On our meeting days, these things happened
October 13
1908. The Church of the Nazarene organized in Texas.
1971. A revival began in Sakatoon Canada, marked by confession of sin, reconcilation, and restitution of stolen property. Criminals surrendered to police, and young people were converted.
October 14
1644. William Penn was born. He was instrumental in founding Pennsylvania and wrote a constitution providing freedom of religion.
1876. Harry Ironside was born but was thought to have died. A nurse discovered a feeble pulse revived him. Ironside went on to preach to over a million people and wrote over 60 books.
September 29
1552. Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci was born. After studying artisitc, scientific, and technological advances during the Renaissance and immersing himself in Mandarin, Ricci traveled to China to share the gospel with the Chinese. The church he planted had 400 converts by the time of his death, which later grew to 150,000 converts.
1892. Alfred Lord Tennyson died. His poetry conveyed his Christian faith.
September 30
1873. Lottie Moon arrrived in China. This Southern Baptist missionary served in China for 40 years. A special missionary donation campaign has been named after her.
1917. Chines Christians in Shanghai the Cantonese Union Church. It was an indigenous, self-supporting church founded by Chinese Christians specifically to serve fellow domestic immigrants within China, rather than a mission started by Westerners. It was distinguished for migrant-led church planting (internal immigrants from other parts of China that moved to Shanghai), holistic ministry via multiple ministries, and moving Chinese Christians from foreign missonary support to indigenous leadership.
September 22
286. Roman emperor Maximilian is said to have put members of the Theban Legion to death for their refusal to renounce their Christian faith.
1931. CS Lewis wrote: “When we set out, I did not believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did.”
September 23
1738. Herman Boerhaave died. This Christian humanist was the first to isolate urea from urine and has been considered the father of clinical medicine.
1857. Jeremy Lanphier, on the basis of a simple invitation to come pray with him, was God's catalyst for the Third Great Awakening.
September 15
1833. Arthur Henry Hallam dies. This friend of Alfred Lord Tennyson was memorialized in Tennyson's poem, "In Memoriam AHH." The poem represented struggling with faith even though a final destiny is known.
1966. The American Bible Society published Good News for Modern Man, the New Testament in Today's English Version of the Bible.
September 16
1224. St Francis of Assisi experienced the stigmata after a period of prayer and fasting.
1620. The Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, England for the New World.
September 8
1636. Puritans founded America’s first institution of higher education, in New Towne (Cambridge). It was later named for donor John Harvard with the purpose of training ministers.
1741. Lutheran missionary Johann Philipp Fabricius, arrived in India and began work among the Tamil people, revising the Tamil Bible and publishing a hymnbook.
September 9
1864. Catholic missionary, Jacques-Désiré Laval, died. The scope and impact of his work in Mauritius among 80,000 newly freed slaves (slavery was abolished in 1835), use of his medical training to treat the sick and promote sanitation, and facilitation of community development led to establishing Father Laval Day.
1912. William Borden was ordained and became a missionary to Chinese Muslims.
September 1
1648. Marin Mersenne, a French priest who supported the advancement of science, died.
1836. Eliza Spaulding and Narcissa Whitman, wives of missionaries Marcus Whitman and HH Spalding, were the first white women to cross the North American continent when they arrived in Walla Walla, Washington to begin ministry.
September 2
1636. Jesuit missionary John Brebeuf baptized the first Iriquois to become a Christian.
1973. JRR Tolkien died. The LOTR author helped lead CS Lewis to Christ.
8/19
- 305. Andrew Stratelates, a Christian who commanded a unit in the Roman army, was martyred along with several comrades even though he had been a war hero for the Roman Empire.
- 1856. James Milton Black was born. He wrote the hymn, "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder."
- 1883. At a preaching service in Lagos, Nigeria, Adeline Adeotan Sikuade Agbebi and her husband Vincent David Omojola were converted. Vincent became a pastor and Adeline became an educator and a founder and first head of the Womens Missionary Union of the Nigerian Baptist Convention.
