Over the years I have had fathers and mothers a bit upset when I talk to their children about giving their life to the mission call. I had one young lady say this to me on a plane headed back to the States after a mission trip. “Jack, please pray for me, I am going to speak to my father about giving my life for missions and he is going to have a very hard time with it.”
Fathers how would you handle a letter to you from a young man wanting to marry your daughter and take her to the mission field? Look with me at a letter to Mr Hassletine that had been written by a young missionary asking him for the hand of his daughter in marriage then off to the mission field. As a father I read these words with much feeling and could feel the pain.
“I have now to ask, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next Spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjects of missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean; to the fatal influence of the climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this, for the sake of Him who left his heavenly home and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing immortal souls; for the sake of Zion, and the glory of God?”
Many thought a letter like this was insane and I am sure many fathers today would feel the same but Mr Hassletine trusted his daughter to God and the young missionary by the name of Adoniram Judson. Ann wrote, “But God is my witness that I have not dared to decline the offer that has been made me, though so many are ready to call it a wild, romantic undertaking.”
So, in February 1812 Adoniram and Ann were married, and right away set sail for India, two young people giving it all to serve the One that has spoken these words, “GO YE.” Fathers and mothers never fear to put your children in the hands of the One that said go and I will go with you. “Adoniram Judson and the Mission Call“, is a very good read. Jack
