September 19 | Moments Almanac | Sent
Three generations. Three journeys. One calling. On September 19, 1853, twenty-one-year-old Hudson Taylor sailed from England for China. Decades later, Jonathan Goforth carried that same missionary burden deeper into the Chinese interior. And on September 19, 1955, Nate Saint flew over the Ecuadorian jungle searching for the Waorani people — a journey that would soon cost him his life. Their stories were separated by years, continents, and methods, but each was marked by the same simple realit...
Three generations. Three journeys. One calling.
On September 19, 1853, twenty-one-year-old Hudson Taylor sailed from England for China. Decades later, Jonathan Goforth carried that same missionary burden deeper into the Chinese interior. And on September 19, 1955, Nate Saint flew over the Ecuadorian jungle searching for the Waorani people — a journey that would soon cost him his life.
Their stories were separated by years, continents, and methods, but each was marked by the same simple reality: they were sent.
In this episode of Moments Almanac, we trace the remarkable ripple effect of obedience and consider the words of Jesus in John 20:21: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
We may never see the full result of where God sends us. Sometimes we are simply given the next step, the next person, the next open door.
And sometimes, generations later, someone else is still going because we did.
Welcome to Moments Almanac for today, September 19th. And on this day in 1853, a 21-year-old Englishman stood aboard a small sailing ship called the Dumfries as it pulled away from Liverpool. His name was Hudson Taylor. He was headed to China. He'd never been there before. He didn't speak the language fluently, and he had no great organization behind him. And he couldn't possibly have known that his decision to go would eventually help reshape Protestant missions in China. He simply knew he'd been sent. More than thirty years later, on this day, a young missionary named Jonathan Goph would make his way into China as well. Goporth had been deeply influenced by Taylor's writing about China's spiritual need. Hudson Taylor had gone and then he had told the story, and somewhere along the way his obedience became part of somebody else's story. Goporth and his wife Rosaline would spend decades carrying the gospel throughout China. Another generation, another missionary, another sending. And then more than a century after Taylor sailed from England on september nineteenth, nineteen fifty five, a missionary pilot named Nate Saint climbed into a small airplane over the jungles of Ecuador. Saint and Ed McCully were searching for villages belonging to the people then commonly called Aqua, known today as Warani. They flew over mile after mile of thick green jungle. Fuel was running low, and then they saw it. A clearing, houses, people. After months of searching, they had located the villages. That discovery set in motion what is now known as Operation Aqua, an attempt by Saint, McCulley, Jim Elliot, Peter Fleming, and Roger Yoderian to make peaceful contact with the Warrani. Less than four months later, all five men would be killed. They had been sent. And they had no idea where obedience would ultimately lead. That may be what connects these three stories on this day. Hudson Taylor boarded a ship, Jonathan Goforth, moved deeper into China, Nate Saint climbed into an airplane. Different generations, different countries, different methods, but the same movement of God sent. And when meditating on these three lives, I'm reminded that Jesus said in John 20, 21, As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. There is something uncomfortable built into that word. To be sent means you can't remain exactly where you are. Something has to be left behind. Comfort, familiarity, security, sometimes even the ability to control the outcome. Hudson Taylor couldn't see the China Inland mission when his ship left Liverpool. Jonathan Goporth could not see all the churches that would grow from his work, and Nate Saint certainly could not see what would happen after his death, that other missionaries, including members of the family of the men who died, would later live with the Warrani and share the gospel with them. None of them could see the whole story. They could only see the next act of obedience. That seems to be how God works. He doesn't always give us the whole map. He gives us a direction, a person, a need, a door, and then he says go. And the remarkable thing about obedience is that we rarely know how far we will travel. Hudson Taylor went and his words helped send Jonathan Goforth. Those stories there molded the life of Nate Saint, and their example helped send him. And generations later their stories are still calling people to ask the same question. Where is God sending me? And long after we're gone, someone else may still be going because we did. This is Moments Almanac for September 19th. Hope you'll join me tomorrow. Until then, take heart. Notice the scattered moments and share the grace.
