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John Allen Chau had tried to make contact with the hostile and isolated Sentinelese people, who were known to be aggressive toward outsiders and are a protected tribe with restrictions on visiting their island An ambitious Christian missionary met an untimely end when he was slaughtered by a uncontacted tribe after trying to convert them to his religion. John Allen Chau, 27, visited an island in the Indian Ocean inhabited by people who are part of an endangered tribe. People are banned from even approaching North Sentinel Island to protect the people who live there and their way of life....

Decades after dozens of missionary kids suffered physical and sexual abuse at the Christian Academy of Japan (CAJ), mission agency leaders associated with the Tokyo school fell prostrate on the ground to perform dogeza, Japan’s deepest form of apology. The 13 leaders met with victims at a private retreat in Colorado last fall to hear their stories and offer a formal apology. “On their knees, heads on their hands, sobbing,” recalled Janet Oates, a 1963 alum of the academy, which was founded in 1950 as a boarding school for missionary children. “Alumni were sobbing too … one moment of justice.”...

For the feast of the North American martyrs today, I post the account of Saint Charles Garnier's death and life as taken from the Jesuit Relation of 1650. Garnier was slain by the Iroquois on December 7, 1649 at the age of 44. Fr. Garnier's death occurred during that year of destruction, 1649, when the Iroquois erupted like a whirlwind from their base in present-day central New York and burst upon their traditional enemies to the north. Newly equipped with British muskets and schooled in their use, the Iroquois had an insuperable advantage over the Hurons, Algonquins, and Tobacco nations...

Very frequently mission mistakes result from a lack of appreciation for, and even ignorance of, the culture in question. It may be that the greatest flaw today in missionary orientation for post-Soviet lands is not its brevity, although that is frequently a serious shortcoming. The greatest flaw may be inadequate to nonexistent country-specific and culture-specific preparation; that is, woefully insufficient study of pertinent languages, literature and history. Ministry training too often focuses on what might be called generic preparation...Greater attention to culture-specific orientation and training... would reap ample dividends in terms of less traumatic culture shock and greater longevity for...

Join with fellow FREEPERS across the world to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Agri-Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, Technology, and the Media. "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness." (1 Timothy 2:1-2) Religion Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.

I just finished watching the 1981 Oscar-winning film from England, "Chariots of Fire", on Turner Classic Chanel. Chariots is on my top 5 list of the best movies of all time. Not so much for the acting, cinematography, or directing, those are excellent but for the message it conveys.He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength.Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall,But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run...

Settlers in New England highlighted the conflict between self-preservation and the selfless sharing of the Gospel. Gospel-motivated settlers wanted to bless the native inhabitants, both physically and spiritually. Unfortunately, other settlers viewed natives as an unpredictable danger, as sometimes they would kidnap women and children, or steal from farms. In a larger sense, what both sides were experiencing was a colliding of civilizations. Europe, Asia, China, India, North Africa, and the Middle East, all had centuries of written languages, metal tools, scientific advancements, agricultural technologies, and powerful weapons. By comparison, natives of North America had a subsistence lifestyle. This was...

"There she blows!" cried the lookout, sighting the great white whale, Moby Dick. The classic book, Moby Dick, was written by New England author Herman Melville, published in 1851. In the novel, Captain Ahab, driven by revenge, sailed the seas to capture this great white whale who had bitten off his leg in a previous encounter. The crew of Captain Ahab's ship, the Pequod, included: Ishmael, the teller of the tale, which begins the line: "Call me Ishmael"-the name of Abraham's son who was sent away; Chief Mate Starbuck, a Quaker from Nantucket, for whom the Seattle-based coffee franchise took...

In 1778, British Captain James Cook discovered Hawaii, which he named "The Sandwich Islands" in honor of John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich -- the acting First Lord of the Admiralty. Captain Cook was killed on his third visit to Hawaii in 1779. When Captain Cook's voyages were read in England they raised awareness of new lands. This inspired a missionary movement, led by William Carey, who took the Gospel to India in 1793. The Hawaiian Islands were united by King Kamehameha I in 1810. In 1819, King Kamehameha I died. His wife, Kaʻahumanu, and his son, Liholiho (King...

Pilgrim Governor William Bradford wrote: "As one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone unto many, yea in some sort to our whole nation." An example of "one small candle" lighting "a thousand" occurred in the early 1700s, with a rich young ruler. Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf was born in 1700 into a noble German family, with his ancestor being Maximillian I, the Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 to 1519. When Nikolaus was six weeks old, his father died. His mother remarried, and at the age of four, he was sent to live...

On this feast day of Saint Francis Xavier, let us recall in particular his missionary zeal. In our own age, we too often hear that the Gospel of Jesus Christ needs to be adapted to appeal to the modern world. We are told that traditional Christian practices are out of step with reality, and that Christian morality practiced for millennia now impose an impossible burden upon both sophisticated city-dwellers and the simple painted people of the jungle alike. Saint Francis Xavier, perhaps the greatest Jesuit missionary of them all, had no such qualms. He preached the authentic Gospel of Jesus...

Since President Donald Trump took office, his administration has secured the release of 17 prisoners foreign governments had detained. “We’ve had 17 released, and we’re very proud of that record. Very proud. And we have others coming,” Trump said Saturday evening as he welcomed home Joshua Holt, an American citizen who had been detained in Venezuela for two years without trial. Unlike his predecessor, the president has managed to bring these prisoners home without freeing terrorists or paying millions of dollars in suspected ransom payments. 1. Sabrina De Sousa: Portuguese-American Sabrina De Sousa, a former CIA agent, was arrested and...

An American missionary accused of contributing to African babies' deaths by treating them for malnutrition despite not being a doctor has hit back at the women suing her. Renee Bach, 35, is from Virginia but moved to Africa when she was a teenager to work as a missionary. In 2009, she set up the Serving His Children clinic in Masese to treat children and babies who were close to death because of malnutrition. In a lawsuit filed in January at the High Court in Jinja, mothers Gimbo Zubeda and Kakai Annet allege that she caused their babies deaths and the...

North Korea says imprisoned American tried to become 'second Snowden' By James Pearson SEOUL Fri Sep 19, 2014 8:10pm EDT (Reuters) - An American recently sentenced to six years hard labor by a North Korean court pretended to have secret U.S. information and was deliberately arrested in a bid to become famous and meet U.S. missionary Kenneth Bae in a North Korean prison, state media said on Saturday. Matthew Miller, 25, of Bakersfield, California, had prepared his story in advance and written in a notebook that he was seeking refuge after failing in an attempt to collect information about the...

A sad picture of the world we live in, especially onlineThe BBC has reported Wednesday on an American man killed on North Sentinel Island. “Tribespeople shot him with arrows and left his body on the beach.” He may have been a Christian missionary, according to the BBC: “Local media have reported that Chau may have wanted to meet the tribe to preach Christianity to them.” The people of North Sentinel Island are one of the last isolated ethnic groups on earth. The Indian government forbids any visitors to the island, and natives routinely greet strangers with violence. Cruel HatredBe that...

An American man was killed on an island inhabited by a tribe known to resist outside contact in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. And, his body still lies there. The American was identified as 27-year-old John Allen Chau, who sources said was a Christian missionary who wanted to convert the Sentinelese tribe that inhabits the island where he was killed. Chau was killed by members of this tribe, which is protected under Indian law, a senior police officer told India Today TV. The officer stressed that the Sentinelese must be left alone and that any forced contact with the outside...

GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (WOOD) — A former Baptist missionary doctor from Wyoming accused of molesting nearly two dozen girls and women in Bangladesh, along with a girl in Allendale, won't face trial. An Ottawa County judge ruled that Donn Ketcham, now 87, is incompetent to stand trial because he suffers from dementia. Prosecutors told 24 Hour News 8 they don't plan to appeal, which means the charge against him will be dismissed. Ketcham's alleged victims from his decades in Bangladesh — known then as MKs, or missionary kids — said the local case was their only chance for justice.

American Pastor Andrew Brunson has now been officially charged, facing what amounts to life in prison, as his trial begins in just weeks. Yesterday, in yet another turn of events, a Turkish court approved an indictment that the Turkish prosecutor apparently turned in last week, even after denying doing so. Since the indictment has been approved, the prosecution phase of the case will now begin. After almost a year and a half in prison, Pastor Andrew has his first court date set for April 16, 2018. The case file is now finally open, and by the end of the week,...

Dr. Tom Catena, a Catholic missionary who works as the only physician at a small hospital that serves a population of 500,000 people living in the war-ravaged Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan, Sudan, has won the annual $1 million Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity. The Aurora Prize, granted by the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative on behalf of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide and in gratitude to their saviors, was announced at a ceremony in Yerevan, Armenia, in May. He was selected as the 2017 Aurora Prize Laureate from more than 550 nominations submitted from 66 countries.

Bishop Gianfranco Todisco asked to be sent 'to the farthest, most disadvantaged' diocese Pope Francis accepted the early retirement request of Italian Bishop Gianfranco Todisco, who begged to be allowed to return to missionary work or to be sent “to the farthest, most disadvantaged” diocese. The Vatican announced Bishop Todisco’s resignation on April 21 as Bishop of Melfi-Rapolla-Venosa in southern Italy. The bishop is 71, and the normal retirement age is 75.