Famous Christian missionary blogger
You need the Global Mission Handbook!
How about a dead missionary that blogged after his death? This famous Christian missionary is David Brainerd.
David Brainerd served as a missionary in the areas of New Jersey,
Massachusetts and Pennsylvania in the 1740s. Passionate about helping
the native peoples of the area, he served them in spite of poor health.
His journals show that he truly loved the
people and loved the God that he served.
David Brainerd struggled with tuberculosis,
in a day and age where decent treatment was simply not available.
After only about 5 years of missionary service, David died at the age of
29. He lived to see very little fruit from his ministry.
But there was fruit among the people.
And David's brother John continued the work that David had left
behind. God was working there, but He had even bigger plans in store
for David Brainerd.
His journals, which were edited by American theologian Jonathan Edwards, were destined to inspire the Church to the call of missions. His journals were read by William Carey. Carey was to go against the trend and encourage churches to send out
missionaries,
in a day when such an idea was frowned upon. Sometimes called "The
Father of Modern Missions", Carey launched the missions movement that
continues to this day. In part, because of another famous Christian
missionary - David Brainerd.
As the decades passed, David's
journals continued to be read. Student movements rose up to fuel the
missions effort, and the journals of this young man were to motivate
many more young Christians to go with love to the mission field. Even
today, those brief 5 years of service for the Lord continue to speak.
But now, the blog.
David Brainerd's words entered the age of the blog thanks to a
Canadian named Rebecca, who has been putting his journals online bit by
bit. Rebecca has a blog of her own, Rebecca Writes, dating back to January 2004.
The blog is now complete, so you can go back to the beginning and read from the start. Here's the first post of this famous Christian missionary from Thursday, September 16,
and you can go from there. You can also still leave comments. The
main page of the blog, now with the last journal entry of this missionary, is here: David Brainerd's Blog