Worth It - September 2009

When missionary John Paton stepped onto the New Hebrides island of Tanna in 1858, little did he know what challenges awaited him. He did know who awaited him. The New Hebrides islands, east of Australia, were full of natives who practiced brutal religions. Murders occurred daily; human life was considered a small thing to throw away. Paton himself counted fifty times that his life was endangered. Once he was forced off an island where he had worked for four years. The natives had tried to burn down his house – with him in it. He returned to a different island in the New Hebrides a few years after being forced to leave the island where he had worked. Why did he return? How long would he be able to work among people so hostile to the Gospel? How long could he last among a brutal people who tried to kill him multiple times?
Tirelessly, Paton and his wife Margaret served the people of Aniwa, a New Hebrides island. They built orphanages, held Sunday services, and dispensed medications. Mrs. Paton taught a school for girls. John Paton poured himself into the work of learning the Aniwan language and writing it down. Within fifteen years, the New Hebrides island of Aniwa became a Christian nation. Triumphantly, Paton wrote, "I claimed Aniwa for Jesus, and by the grace of God Aniwa now worships at the Savior's feet".
Paton spent his entire life in service to God. He persevered under exhausting circumstances and seemingly impossible situations. God blessed his work with great fruit. As Paton himself said, “Let me record my immovable conviction that this is the noblest service in which any human being, can spend or be spent; and that, if God gave me back my life to be lived over again, I would without one quiver of hesitation lay it on the altar to Christ…” Knowing the challenges that he faced, the dangers, difficulties, and damages – he would have done it again. He knew that the Gospel was worth his sacrifices, his hard work. He knew that the Gospel was worth his perseverance.