I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace. Acts 20:24
George and Ellen Gordon (1861)
James Gordon (1872)
Killed for Caring
George, born on Prince Edward Island, and his wife Ellen, from England, felt that God wanted them to take Christianity to the New Hebrides (now called Vanuatu), a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean. Many missionaries, both westerners and Pacific Islanders, had perished in their attempts to introduce Christianity to one of the islands in particular, Erromanga.
After four years of ministry, George had seen only three people baptised, but he did not lose heart and continued to work with the Erromangans by caring for their sick. In 1861 there was an outbreak of measles that killed hundreds and a typhoon that devastated the island. Erromanga’s chief had two children who died in George’s care, and believing the missionary had cast a spell on the youngsters, he gathered together a group of warriors. On 20 May the Gordons were viciously attacked and killed by this gang. Undeterred by their fate, George’s brother James followed them to Erromanga, where he too was martyred in 1872. But their lives were not given in vain; by 1900, 95 per cent of the people of Erromanga identified themselves as Christians.
We are going to heaven… A fountain fed from many springs will never dry up. When we are gone, others will rise in our place.
Bruno Serunkuma (martyred 1886)