21/09/2023
Sept 20, 1871 John Coleridge Patteson went ashore at Santa Cruz Island. He'd devoted his life to learning 35 Polynesian languages, training locals from many islands and sharing Christ's love throughout Polynesia. He knew this day was riskier than many of his trips and had written about the danger to his life because of sailors, called blackbirders, who kidnapped people to enslave them. Still, with focus on the sure and certain hope we have in Jesus he went ashore.
His last sermon was about the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7) before he was clubbed to death. 5 knots were tied to him which is believed to symbolize that his death was to avenge the 5 people who had been kidnapped. He was so broadly liked and widely grieved that his death resulted in the Brittish Navy enforcing the ban on kidnapping islanders.