Justin also mentioned specific resources where he gets some of his missions news (not all would be considered conservative religious news).

• Doug Nichols
• Tall Skinny Kiwi
• Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA)
• World Vision
• Assist News
• Compassion International
• Ed Stetzer
• Baptist Press
• Mission Network News
• Google Reader
• Common Craft’s excellent video: RSS in Plain English

If you have questions for Justin you can write to me or leave a comment. You can also go to Justin’s site and get his contact information. I would like to have Justin back for future Chats episodes. Your questions will help direct the topic of our conversation.

Now that Brad has been working with MAF for almost 2 years it was good to find out what has taken place with those projects and to see what he is currently working on. Brad is a computer programmer who has been called to missions and is using the skills that God has allowed him to learn in the ministry.

In the interview Brad encourages the listeners to find out what God has gifted them with and seek to serve the Lord in however they are called to serve.

The websites Brad mentioned were:

• Mission Aviation Fellowship
• Mission Aviation Fellowship Learning Technologies
• Brad’s information at MAF
• Brad’s blog where you can find his recent prayer letters

Enjoy the conversation as Bro. Bush talks about how the Lord led him to the field and some of the details of his preparation for the ministry he is doing today. He also shares information about language school that many missionaries will need to attend as they prepare for ministry on a foreign field.

If you are considering missionary work, or just want to know more about life as a missionary, be sure to visit Bro. Jeff’s website. Along with having his prayer letters and ministry information, he has good resources to help a missionary on deputation and to avoid some common mistakes of the ministry.

He also has a website for his ministry in Argentina that is written in Spanish.

LaMoin and I ended the last episode talking about what friends back home could do to help the missionary as he deals with culture shock, or culture fatigue. This episode continues with other ideas of what friends can do by suggesting certain types of things they can send and how to send them.

Show Links:

• Life With LaMoin
• 10 Great Mission Trip Ideas
• Journey to Everest
• Missionary Talks 43: Brad Rhoads

I interviewed LaMoin and her husband in a previous episode of Missionary Talks.

The reason I wanted to talk with LaMoin about this is she gave a lecture to missionaries last year that I was privileged to hear. In it she talked about many of the same things we cover in this conversation. Her focus then was on the missionary and what he could do to help overcome culture shock. In this conversation we tried to focus on the friends back home and explain to them how they can be a help to the missionary on the field.

You can get more information about LaMoin at her website.

Please be back next week for the conclusion of the interview.

They share good advice for both new and veteran missionaries. In doing so they help the person in the pew who is praying for missionaries have an insight into some of the struggles and joys of working for the Lord in missions.

LaMoin has written a wonderful book that will help the reader understand that missionaries are normal people. While the outside struggles may be different on the field from what it is back home, the internal struggle, and fleshly battles are the same no matter what country you are in. You can check out the book as well as sign up for her monthly newsletter at their website.

Here are some missionaries that Phil and I know who are doing relief work in the effected areas. Feel free to contact them and see how you can help. Let me encourage you to contact any missionary that your church supports in Chile and see what more you can do to help those you are already supporting.

• Missionary Jason Holt
• Missionary Dave Disney

News and information in Chile:

• emol.com [Spanish]
• The Santiago Times [English]

To send money through Missionary Phil Rogers to help the local pastors with rebuilding and relief, you can send a check to Liberty Baptist Church at the following address and write “Chile Earthquake” in the memo field.

Liberty Baptist Church
485 Old Hwy 84 Rd.
Waynesboro, MS 39367

The purpose of this Missionary Chats episode is to help you see that you can be a real help in times of crisis. Even though the news may no longer be obsessing over the crisis in a far off land, remember that the missionaries are still there giving help and comfort as they share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Bro. Snode also talked about how he was called to missions as a young boy. Outside of building a good personal relationship with God and His word, he said that he was encouraged by his parents and an older man in church to continue to pursue the ministry that God had called him to. Travis is a good example of what God can do with a child or teen that you may know who is called to be a missionary if you will just take a few minutes to encourage them to follow God’s leading.

Visit the Snodes’ blog to get up to date information on their ministry.

Episode Links:

• Shane Rice’s ministry website
• David Peach’s ministry website
• Librivox
• Project Gutenberg
• Joshua Project
• Shane Rice’s first interview on Missionary Talks
• Missionary Talks Group at Facebook

Please leave a comment or send an email with any feedback you may have for Shane or I.

Andy Shinabery is a church planting missionary in Costa Rica. In this interview Andy talks with us about the two churches he and his family have been able to start. He also shares about some of the recreational activities his family have been able to enjoy on the field.

Andy spoke with me when they were in the United States for furlough. He talks about how the two furloughs they have had have been different for them as a family.

Listen as he shares some of his vision for the future and how he believes Costa Rica can be used by God to evangelize nations that are closed to missionaries from larger countries such as the United States.

I am proposing a new show format that would be in addition to the interviews. This new format will be called Missionary Chats. The format will have me talking with a co-host. The co-host will not always be the same person. This will be a less edited conversation focusing on some particular topic.

I am looking for feedback on Missionary Chats in the following areas.

• Would you like to be able to ask questions to previously interviewed missionaries?
• The Missionary Talks will stay in the current format. The Chats will be in addition to, not in replacement of the Talks. Would you be interested in only one or the other? Or, would you prefer to get all the Talks and Chats in the same “feed” like you are currently getting the Missionary Talks and the Listener Feedback episodes?
• Can you give suggestions for intro/outro music for the Chats?
• The Chats will allow more interaction for you. Would you be interested in being able to leave a voice mail that could be played, or just be able to email questions?

Specifically I asked you to email me or go to one of the discussion threads on Facebook concerning this topic. Alternatively, you are welcome to leave a comment on this episode posting.

The Facebook Group discussion is where I originally asked the questions. I have also set up a Facebook Page that I plan to migrate more personal interaction to. If you are a Facebook user, feel free to join the Group or Page, but know that I am going to try and push people over to the Page soon.

You are always welcome to leave a comment at the Missionary Talks website at the posting for each Talk or Chat.

Visit the website of Pastor Coleman and Bethel Baptist Church for more information.

I first met Bob several years ago through a mutual pastor friend. Since then Bob has asked me to speak in a couple of his summer camps. It was a blessing to be with him again this summer and to share this interview with you.

Be sure to read more about Child Evangelism Fellowship and, if you are in the Estern PA area, check out the Eastern PA CEF site as well.

One of the things he shares with us is a change in motivation behind deputation this time around. The thought that drives him through deputation is that, as Revelation says, Jesus Christ is worthy to recieve the praise from every nation. He wants to be a part of bringing people from the nations to Christ, because Christ is worthy.

Bro. Jim closes with encouraging young people towards missions. He admits that mission work is not easy, but with the Lord’s help a person could carry out the Lord’s work. He also talks about the need to reach whole groups and countries of people who are currently not being reached by any missionary.

You can read more about Bro. Menkhoff at his website. He has a link there where you can contact him if you would like more information about his ministry.

In this episode I explain some of the reasons for the delays and what you can expect from Missionary Talks in the near future. I also spend time thanking you, the listener, for putting value to the content at Missionary Talks. I am not here to make money off the podcast, but one of the listeners has recently sent a generous gift. While I appreciate the money and it will go to fulfill a need, it helped me understand that Missionary Talks is being used to minister to people. While most of the listeners never write to tell me how Missionary Talks has been a blessing, I am thankful to God for allowing me to see in a real way that people put value to the content that I am trying to provide.

At then end of the recording I also share a story from one of the future guests at Missionary Talks.

Enjoy!

Please take time to check out some of the stories on the Mission Network News website. For those interested in missions around the world, MNN does a good job of sharing about the victories and needs around the world. As a podcast listener, you will be interested in subscribing to their podcast.

Take some time to get to know Bob Ingram and his ministry through the Christian Service Center’s website or through his blog. You can also email Bob directly if you have further questions of how you can help his ministry or the soldiers around you.

At the end of the interview Jonathan shares with missionaries, or potential missionaries, his thoughts on what our ministry on deputation should be like.

If you want to contact the Reeds, or keep up to date with their ministry, you can visit their website for further information.

One question I posed to Nathan was what he thought was needed, as far as types of missionaries, on the field. I was surprised by his answer. Instead of specifically mentioning types of work that needed to be accomplished by missionaries, he talked about the personality and attitude that is needed in missionaries.

She also shares a great story of how the Lord used her to lead a lady to Him who had just been released from prison that day. Through Katie’s witness God granted the lady physical and spiritual freedom all within a few hours.

Check out Katie’s blog to keep up to date with her deputation as she prepares to go to Japan.

The interviews I talk about in this episode are:

• Debi Deryee
• Ignacio Rovirosa
• Bethany Thompson
• Chris and Carol Woodley

My Prayer is Heard streaming radio station is playing Missionary Talks twice a day. Visit their site to get the program schedule and to hear other good programming.

They talk about the need for workers in Brazil. Especially those who have dedicated their lives to working with children.

You can read more about the Sykes family at their website. They also have links to some great resources for missionaries.

At the end he shares two testimonies that are exciting. One is about a lady who has no education, but has been used to bring her family to the Lord. The other is about a young man who had an opportunity to hear the Gospel for many years, but just didn’t “get it.” Finally after he was saved while visiting in the US, he returned to Mexico to reach his friends and family for Christ.

They share with us their passion to read and study the Bible. They are very encouraging to young people to study God’s Word. Whether you feel called to be a missionary or not, reading and studying the Bible is very important.

After Jonathan and I finished recording he began to talk about another ministry in which he is involved. He heads up prayer groups which pray for missions and missionaries on a regular basis. Please visit Jonathan’s website to learn more about how you can be involved in prayer for missions.

In this episode Bethany shares with the listeners her desires as an educator and deaf worker. She encourages the listeners to spend as much time as possible learning about the field to which you will be ministering. Bethany also emphasizes the need of missionaries to continue their language studies if they are ministering in a new language. She does not do this in a way to discourage those who are struggling with language, but tries to be an encouragement that it is a life-time process to learn a foreign language.

If you want more information about the short term trips that he mentions or about his family you can email him or visit their website.

I have been waiting a long time for this to come. We are going back to the US for a year and I will be meeting new missionaries every week! I don’t know if that means that there will be a new episode posted weekly, but I will be grabbing recordings everywhere I get a chance. I really am looking forward to our time on furlough to be with our supporting churches and to be able to get new interviews.

I do have another interview currently recorded. I just have not had the time to do the necessary editing. With the move back to the US and having just finished another week of camp, my computer time has been somewhat limited. But that is the beauty of recording. I will be able to get this interview to you when it is ready.

Don’t expect new interviews to be coming left and right immediately, but I would think by the time October gets here I will be able to give more content on a regular basis. Thanks for hanging in with me through this time.

We discussed the different reasons why a missionary would take a longer or shorter time for furlough.

I had previously interviewed Don Carney for Missionary Talks. If you have not listened to that episode, you may want to hear that one as well.

This interview might possibly be the first introduction to many of the listeners to the phrase “a pig in a poke.” Where else can you get such high culture?

If you have any questions, for the husband or wife, then please send me an email or leave a comment to this post.

Because he sees missions from both sides, he really has a great perspective on what the average person in the church can do to help their missionaries. He knows how to connect the person on the field to the person in the pew.

His recent trip was with Operation Renewed Hope. This is a short term group that is based out of his church. At their website you can find out much more information about being a part of one of their future trips.

To find out more about the Robertson family, visit their website.

In this episode we talk about the trip that we are returning home from. It was a trip put on by Global Health Outreach (GHO), the missionary arm of Christian Medical and Dental Association (CMDA). Larry, Phillip and I went to be interpreters for the group of doctors and dentists. Armando was part of the group who shared the Gospel with the people we were ministering to.

Armando mentions the testimony of a lady named Candi who accepted the Lord. She is the government representative who worked with us all week. She was convinced that she was good enough to earn her salvation. After we were all done and packed up on the final day of the trip Armando was privileged to lead her to the Lord.

At the CMDA/GHO site you can see a calendar of their upcoming trips along with what special needs they need to fill with each trip.

One project that I asked listeners to help me with is suggesting historical missionaries to write a biographical sketch about, like I did with David Livingstone and William Carey. This time I am asking listeners to give a suggestion as to who I should study. Those take quite a bit of time to research and write, but I look forward to reading who listeners want to know more about.

Please write me with suggestions or comments.

If you have questions about Go Forth specifically, or just about being a missionary, I feel confident that Bro. Taylor would love to point you the right direction. Go Forth is very selective about who they take on as missionary candidates, but Bro. Taylor sees much of his purpose in ministry with Go Forth is to talk with potential missionaries to help them prepare themselves for God’s service. Visit their website to get more information and don’t hesitate to call him if he can be a help to you. Their office number is 850-471-0990. All of their contact information is available at their site.

In this interview he explains a bit about his ministry on the foreign field and tells about some of the missions classes he teaches. I was surprised, in a good way, by one of his answers to my question about which classes someone should focus on while preparing to be a missionary on a college level.

Dr. Stanley served many years in the pastorate in the US. Because of their experiences, they were able to share some insight that was helpful to me as a missionary.

You can learn more about their ministry at their website.

In this episode he talks with us about language learning and some of the culture of Estonia. He shares some facts about the country of Estonia that were rather surprising to me.

When I interviewed Elisabeth for this program I talked with her about being a Missionary Kid. She and her husband currently serve on the mission field in Mexico.

As mentioned in a recent feedback episode, I will be traveling over the next several weeks. I am excited about the missionaries I will be interviewing while on the road. But, as a result, I will probably not be able to get new interviews uploaded until I get home. Enjoy these older episodes in the mean time and leave a comment if you have a particular favorite episode that you would like me to share with the other listeners.

Brad’s ministry as a missionary is a bit different. He will not be working in the field as a church planter, rather he will be working as a developer of methods to deliver Bible study curriculum to national pastors on the field in both free and closed access countries.

Brad mentioned his podcast in the interview. It is a chronicle of his family’s journey into missions.

You can partner with the Rhoads family in their ministry by visiting their website at MAF.

All the past interviews are available here on the website. You can either listen to them or download them from here.

I would really appreciate any reviews you can write about Missionary Talks at the different podcast directories. Also, if you have a blog or website and can write something there that links to Missionary Talks it will help promote the site in the search engines. All of this will help with the exposure of Missionary Talks to new listeners.

Please tell your friends about Missionary Talks. Thanks for being a faithful listener.

I appreciate Magnatune for allowing me to play the beautiful harp music of Cheryl Ann Fulton. Also I would like to thank Janet and Geoff Benge for their book about William Carey. Much of my research started with the contents of their book.

William began to see the need to learn Sanskrit and translate the Bible into it. The ancient Indian writings were in this language and the educated upper caste used Sanskrit. It was the key to fully understanding the Bengali language.

He could easily attract a crowd of 200 to 300 people to preach to, but he did not have a single convert.

The birth of their 7th child Jonathan in 1796 brought joy and some relief to Dolly’s depression since Jonathan was a healthy baby. This was a joyful time for the Careys.

More good news arrived late in 1796 when an Indian man sought out William to tell him that there was an Englishman looking for him. John Fountain arrived as a new recruit from the missionary society. By March 1797 with the help of Fountain taking over some of the factory responsibilities, William finished his initial Bengali translation of the Bible. William’s boss purchased a used press for him to print the Bible in India. With all the excitement surrounding the arrival of the press, the Indians became convinced that the press was William’s idol.

He took a trip to Calcutta to purchase the lead type he needed. He witnessed Sati on that trip for the first time. It is the Hindu practice where a widow would be burned alive with the body of her dead husband. This was a ritual that William spent a great number of years trying to abolish.

Two years later in October 1799 another group of missionaries were scheduled to arrive. But they were turned back at their entry to Calcutta. They fled to a Danish settlement, Serampore. Land and houses had already been purchased for them to set up a settlement in a new indigo factory which William had purchased. Eventually all of this was sold and William and his team moved to Serampore to do their printing of the Bengali Bible. One of the missionaries who was with the new recruits was William Ward. He was a printer who was originally going to pay for and print the Bengali Bible back in England. But due to not being able to rely on the manuscripts actually making it home, William thought it best to print within the country of India. Now they had a press and a printer to do the necessary work.

The missionaries gathered in Serampore and bought a huge house that was sufficiently large for all of them to live. Dr. Thomas eventually left the mission society and moved further inland to make rum. But he would occasionally visit the missionaries in Serampore. It was during one such visit that an Indian man, Krishna Pal, was injured and came to the mission house for help. Dr. Thomas was able to help the man from his injuries. Krishna Pal and a friend Gokul began visiting the house daily to learn from them. They both were saved a few days before Christmas 1800. William Carey had his first converts after being on the field for 7 years.

A trial of fire came quickly when these first two converts sat to eat dinner with the missionaries. Because they were breaking caste (a Hindu eating with a non-Hindu) the townsmen hurled stones at them when they tried to return home. Krishna Pal’s family was imprisoned. But before the ordeal was over, his wife and 4 daughters were saved. Gokul’s wife and mother moved out. They held a baptismal service for the 7 converts, but only Krishna Pal and one of the Carey boys were baptized the others backed out for fear of the angry mob.

March 5, 1801 was a momentous day, the day in which the first Bengali New Testament came off the press in Serampore, though it had previously been printed in parts, it was now complete. A copy was sent to the King of Denmark for his help in protecting the missionaries and keeping them in the country.

Because of William’s language skills, he was asked to be a teacher at a new university, Ft. William College in Calcutta. William had never been to college himself and now he was being asked to teach at one. His own education ended at the age of 12, but his knowledge of languages was the most advanced of any Englishman in India. He also knew the culture far better than men who had spent many more years in the country. He was asked to be the head of the language department.

William maintained the mission station in Serampore but traveled each week to his job in Calcutta. He would be in Calcutta Monday through Friday, while another missionary, Hannah Marshman, helped care for Dolly and the younger children. Dolly was completely mentally deranged by this time.

Just four days after William accepted the position at the college the British went to war against Denmark and invaded Serampore, a Danish colony. It was a peaceful takeover but it meant that all the missionaries were now illegally in British territory. They did not have permits to be in India, but because of William’s standing at the college the missionaries were allowed to stay and carry on their missionary work. Within 6 months the war was over and Serampore was released.

By the end of that same year the missionaries were on good terms with both the British and Danish governments. Bibles were being printed and souls were being saved. William had a good job at the school and he had become good friends with Lord Wellesley the Governor General. After years of struggle things had turned to the favor of the missionaries.

William began to lobby the British government for the abolishment of Sati, the Hindu practice of burning the widow alive with the body of her deceased husband. Lord Wellesley asked William to study the Hindu writings to see if the practice was demanded in their religion. He found that though it was suggested, it was never required. As a result of his studies and recommendations, Wellesley outlawed infanticide (the practice of sacrificing babies to Hindu gods), but not Sati. There was not enough overwhelming evidence for Lord Wellesley to outlaw it.

In 1806 William had been granted the title of Professor. This had not been bestowed upon him in the past because he was not a member of the Church of England. With this title his salary was doubled. William continued to pour any extra income he had into the ministry of translation and printing.

William, Jr. was ordained a Baptist minister in 1807 and moved to another area to work as a missionary.

At the close of the same year Dolly died. Though Dolly had been a physical and spiritual burden for William for so long, he still grieved at her death. He later remarried to Countess Charlotte Rumohr of Denmark. She lived next to the mission station in Serampore and had taken an active interest in their ministry for several years.

March 1812 saw the destruction of the print shop by a devastating fire. Many manuscripts of various language translations were lost, as well as a multilingual dictionary between Sanskrit and every Asian language. By the end of the year news had reach England and more than enough money had been raised to replace everything that had been destroyed. Everything that was replaceable anyway. It took much longer to recreate the manuscripts.

One of the few pictures we have of William Carey today comes from this time. He had become so well known in the churches back in England that they wanted to know what he looked like. The mission society finally convinced the reluctant 52 year old to pose for a painting.

Led by William Wilberforce, the man who successfully campaigned for the abolishment of slavery on British soil, the East India Company’s ban on missionaries was finally lifted. Carey received the good news when his own nephew Eustace Carey appeared at his door presenting himself as a missionary ready for service.

The new Governor General, Lord Moira began requesting that William distribute new missionaries to particularly needy areas. The Governor General took personal interest in the work of the missionaries and even had recommended places for them. William’s own boys were growing up and going out as missionaries to other parts of India. Felix, the oldest, shared his fathers’ gift for languages. He translated parts of the Bible to Burmese.

Felix shared some of the tragedy that his father endured as well. When a boating accident claimed the lives of his family, he took a long time to recover. In the accident he also lost Bibles, a printing press and the only copy of his Burmese dictionary.

With the new freedom to have missionaries in the country came growing pains. Not all the new missionaries arrived with an appreciation for how difficult life would be. Some bitterness and discontent settled among many of the younger workers. Changes were happening back at the missionary society in England as well. With the death of a couple of the mainstays back in England the focus of leadership changed. Carey had set down as a basic premise in his book, 24 years earlier, that the missionary work should be run from the field, not from the home office where the missionary committee could neither see nor experience the work being done. But this was exactly what the missionary society wanted. They had lost confidence in the ability of Carey and the older missionaries to make administrative decisions from the field. By 1815 the committee was requiring that all leadership decisions be transferred back to the authority of the sending agency.

This cut to the heart of William Carey. He began to see a duplication of all his efforts just 14 miles down the road in Calcutta. He felt that the duplicated expense and effort would have served the work of God better had they been in a new area reaching new people. The missionaries became the topic of gossip among the nationals. But through all this, the government officials still highly valued William Carey and his opinions and work. Again another new Governor General Lord Hastings asked for Carey’s help in opening up new areas to education and Christianity.

Charlotte Carey died in May of 1821. Within a short time Krishna Pal, Felix Carey and William Ward (the printer) also died. This was a hard time for the 60 year old Carey.

He was able to establish a Christian college in these later years of his life in 1818. This was the first school recognized by the Danish government to confer degrees in Asia. Another great victory that Carey was able to see accomplished during this time was that the Governor General Lord Bentinck reexamined Carey’s report to abolish the practice of Sati and declared it illegal in all of India in 1829. He had lobbied every Governor General for 27 years to seriously consider banning the practice. As soon as he received the news he sat down and began translating the decree into Bengali.

In a short span the mission compound and college had been washed away by flood twice. They had to completely rebuild. The financial institutions in India failed too and the missionaries lost all their money. Not even the powerful East India Company was able to keep Ft. William College up and running. With the closing of the college the missionaries lost William Carey’s income which had been so important to sustain them.

In July of 1833 William Carey suffered his first of several strokes. He died quietly in his sleep in June of 1834 at the age of 72.

Carey was not a perfect father nor husband. We probably would not agree with all his doctrinal teaching today. But his life and ministry opened many doors to the great missionary movement which has touched the lives of millions of people with the Gospel. As missionaries we owe a debt of gratitude to a man who was willing to take a stand and step out to serve the Lord, even though few immediately supported and followed him.

William Carey, 1761-1834.

Like the David Livingstone biography, I have provided the full text of the episode below.

I appreciate Magnatune for allowing me to play the beautiful harp music of Cheryl Ann Fulton. Also I would like to thank Janet and Geoff Benge for their book about William Carey. Much of my research started with the contents of their book.

William Carey was born in 1761 as the oldest child to Edmund and Elizabeth Carey in Northamptonshire, England. Today he is known as the Father of Modern Missions, but his humble upbringing to a poor weaver family is how this well know missionary got his start.

His father took the position of church clerk which included the responsibility of being the schoolmaster and therefore young William was able to attend school from the ages of 6 to 12. However this was the extent of what was available to him for school. The rest of his learning would come from what he could gain on his own through any books he could find and experiences he had. He was blessed to have many books available to him. By the time he was 16 he had already taught himself Latin and a friend had taught him to read and write Greek. This love of languages shaped young William Carey into the missionary he was to later become.

After he finished school at the age of 12 he was apprenticed to a shoemaker. Though his mom and dad were both weavers by trade, his dad understood that there would be a time when machines would do much of the weaving work. The Spinning Jenny and Isaac Watts’ steam engine were invented during young Carey’s life and Mr. Carey knew that these advancements would lessen the need for weavers. When William was 14 he entered into a 7 year apprenticeship with Clarke Nichols.

Another apprentice with Mr. Nichols was John Warr. John was a couple of years older than William and a member of a dissenter church, or nonconformist church, which included Baptist, Congregational, Presbyterian and Quaker churches. While attending a prayer meeting with Warr one night, Carey decided that he belonged in a Baptist church. This was not a quick decision though. He and Warr debated many doctrinal beliefs before William made the decision. As a nonconformist one was not allowed to be a paid officer of the state nor hold rank in the military. Often they were denied entrance to schools.

The shoemaker they worked under died in 1779. By this time John Warr had finished his apprenticeship, but Carey was left without a master and 2 years still to finish on his training. When he found a new master, he also found his future wife. Dorothy Plackett (or Dolly as she was called) was the sister to his master’s wife. William and Dolly were married in 1781 while still in his apprenticeship. Therefore he had no money to support a family when within a year their first daughter, Ann, was born.

Carey became a part time dissenter preacher and he was occasionally asked to preach in his home town, his parents were not able to attend because of his father’s position within the Church of England. But his parents supported him as much as they could.

Tragically, when the baby was just 18 months old, she became sick and died. William was also ill, but was able to make a recovery. Because of his illness though, he was not able to attend the funeral of baby Ann. His mother came to live with them for a short time to help the family with cooking and the devastating loss of their daughter.

Dolly sunk into depression–a condition that she struggled with all her life.

William’s younger brother Tom graciously helped support the family financially during this time. Poverty worsened when William’s new master also died. He had finished his apprenticeship by this time and took over his master’s business. He also felt obligated to support the wife and family of his former boss since she was his sister in law. She remarried a year later releasing him from his self imposed responsibility.

He was baptized by Rev. John Ryland on October 5, 1783 who wrote in his journal “this day baptized a poor journeyman shoemaker.” Ryland did not know at that time, but the two would become life long friends.

William took a small church as part time pastor. His other job was as a shoemaker to make ends meet to support his new son Felix. He became an ordained Baptist minister on May 3, 1787 at 26 years of age. His ordination counsel consisted of John Sutcliff, Andrew Fuller and John Ryland (who had baptized him 4 years before). These three men were to remain an integral part of William Carey’s life.

One day William was invited to bring up a topic for the Ministers Fraternal of the Northampton Association and suggested that the churches of England had a responsibility to carry the Gospel to the nations of the world. This was not at all a popular view in 1787. The belief at the time was that it was the responsibility of the Apostles to share the Gospel. When they died the job did too!

There is a popular story in the life of William Carey, which came out of this meeting, though there are questions as to its accuracy. It is said that as William was making his case for the need of churches to evangelize the heathen that the father of his friend John Ryland stood up and said: “If God wanted the heathen to know He would tell them Himself without any help from man.” Whether John Ryland, Sr. said these words or not, it was obvious to those involved that this was the popular view at the time.

William went away from that meeting wondering if there would ever be anything like the missionary movement he had envisioned. He had been working on a book which became known by the shortened title of Enquiry (the original title was 41 words long). When writing this book he knew that he was fighting many years of this kind of philosophy.

His shoemaker boss doubled his salary to 10 shillings a week to not work so that he could spend full time in his studies and his book. By this time the Careys had three boys, Felix, William Jr. and Peter. Dolly was doing better as well.

He finished his manuscript, but he could not afford to have it published.

In 1789 they moved to a larger church for the same pay.

They were blessed to have another daughter, Lucy. However, she was a constant reminder of their first baby, Ann. Sadly, Lucy too died when she was a year and a half. This devastated Dolly. Her younger sister Kitty moved in to help with the boys.

William continued to improve his manuscript for Enquiry. He met Tom Potts in 1791 who paid for the publishing of his book the following year.

The next time he spoke at a minister’s meeting after the book was published, they seemed eager to hear him out. Because many of these pastors had read his work. He finished the next meeting with the now famous comment, “Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.”

With the men who formed his ordination counsel 5 years previously, he started the Particular Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel. The first modern day mission board (or more commonly known at the time as a mission society) was born on October 2, 1792.

There was a board, a missionary philosophy and a group of men praying, but they had no missionary to send. Within two months their prayers for a missionary were answered when they received a letter from a Dr. John Thomas.

Dr. Thomas had worked in Calcutta and became a Christian while he was a ship’s doctor for the East India Company. He eventually left his job to work among the nationals. He was a missionary within the country by default. He had contacted Carey’s missionary society to see what kind of help they could lend one another in their efforts to evangelize the lost.

Dr. Thomas was invited to meet with the missionary society in January of 1793. They discussed the possibility of sending him out as a missionary under their group. But before the meeting was over, he had a partner to go with him…William Carey. As they talked about sending workers into the mine shaft to mine for the precious souls, Carey announce that he would go. He looked at his friends and said, “I will go down the mine, if you will all hold the ropes for me.”

William Carey along with Dr. Thomas planned to leave 3 months later in the month of March. But it would still take 5 more months to sail to India.

As Dolly was pregnant and still very emotionally depressed, she was violently set against going to India. It was not unusual for men to leave their wives and families for several months or even years at a time to work or fight in another country. Though Carey would have preferred to have Dolly with him, he was willing to go to India without her. He did persuade Dolly to let him take 8 year old Felix with him as a companion.

Plans were made for William to go and get a mission station established and return for his family in 3 to 4 years.

His father and church did not take the news well either. Eventually his church began to see the need and even considered it an honor to send their pastor out as the first missionary.

With the short time they had available, William Carey and John Thomas set out to raise the funds necessary for the trip. They would have to work their way through the French pirates to get out of British waters and on to India. They also had to deal with the East India Company, which did not want any teachers or missionaries in the country educating the people.

They finally set sail in April of 1793 towards India. When they got to the southern side of England and ready to head out to the open seas, the Capitan saw the need to travel in convoy to help fight the French pirates. They waited in Portsmouth until a convoy could be arranged. In the mean time the Capitan was ordered by the East India Company that if he left port with the missionaries then he would lose his Capitan’s license. He refused to continue the voyage with Dr. Thomas and William and Felix Carey.

While waiting in Portsmouth, Carey first became aware of some of the financial problems of Dr. Thomas. These problems ended up harming the work in India for many years. Dr. Thomas took out many loans to live beyond his means. Even while owing much money, he continued to find creditors that would loan him more.

While waiting for a new ship from Denmark that would take them to India, Mrs. Carey gave birth to their 6th child, Jabez. William had just enough time to return home to see the baby before the new ship set sail. During that short visit, he and Dr. Thomas were able to convince Dolly to join them on the voyage to India. Dolly’s sister Kitty also joined the team.

They finally set sail in June of 1793.

On board William learned as much of the Bengali language as he could from Dr. Thomas. They even started their translation of the book of Genesis during the voyage.

However, the trip did not go well for Dolly and added to her hesitation to travel to India. One of their fellow passengers got sick and died on the trip. They also encountered a storm in late August that cause 50′ sea swells and shredded all of their sails while destroying some of their masts. They were able to make repairs, but they became very far behind schedule to be able to make it to India before the winds turned against them for the year. They did not stop to take on new supplies in Cape Town, South Africa so that they could make up as much time as possible. This meant that the next section of the trip was made with a shortage of fresh food.

They arrived in the Bay of Bengal in October, but still had to sail 200 miles to the north in unfavorable winds. It took them another month to cover this distance. They finally anchored in India on November 9, 1793.

There was still the issue of getting into the country without the East India Company immediately turning them away. One of the rules said that any ship had to declare all their passengers and cargo as soon as an East India Company representative boarded them. William and his team disembarked and took a smaller craft further into India. The Capitan was able to declare all of their materials without having to declare the missionaries themselves.

When the missionaries arrived in a small village along the river where they had to wait for the tide, they began preaching to a crowd which gathered around them. Dr. Thomas preached for 3 hours. The villagers genuinely seemed to understand and asked intelligent questions based on what they heard, but none accepted the Lord. However they urged the missionaries to return in the future. They were able to preach in four villages before they reached Calcutta.

When they finally arrived in Calcutta they were reunited with Mrs. Thomas who had traveled back to India before them. They also were introduced to a man who formed an integral part of the missionary team, Ram Boshu. Ram became William’s language teacher and, eventually, an evangelist for the missionary effort.

William and Ram set straight to work in his language training. Within a week William had learned enough Bengali to preach to the crowds of up to 300 people who gathered in the nearby villages to hear him.

It was during this time that William began to understand the depth at which Dr. Thomas’ unwise money management would effect the ministry. They were struggling financially and had to move to Calcutta after spending a couple of months in a smaller village. One of Carey’s philosophies for missionary service was that the missionary would work on the field to earn the money he needed to live. But since they had not been given permission by the East India Company to even be in India, they were not able to get a job that paid well enough to sustain them. When they moved back to Calcutta Dr. Thomas opened a private medical practice to help with the finances. William was supposed to have a job at the East India Botanical Gardens, but the job did not work out as planned and the family moved with Ram Boshu to a less favorable part of town to be able to afford the rent.

William had been given the use of some land, rent free, where he could build a mission station and have a garden that would sustain the family. The only problem was they did not have enough money to make the journey to the new property. William went to Dr. Thomas to retrieve the money that had been set aside for the construction of a mission station. He discovered that Dr. Thomas had already spent the money and borrowed even more in the name of the mission society in an effort to secure a large house and 12 servants for himself.

William then appealed to Rev. Brown at Ft. William for help in getting the work started. When the Rev. Brown found out that William had worked with Dr. Thomas, Rev. Brown literally slammed the door in William’s face.

William Carey and Family were starving. He had already struck out with the local bankers. Finally, Dr. Thomas appeared at the Carey home with 150 rupees he had borrowed in his own name to get the family moved to the new property. When they arrived at the new property there was a neighboring house. In an effort to properly introduce themselves they found a very kind and generous Charles Short, an Englishman who welcomed them to live and eat with him until they could get a place established.

Mr. Short informed them that many of the locals had moved away because of a tiger infestation in the area. While William worked to build his home and compound, many of the locals returned because William was able to protect them with his rifle. This opened up new opportunity for the people to trust William and listen to his teaching.

When William was on a trip during this time, he saw first-hand a religious practice that sickened him. A man was suspended from a rope with 2 large metal hooks jammed into his back. This was in worship to a Hindu god. William’s burden for educating the people with the Bible increased. The Indian people had many sacred books that they read and followed. William knew that the translation of the Bible must be completed so that they could read about his God.

Before he could get his home built, William had been offered a job as an overseer at an indigo dye factory. He was given a house and a salary 5 times greater than what he had previously ever earned. There would be 90 workers with whom he could share the Gospel. The job was basically a 3 month a year project. The rest of the time he would be free to work on his translations and missionary work.

Towards the end of the first dye making season their 5 year old son Peter got dysentery and died within a few hours. Dolly never recovered from the sadness and depression.

William was starting to feel the strain and loneliness of being in India 14 months and never once hearing from the missionary society. Because of the French pirates neither the societies letters to him, nor his letters to them were arriving at their destination.

I had not previously met Bro. Franklin, but we had a good time chatting with one another while we were together. He comes from the same church as Marco Castro whom I interviewed for episode 16.

In this episode he talks about the need for missionaries specifically to children. He also tells how that through training people are able to work with children. While he acknowledges a need for specially trained and prepared workers with children, he sees where these workers can be trained in their own churches to minister to the kids around them.

One thing you will enjoy in this interview is how Mrs. Edwards shares her feelings about going to the field and coming back to the United States. She also takes time at the end to speak with the ladies in the audience about what their attitudes should be towards the Lord’s leading in their lives.