but then also looking for suitable places for mission station.

[00:49:15] The Speedwell was carrying Williams and Irwin and on this their first journey out it was almost dashed upon the rocks and they had to battle a storm for hours before they safely arrived back in Banner Cove.

[00:49:27] They were missing the raft they were pulling, their anchor and their rudder was also damaged and then the Pioneer had likewise lost two of their dinghies because these boats were not big enough for their needs.

[00:49:40] They actually had to pull these things behind them when originally they were hoping they could fit inside the boat. But the biggest problem for the Pioneer in their mind is that they were separated from their companions

[00:49:51] and they were worried about what had happened to them and they arrived back at Banner Cove after fighting a storm for 23 hours to thankfully find their friends safe and sound in Banner Cove and that is just how their first two days went after they were dropped off.

[00:50:08] They decided to store all of their supplies in a place called Bloomfield Harbor. While they were on their way there the Pioneer ran aground and the natives tried to come aboard and take what they could but they left when the men on board began praying

[00:50:23] but then they gathered further offshore and were just kind of watching them and numbers kept getting added to those who were watching from the shore and it was an intimidating sight for them to look at.

[00:50:34] Well the speedwell then notices that the Pioneer is not behind it so then it spins back around to come get their companions but it's just slow going. But once these natives see the speedwell then they disappear

[00:50:49] and then the crew was able to go on to Bloomfield Harbor with the two dinghies and then they spent Christmas Day there happily repairing their boats. For their little mission crew Maitland had offered to act as a cook for the group

[00:51:03] because he had the most restaurant experience and he was really excited at the potential thought of eating warm fresh food because they had been living off of ship's rations for four months already. But as they were unloading they couldn't find the gunpowder barrel anywhere

[00:51:18] and they realized they left it on board the ship that had dropped them off so they realized they would have to live off of hardtack and preserved food until the next ship came which would hopefully be in six months.

[00:51:32] But while they're waiting Williams who is the least accustomed to living without and I suppose Maitland as well but Williams more so comes down with scurvy and the Pioneer was wrecked during a storm while it was anchored because it was crashed up against an underwater route.

[00:51:48] So then they were trying to save the things from being ruined by the water while it rained on top of them and then flooded below them and then it was two days later before they were able to drag the Pioneer on shore

[00:52:00] and then Williams was given the cabin because he was sick and weak. That cabin had been Gardner's so he moved out and made himself a lean-to that he really liked and he had set a fire one night keeping it nice and dry

[00:52:13] and his lean-to had caught on fire and he was really miffed about it because it was like his favorite spot. But then a day later a bunch of rocks that had been precariously dangling above his head crashed down right where his head would have been

[00:52:28] and he realized that this was providence, that God had spared his life and that the fire was a blessing in disguise. In addition to all these other setbacks they realized that most of their supplies had been raided from the spot where they had left them

[00:52:44] and then also the ship that was supposed to come resupply them in six months had no idea where they were because they were no longer on Banner Cove where they were supposed to be. So they needed to get back there to leave a message telling them

[00:52:57] that they had moved to Spaniard Harbor. So they get there but it's really rough going. Williams is in a precarious situation being sick. When they arrive a group of natives are there but they are a small and friendly enough group

[00:53:12] but they have to leave a message in a way that it's not going to be messed with so the natives leave to go get reinforcements to come back to the shore. So while they're gone Gardner leaves a series of bottles with notes in them

[00:53:25] telling them where they had gone off to and they painted rocks with a message to go to Spaniard Harbor and they sailed back out to Spaniard Harbor. Meanwhile George Despard who was serving as the secretary of the Patagonian Mission Society

[00:53:41] and was in charge of giving them the supplies they needed to be sent to the Falkland Islands was having trouble getting these supplies shipped out. He could find no ship to bring them because it wasn't worth it to the ships

[00:53:53] to go all that way out for such a small supply. Once the Gardner crew had arrived back at Spaniard Harbor they split into two different groups so as not to overcrowd the two boats. So Williams stayed on board the speed well with Babcock, Pierce, Irwin and Bryant

[00:54:10] and then Gardner and Maidment went to stay in the pioneer wreck which was a mile and a half down the shore. Babcock had also now fallen sick and so Williams suggested that they be bunkmates so that he could keep an eye on his condition

[00:54:25] and the two groups kept in touch each day and waited for a ship they were sure would be along any day. They had a small supply of gunpowder they could use to fire off a shot as soon as they saw a sail.

[00:54:36] They were all in relatively good moods and Williams was holding prayer and hymn singings with the three men from Cornwall and with Irwin and it's from these hymn singings and prayer meetings that Irwin finally becomes a believer taking Gardner's faith and actually then making it his own

[00:54:52] and Gardner writes this down about Williams' influence. He said he has whenever strong enough engaged in prayer with the crew of the boat in the evening for a short time it is delightful to see him so heavenly minded

[00:55:03] and so anxious to draw all around him to the fountain of grace from which he draws such inward comfort in the midst of his afflictions. In May about five months after they have been stranded Gardner realized that their ship's biscuits would only last another three weeks

[00:55:19] so those who were in good health were put on short rations and any fish they caught were then given to the sick because the fresh meat was needed more by them and then every day he said a special prayer for the sick.

[00:55:30] The fishing net they had been using to catch whatever tiny amount of fish were left over before the winter truly set in was snagged by some fast-flowing ice and carried off. Gardner and the rest of the group are discouraged by this.

[00:55:45] They continue to pray that they will be found but they're beginning to lose hope that they're going to be found so their mind shifts to finishing their race well as opposed to hopes of rescue.

[00:55:58] Gardner uses all this extra time that they have to write down his thoughts on running the mission and it's really the same thoughts he had and came to England with before that they needed a big ship and it needed to be run from the Falkland Islands

[00:56:12] they needed natives in order to be able to help them learn the language they needed to be able to convince them to come back with them to the Falkland Islands to learn the language and so he wrote down all of these thoughts

[00:56:23] all the intricacies of how this could be done better. In the meantime they were all beginning to slow down Williams and Babcock were in constant pain Williams and Babcock were in constant pain due to the scurvy Babcock was actually the worst out of the two of them

[00:56:40] William writes that I kept him from knowing my suspicion of his case and as I treat my own case very lightly and by the grace of God I'm ever able to keep a cheerful countenance and abundance of confidence

[00:56:51] I am able also to keep down his mind the alarm and despondency which so particularly belong to this disease and which so greatly add to its distress. John Babcock is the first to die his breath came in heavy pants for several hours

[00:57:05] but then he was able to rally long enough to ask them to all come together to sing a hymn which he knew by heart which is Arise My Soul Arise by Charles Wesley and then after he finished it he lays back his breathing slows and then eventually stopped.

[00:57:22] On a practical level just the effort of burying his body exhausted them all because they were extremely weakened and it took away precious energy that they really did not have to spare and now the Antarctic winter was also fully upon them

[00:57:35] which meant that there were almost certainly no ships that would be coming for them and they knew it. Gardner's condition deteriorated to the point that he was no longer able to get out of bed and so Irwin comes from the other ship

[00:57:50] to check in and see how the captain was doing because he was worried he had heard he could no longer leave his bed and this proved to be a final act of devotion on the part of Irwin because once he got back to his side of the boat

[00:58:02] he laid down and never woke back up and this last act of devotion on the part of Irwin proved to be his very last because once he made it back to his ship he lays down and he never gets back up.

[00:58:15] And then two days later Bryant dies rather unexpectedly and this seemed to be the final breaking point for Pierce Bryant if you recall led him to the Lord so he had a nervous break and his only companion was Williams

[00:58:27] who was now slightly delirious and unable to actually keep him company so that meant Maidment was the only person left to bury them and he had to bury them by himself and then comfort Pierce and then walk all the way back to the pioneer

[00:58:42] and then Gardner writes down in his journal that And by that point Maidment was almost certainly gone it seems that he took his last bit of strength and carried himself into a cavern so that way he wouldn't die in the boat

[00:59:13] and that way Gardner who couldn't get up to care for him would not be left there with him. Nobody's entirely sure what happened on this speed well whether Williams died first whether Pierce died first when they died but it seems to be that judging by the journal entry

[00:59:33] that Gardner is the last person left alive and here is his last journal entry. My care is all cast upon God and I am only waiting for his time and good pleasure to dispose of me as he shall see fit.

[01:00:10] Whether I live or die may it be in him I commend my body and soul into his care and keeping and earnestly pray that he will mercifully take my dear wife and children under the shadow of his wing comfort guide strengthen and sanctify them wholly

[01:00:23] that we may be together in a brighter and eternal world praise and adore his goodness and grace in redeeming us with his precious blood and plucking us as brands from the burning to bestow upon us the adoption of children and make us inheritors of his heavenly kingdom. Amen.

[01:00:39] That journal entry is from September 6th it's not until six weeks later that a ship comes to supply them and then finds five of them dead and it doesn't seem that they go far enough up the coast to find Gardner or Maidment

[01:00:54] so it's not until four months later that a group associated with the mission finds all the men and then buries them and from there they recover the diaries of Williams and Gardner. It wasn't until another four months in April that letters reached Espard

[01:01:08] who is the secretary of the mission about the wreck discovery and then it was another four days before he opened the London Times newspaper and saw that they had all been found dead. The reaction at home was mixed there were scathing reviews written on the wasted time

[01:01:24] and money and resources mainly the money that had been wasted when there were so many needy people at home and this reminds me of Judas who is lamenting about that perfume but it also served as a rebuke upon the English gentleman who Gardner had implored to help

[01:01:42] and they didn't and they're sitting there reading this in the comfort of their homes thinking oh my goodness how could something like this have happened and it's here I'll put a reminder that it was one lady who gave the money for the launches and she seems to be

[01:01:55] one of the only people in all of England who gave anything at all. And Despard was not going to let this go to waste he published the diaries he published the missionary memorandum that he had written about the goals for a new mission to Tierra del Fuego

[01:02:13] and as a result these comfortable gentlemen sitting at home reading these papers thinking oh my goodness oh that's so terrible were finally moved to actually do something and they gave some money enough money that they were actually able to do what Alan Gardner had said

[01:02:28] they should do in the first place which was build a giant ship that they could use and go use the Falkland Islands as a go-between. Despard's motto was a hope deferred not lost he had every intention of going back and making sure that Gardner's dream became a reality

[01:02:44] it's two years later when the very ship that Gardner wanted which now bears his name arrives in Tierra del Fuego with Alan Gardner's son also named Alan and this is where we get back to Jimmy Button there is no doubt that he existed

[01:02:58] there are several things about his life that we can be certain are true it's mostly a timeline issue so in some accounts when they arrive on Tierra del Fuego they call out to Jimmy Button and he answers in perfect English

[01:03:16] and he agrees to take his wife and children to the Falkland Islands to teach the missionaries the language for six months and everything from there goes well but there are other things that happen as well that seem as though it may not have been as rosy a picture

[01:03:31] as had been previously painted they do find Jimmy Button he is dressed in a loincloth he is married to two women has four kids he does still speak English so that is one thing that has been consistent in all these accounts is his learning of English

[01:03:47] made him a little bit of a social outcast because he preferred speaking English over speaking his own language which is Yagin which is named after the tribe that he is from but here's where it gets a little bit tricky he does agree to go back

[01:04:01] to the Falkland Islands with his two wives and his children and teach the missionaries but then once he goes back to Tierra del Fuego he goes back to wearing a loincloth and doesn't seem to be as friendly to the missionaries as had been previously reported

[01:04:20] there seems to be good evidence that he was the one who led a massacre on a group of missionaries all the missionaries were killed Jimmy denied involvement but it seems like he was definitely involved and Thomas Bridges he was a missionary

[01:04:37] who as a child had been adopted by Despard he had been found as a baby under a bridge hence his last name Bridges he really did not care for Jimmy Button because he thought that he was slippery that he would say one thing and do something completely different

[01:04:53] but we really don't know what exactly went on with Jimmy Button but Thomas Bridges spends his life working among the people groups of Tierra del Fuego particularly with the Yagin tribe he creates a Yagin English dictionary his family lives among them for many many years

[01:05:12] his son is raised among the tribe he actually has a book called The Uttermost Part of the Earth that is by Lucas Bridges and I will link it you can read it and it's all about his life growing up among the Yagin now through his work

[01:05:28] and through the work of other missionaries there's such a complete transformation among the Yagin people that Charles Darwin who used them as evidence for his theory of evolution he was forced to kind of eat his words not publicly but interestingly enough he becomes a supporter

[01:05:46] of the Patagonian Mission Society and attends their meetings for the rest of his life Alan Gardner's son does go to Tierra del Fuego but he doesn't end up staying he works in Chile among the people his father had visited when Alan Jr. was still a boy

[01:06:01] his father left him a really lovely letter basically laying out his hopes and dreams for him but then at the same time saying hey you can do whatever you want to I just hope that whatever you do is in the service of God

[01:06:14] but here's something I would love you to do is to go back to these tribes and that's what he did and he spent the rest of his life it seems working among these different tribes in South America and this is where most of the stories usually end

[01:06:29] and I could wrap it up for you that way and it's not tempting but it would make for a better story or at least a more hopeful story but I would be remiss if I didn't include what happens next once the missionaries begin work in Tierra del Fuego

[01:06:45] more interest is generated and other people come to explore the area including Chileans, Argentinians other people from Europe they come and discover gold so there's a giant gold rush that happens there and then in addition to that other European settlers come to do sheep ranching

[01:07:05] so because of this diseases begin to spread against the natives smallpox and all the different things that they weren't exposed to which decimates the population of all of these different tribes and then when it comes to ranching because the natives had no concept especially in the interior

[01:07:24] of personal property they were just taking the sheep and then the settlers were going and killing them which led to a genocide of one people group and the missionaries tried to help where they could by relocating the tribes trying to mediate

[01:07:40] but all of the same, all of these tribes were almost entirely wiped out and in 2022 the last native speaker of Yagin died and that's a similar story repeated throughout the other tribes in Tierra del Fuego there is a glimmer of hope however for this because I know

[01:07:58] that this is rough news this is not how we wanted this episode to kind of play out but because of Alan Gardner coming and sacrificing his life and the lives of the other people as well, more missionaries came to Tierra del Fuego and people that would

[01:08:14] have had no other way of hearing the gospel heard it many of them accepted it, their lives were changed, no matter how short those lives were they are now in eternity whereas before and the people who came later would have come later regardless

[01:08:30] had no interest in their spiritual lives so in that way it is a bittersweet testimony as far as the rest of the areas where the Patagonian Mission Society existed Brazil, Argentina Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia Spain and Portugal were all successful missions and that's a legacy that continues in 2010

[01:08:52] the Patagonian Mission Society was absorbed into the Church Missionary Society just as Gardner had hoped albeit 150ish years later in 1982 there was an inaugural service that was held for a little church that was built through the efforts of Christians in the Chilean Navy

[01:09:10] and there was a man who reported on that ceremony and he wrote this A moving tribute was paid to the missionary Alan Gardner, who more than 100 years ago was the first man used by God to sow the seed of the good news of salvation in these different parts

[01:09:24] We are conscious of the bravery through which this servant of the Most High gave his life in the cause of his Lord and that today what he sowed has been brought forth life neither he nor his companion's sacrifices have been in vain I wanted to

[01:09:40] explain a little bit about why I did the episode on Alan Gardner I'm recording this after I've already edited this episode and I didn't realize it was going to be an hour long that wasn't intentional, in fact it was supposed to be a little bit

[01:09:52] of an easier episode, maybe half an hour or so, especially after doing Hudson Taylor and then as I kept researching his story, there was just more and more information and so I included that as well so now we're clocked in at about an hour

[01:10:06] or so. But I wanted to include his story because especially after coming off of Hudson Taylor and the legacy that he had and the impact, you know, you can go through multiple stories of Hudson Taylor and it's just like wow, how encouraging. There are hard

[01:10:20] things but there's also just a ton of encouragement to be gleaned from him and that's why people love him so much In Alan Gardner in that sense is not as easy to love because you don't see the fruit of his work nearly to the same

[01:10:34] degree and in fact, you could say he failed. And a lot of people in his day did say that he failed and they said why would he do this? He's foolish. And this was not just from people who were secularists they weren't believers, but

[01:10:50] this was also from his fellow believers They thought well why are you going to do this? This was just a waste of your life and I think we can be tempted to think that we don't have the same struggles anymore, but that's not true. Especially in recent

[01:11:06] years there's been a shift away from foreign missions and I've seen so many different articles and even just comment sections where people will attack the idea of foreign missions because they will say just like those newspaper articles why aren't we focusing on the

[01:11:22] people right here at home? Our neighbors at home loving them? Why are we going out to the far reaches of the world? And it sounds good, but it's entirely sanctimonious Why can't we have both without attacking each other? Why can't we have people who are serving faithfully at

[01:11:38] home and then why can't we have people who are serving faithfully abroad? These voices of opposition were especially strong after the martyrdom of John Chow who went to the North Sentinel Island and was killed by the tribe there and there were so many

[01:11:54] attack pieces on him for being foolish, for being under prepared, for just being, having a white savior complex and I wish I could remember who it was that did this write up. I'm going to see if I can find it. I can't remember

[01:12:08] if it was Christianity Today or if it was Voice of the Martyrs. I'm not sure but earlier this year there was a very long article that was published that went through exactly how prepared that he was and it flew in the face of those people

[01:12:24] who had mocked him and mocked him in his death for how worthless that his sacrifice was and how it didn't matter and how he was just trying to prove that he was some kind of incredible missionary like the next Jim Elliott or something like that

[01:12:38] and that's why I wanted to do this episode on Alan Gardner because there are countless people like John Chow and like Alan Gardner whose names we will never know until we get to heaven and they died in ways that we might be tempted to think are worthless

[01:12:52] but there are no worthless sacrifices for Christ so even though we can't see it on this side of heaven that does not diminish their sacrifice and we can hope to be as bold as them for the kingdom of Christ

[01:13:06] As always, thank you for listening to Martyrs and Missionaries I'm Elise

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