A good while back, I got inspired to write this next part from one of my pastor’s many great sermons. Okay…There have been many successful missionary trips over the pass - let’s say - two hundred years or less. I read about, what I think, is the most successful of them all in my Christian perspective history book from my home schooling stuff.
In 1820, Hiram Bingham and Asa Thirston led the first group of American missionaries to the islands of Hawaii. Before they came, the island was fill with superstition, human sacrifices, and idolatry. King Liholiho had banished the pagan religion not long before they came.
King Liholiho decided that the missionaries would stay for a year, but they’d have to teach him this new religion first. So, they did, and they also developed a Hawaiian alphabet and written language. The missionaries began to print Bibles in the Hawaiian language, and not long after Hawaiians were beginning to respond to the gospel.
Queen Kaahumanu built schools and churches throughout the island. The people of Hawaii fully embraced the truths of God’s Word. They made the first Hawaiian constitution that read "no law shall be enacted which is at variance with the word of the Lord Jehovah."
But, Europeans didn’t like the revival spreading through Hawaii. They tried to sabotage the relationship with the people of Hawaii and the Americans missionaries, but the gospel was too strong. Within 50 years, the Hawaiians people were sending out their own missionaries to islands like Micronesia. So, the Americans saw that their work was done and moved on.
Why I think that is the most successful missionary trip is, because the missionaries converted a whole nation. It is a success if only one person gets saved, but this was like the biggest - I mean a whole nation getting saved.
