In London, it was the middle of winter, Sunday, January 3, 1814. While Mrs. Tonkin was on her way to the evening service, she saw John, one of her husband’s employees, waiting outside a bakery on City Road. He was waiting impatiently for his long-overdue friends to meet him so they could drink beer together.
Mrs. Tonkin did not reprimand John as she walked by, nor did she pass by, pretending not to recognize him. Instead, Mrs. Tonkin warmly greeted the seventeen-year-old and invited him to come to church with her. At first, he tried to make excuses. (Boring old church was the last place he wanted to be.) But his friends had let him down, and Mrs. Tonkin gently urged him to join her. Finally, the young man agreed to go.
John said later of that night, “I recall the sermon and the great power with which the Word of God took hold upon my heart as I sat there. Mr. East, the minister, took a most impressive verse of Scripture for a text: ‘For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?’” That night, John Williams saw the futility of life without Christ and decided to turn from his selfish ways and come to the Saviour.
John was a valued worker in the ironmongery, and he also directed his diligence to his spiritual growth. Soon he was teaching Sunday school and attending a particular class for prospective preachers. Before reaching his twenty-first birthday, he married and sailed off to become the “Hudson Taylor of the South Pacific.”
John became friends with Robert Moffat and learned lessons from Samuel Marsden in Sydney. While sailing to Tahiti, he studied the ship on which he sailed. He made drawings of its construction and learned sailing and navigation from the captain. When he and his wife Mary arrived in Tahiti in 1817, it soon became apparent that John was no ordinary missionary. John learned the language faster than anyone had ever done—preaching his first sermon in Tahitian after only ten months. Then he volunteered to lead a team to start a work on the island of Raiatea. Thus began the monumental missionary work of John Williams.
What God did through John Williams is a wonder. During the next twenty-one years, God worked marvelously through His willing servant. Practically the entire island of Raiatea turned to Christ from idolatry and infant sacrifice within three years, and the churches began sending out their own national missionaries. Leaving his successful work, John moved to Rarotonga (Cook Islands), again seeing most of the island converted. Then, when no ship came to carry John to the next island, he and the Christians on the island built a boat. The “Messenger of Peace,” a seventy-five-ton ship constructed almost entirely of jungle materials, carried John and the Gospel to what is known today as the nation of Samoa. John continued to bring the Good News to more Pacific Islands until he was martyred on the island of Erromanga (part of modern Vanuatu) at the age of forty- three.
John Williams lived a life of service to the Lord, but it started with someone who was willing to bring him to church and a pastor who gave him a place to serve in his church. Not every member of our churches will become a John Williams, but every member needs the opportunity to serve.
Taken from: www.ministry127.com