Thoughts for the Day

For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Today we celebrate the work of Captain Allen Gardiner RN, the inspirational founder of the South American Missionary Society (SAMS), and who sacrificed his life as one its first missionaries. A Christian, he turned away from the faith, but on a voyage to China a spiritual crisis resulted in him renewing his faith. After leaving the navy and then the death of his wife, he set out to evangelise Zulus in South Africa and became the founder of Christianity in Natal.

Wherever he went, Gardiner faced opposition. With his second wife Elizabeth he began to focus on South America. His desire to share Christ with Chilean Mapuches included a journey of 1,000 miles overland by pack mule, but again he met with hostility. In 1842 he made his base in the Falklands and contacted Patagonian Indians. This led to the formation of the Patagonian Missionary Society. Another unsuccessful mission followed, this time to Bolivia, so he turned back to Patagonia and spearheaded a bold but tragic attempt in 1850 to evangelise the Indians of Tierra del Fuego. Fierce weather, Indian hostility, and a series of errors led to disease and his death on the island. Gardiner’s journal, was found still in his hand a year later, and included the plea to God: “Let not this mission fail”. The work of the Society since and the growth of the Anglican Churches in South America were God’s answer to his prayer.

(Information from Church Missionary Society)

At this point I have to declare a great admiration for the work of SAMS (now part of CMS), for my elder son worked in Peru for a year under their auspices, with a new Anglican church. At the same time as initiating a new church building they also immediately created a seminary to train clergy, and an orphanage to rescue street children. I watched in amazement as the mission work continued apace.

Prayer from Allen Gardiner's diary:

Grant, O Lord, that we may be
instrumental in commencing this
great and blessed work;
but should Thou see fit in Thy providence
to hedge up our way,
and that we should even languish
and die here; I beseech Thee to
raise up others and to send forth
labourers into this harvest.
Let it be seen for the manifestation
of Thy Glory and Grace that nothing
is too hard for Thee....
Amen.

Collect for Missionaries

Everlasting God,
whose servant Allen Gardiner carried the good news
of Your Son to the people of Natal, Chile,
Patagonia, Bolivia, and Tierra del Fuego,
and established the South American Missionary Society,
grant that we who commemorate his service
may know the hope of the gospel in our hearts
and manifest its light in all our ways;
through Jesus Christ Your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with You,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.