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The story of the beginning of SAMS took place 150 years ago and centers around the Yaghan Indians of Tierra del Fuego. After the studying the Yaghans, Charles Darwin had concluded that they were "the lowest form of humanity on earth." Among other distinctions, the Yaghans were known as a violent people.
Allen Gardiner, the founder of SAMS, felt a call from God to reach out to the Yaghans with the message of God's love that had transformed his own life. However, the survival of their missionary band was jeopardized as the Yaghans pilfered their limited supplies. Gardiner knew their only hope of survival was to withdraw to an uninhabited island and wait for the already overdue supply ship. In the process they lost one of their two launches, leaving Gardiner and his six companions stranded. Over one hundred and fifty years ago this month, Gardiner's mission party was stranded, starving and waiting to be rescued. Tragically, the rescue ship arrived weeks after Gardiner and his six missionary companions had succumbed to starvation.
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Lithograph of Captain Allen Gardiner - founder of SAMS
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As Gardiner was in the final stages of starvation, he was focused on the future and came up with a new name for the mission society. In his journal, he proposed that the Patagonian Missionary Society should expand its field of work to the entire continent and be renamed the South American Missionary Society. As he died, his heart seemed to overflow with thanksgiving for God's many mercies. "Great and marvelous are the loving kindnesses of my gracious God. He has preserved me hitherto, and for four days, although without bodily food, without any feelings of hunger or thirst." September 5, 1851.
Dr. Richard Williams, the physician of the missionary team, described the same peace that passes understanding, "Let all my beloved ones at home rest assured that I was happy beyond all expression . . . and would not have changed situations with any man living . . . that heaven, and love, and Christ . . . were in my heart . . ."
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The desolate beach where Allen Gardiner and his companions starved to death
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Tierra del Fuego - the icy and treacherous waters that early SAMS missionaries sailed in order to reach the Yagan Indians with the Gospel
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When news of the missionaries' deaths reached England, The Times carried a blistering editorial decrying the loss of life and resources for so foolish a cause. The missionaries' deaths caught the attention of the nation, and a book on their mission, which included Allen Gardiner's journal, enjoyed wide circulation. Biblically-minded churchmen responded to the criticism of the mission with contributions, and new missionary recruits made it possible to launch a second mission, this one better planned and equipped.
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Using the Falkland Islands as a base, the missionaries learned the language from three Yaghans that Darwin had taken to England 25 years earlier as examples of this primitive people. Safely transported to a Yaghan Island in November 1859 on a schooner christened in Allen Gardiner's memory, catechist Garland Phillips was now ready to continue the mission to the Yaghans. As Phillips, Captain Fell, and six crew members came ashore, they found themselves suddenly under attack. Within minutes all eight were speared to death.
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Ushuaia - the town at the southern most tip of South America founded by SAMS missionaries.
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Gardiner Memorial - a memorial to Allen Gardiner in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
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The field director of SAMS, George Despard, was crushed by the loss of the second missionary team. He returned to England, along with his family and the remaining missionaries. Two missionary teams had gone out with high hopes, and the results were 15 dead, 7 by starvation and 8 murdered by the Yaghans. All was lost, and apparently for nothing.
In the darkest moment, a seventeen-year-old boy came forward and asked Despard's permission to stay behind and carry on the work. His name was Thomas Bridges, a surname he was given because he was found as a baby, abandoned on a London bridge. The Despards had taken him in and given him a place in their family.
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When Paul prayed for his "thorn in the flesh" to be removed, God's reply was, "My grace is sufficient for you, my power is perfected in weakness." It was in complete weakness and vulnerability that Bridges, often alone, would visit the Yaghan settlements, many of whose inhabitants had murdered the second missionary team. But unthreatened by his vulnerability, and moved by the forgiveness that he embodied, the Yaghans were finally able to hear the Good News. In fact, Bridges baptized many of the same people who had killed his friends.
The most dramatic demonstration of the change in the people Darwin had labeled the "lowest form of humanity" took place when an Italian ship was sinking offshore from Yaghan territory. Formerly the Yaghans would have most likely killed the sailors and helped themselves to their belongings. But as followers of Christ, the Yaghans risked their lives to rescue these complete strangers.
The King of Italy was so impressed by their heroism that he had a medal struck in their honor, and in honor of Bridges and SAMS, with a Latin inscription signifying "Religion has brought safety to the mariners rescued from a watery grave". Darwin himself was so impressed with the change that he became a supporter of SAMS for the rest of his life. And a new annotation was added to navigational charts, "A great change has been effected in the character of the natives . . . the Yaghans . . . can be trusted."
Through the Gospel, the Yaghans were transformed from a lost cause to being a people whose heroism and altruism were internationally acclaimed.
Today SAMS Great Britain, SAMS Canada, SAMS Ireland and SAMS-USA carry on the legacy and work of the early SAMS missionaries. Founded in 1976 SAMS-USA partners with the Episcopal/Anglican Church in Latin America and Spain to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ through both word and deed.
To learn more about Allen Gardiner and the History of SAMS
click here
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