William Carey - A Missionary Who Transformed a Nation

 William Carey

A Missionary Who Transformed a Nation ~ S. Allen 

When Englishman William Carey (1761–1834) arrived in India in 1793, it marked a major milestone in the history of Christian missions and in the history of India. Carey established the Serampore Mission—the first modern Protestant mission in the non-English-speaking world—near Calcutta on January 10, 1800. From this base, he labored for nearly a quarter century to spread the gospel throughout the land. In the end his triumph was spectacular. Through his unfailing love for the people of India and his relentless campaign against “the spiritual forces of evil” (Eph. 6:12), India was literally transformed. Asian historian Hugh Tinker summarizes Carey’s impact on India this way: “And so in Serampore, on the banks of the river Hooghly, the principal elements of modern South Asia—the press, the university, social consciousness—all came to light.”
Who was William Carey? He was exactly the kind of man that the Lord seems to delight in using to accomplish great things; in other words, the kind of person that most of us would least expect. He was raised in a small, rural English town where he received almost no formal education. His chief source of income came through his work as a cobbler (a shoemaker). He had an awkward, homely appearance, having lost almost all his hair in childhood. Upon his arrival in India and throughout his years there, he was harassed by British colonists, deserted by his mission-sending agency, and opposed by younger missionary recruits who were sent to help him. Despite these setbacks, he became perhaps the most influential person in the largest outpost of the British Empire.

A Lesson Not Quickly Forgotten - A True Story

January 20, 2018
A Lesson Not Quickly Forgotten

( A True Story)

Back in September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a social studies school teacher at Robinson High School in Little Rock, did something not to be forgotten.

 On the first day of school, with the permission of the school superintendent, the principal and the building supervisor, she removed all of the desks out of her classroom.

 When the first period kids entered the room, they discovered that there were no desks.

 Looking around, confused, they asked, "Ms. Cothren, where're our desks?"

 She replied, "You can't have a desk until you tell me what you have done to earn the right to sit at a desk."

 They thought, "Well, maybe it's our grades."

 "No," she said.

 " Maybe it's our behavior."

 She told them, "No, it's not even your behavior." 

 And so, they came and went, the first period, second period, third period. Still no desks in the classroom.

 By early afternoon television news crews had started gathering in Ms. Cothren's classroom to report about his crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of her room.

 The final period of the day came, and as the puzzled students found seats on the floor of the deskless classroom, Martha Cothren said, "Throughout the day no one has been able to tell me just what they have done to earn the right to sit at the desks that are ordinarily found in this classroom. Now I am going to tell you."

 At this point, Martha Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and opened it. Twenty-seven (27) U.S. Veterans, all in uniforms, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk.

 The Vets began placing the school desks in rows, and then they would walk over and stand alongside the wall. By the time the last soldier had set the final desk in place those kids started to understand, perhaps for the first time in their lives, just how the right to sit at those desks had been earned.  Martha said, "You didn't earn the right to sit at these desks. These heroes did it for you. They placed the desks here for you. Now, it's up to you to sit in them. It is your responsibility to learn, to be good students, to be good citizens. They paid the price so that you could have the freedom to get an education. Don't ever forget it."

 This a true story!

 

Have a blessed day,

Tom & Linda Milam

Missionaries to America

Phil. 2:16