I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
This road will divide while reading the pages below.
In a day when a
diluted message is producing diluted people, we stress a thorough
proclamation of the Word of God, emphasizing the four essential
ministries of the Lord Jesus to those who believe:
Jesus Christ the Savior
John 3:16, Acts 4:12
Jesus Christ the Baptizer
Mark 1:8, Acts 2:4
Jesus Christ the Healer
Hebrews 13:8, James 5:14-15
Jesus Christ the Coming King John 14:3, 1
Thess. 4:16-17
From the Church on the Way, Van Nuys, California
The end times are very close and we believe it is God's will for a World Revival to start very soon. We are beleiving that in 2009 a spark will kindle the fire of the Holy Spirit here.
Be a part of this Latin American and World revival which is prophezied in our very town where the Cape Horn Missionary Church is located. We ask pastors everywhere to pray that this spark will keep burning.
CBN News
December 28, 2007
CBNNews.com - RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - In 1906, when the Azusa Street Revival was bringing tongues-speaking, healing, prophesying Pentecostalism back to the world, mockers said it would be a flash in the pan, a momentary fad of misguided fanatics.
But Pentecostalism, 100-plus years later, is now a fiery revival sweeping much of the planet from Africa to Asia to Latin America
During a missionary trip in 1977, Pastor Ben Garrett suffered a decompression accident in Easter Island while diving for lobster leaving him with C3 spinal damage.
He believes that his weakness makes him strong to be able to withstand the great powers of darkness in Puerto Williams, the world's most southern town, "the ends of the earth", and to see the GOSPEL be preached Victoriously for Jesus there.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10:
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Backround on the Ukika Missionary Church
In the January 10, 1991 the missionaries Monica and Ben Garrett arrived in Puerto Williams, the world's ost Southern town, where they were 100% sure God had sent them by way of a yacht charter aboard their missionary yacht, VICTORY. But, they did not know what plans God had for them there. They were planning on going back North in a couple of weeks.
On a visit to the library of Puerto Williams, Ben found information about the death of a sailor and last century missionary, Captain Allen Gardiner, who died in a very sad way here trying to bring the Gospel of Jesus to the Yagan Indians. Reading this book changed their lives forever and they decided to try to help fulfill the last wish of captain Gardiner "that the work in Tierra Del Fuego would continue ".
They preached God's word in spite of many hardships and difficulties in this cold place. They rented a building for a Foursquare Church in Yagan Indian Village "Villa Ukika" during the next seven years and afterwards for two years more close to the Puerto Williams town center.
Due to varios circumstances, the Church building was closed. But, they are praying that someday God will send more workers to open it again. The Ukika Church, although not physically open, still remains effective in Spirit through this website as a virtual church. We still win various souls every week from the Latin Community all over the world via Internet. Many Yagan Indians were saved from Alcoholism and multiple Sins in their Village from hearing God's word and are now living a fuller life in Christ.
The True Founder of the area of Tierra Del Fuego, Captain/Pastor Gardiner died in
1851, a martyr.
His death took place not far from the world's most Southern
town, PUERTO WILLIAMS in Tierra Del Fuego.
It is his example that has made possible a continuing missionary work for the Lord in the "confines of the earth".
I SEE A SHIP
I See a Ship On The
Horizon Sailing toward
Our Isle of Care.
I See a cloud
Lifting above
Us In Answer
To our Prayer.
And We shall keep
On trusting All
To our great God Above.
For We Know that
When He is ready
He will reach out
To us in Love.
Helen Pearson Garrett
1905-1995
The flame of the Holy Spirit is
prophesied to start in
Tierra Del Fuego at
the "ends of the earth" and spread
North to who knows where; through
Argentina, Chile, Central,
South and North America, Canada... Read Ezekiel
20:45-49, Acts 1.8, John 12:24-25
We hope you may be a part of this spiritual awakening
with the Churches of Tierra Del Fuego.
We need your prayers to build a new church and
bring workers to Tierra Del Fuego.
Please pray about being a part of
this
ministry preaching God's word at
"The Uttermost part of the earth".
Following
is a message that Pastor Patricio
Ibarra wrote last July, 2002 on his way to a meeting of thousands of
believers where the Holy
Spirit was manifested in Ushuaia:
Today we begin our trip to the same "ends of the earth" where Darwin landed, and also Allen Gardiner, Magellan and Bridges.
Ushuaia, Argentina is the most southern city in the world, closer to
Antarctica than Punta Arenas, Chile, very near Cape Horn, in the strait
of the Beagle Channel, very near the place where the Operation
Mobilization missionary ship, Logos, sank near Puerto Williams
Many
Christian martyrs have
changed this land; Allan Gardiner, and its six companions were
the first.
After their death the group of eight men from England which came to
replace them suffered the same destiny, they died, not of hunger nor
cold, but by hand of the Indians, ignorant of the gospel, which they
had come to save.
Darwin, giving a surprise to all, was a faithful financial backer of
the work of Gardiner, and the end of his life returned to the
Bible, regretting loudly the evil use his theories.
Subsequently, many sowed their lives dying naturally here in the name
of our Savior. Literally they walked here and there, poor, distressed,
mistreated. The fruit of perseverance of these helped to found the city
of Ushuaia, as result of the settlement of the English missionaries
that needed a geographic place where they could be established.
At the moment there is a presentation in the Argentine Congress so that
the name of this city be changed to "City of God". We pray that it will
be a reality. This it is the place where God has called us, the
southern region of the Patagonia at the ends of the earth.
This weekend we join brothers to raise our arms to heaven, to clamor to
God in unity for a new spilling of the Holy Spirit, which has been
announced many times by different media. That the dreams of many
generations begin to be given reality!, and that we can administer
wisely the gifts that God distributes to us in this assembly of the
Holy Spirit.
Today, thirty or so of pastors and leaders, are traveling from
different Patagonian cities. We, from Punta Arenas are going to
travel through 350 miles of ice, snow, and a little bit of cement road
in order to arrive at Ushuaia. Pray that we can receive the
"fire" as a strong wind, and that we can continue carrying it with us
as a blessing for the salvation of thousands.
In Christ Jesus, Patricio and Tani Ibarra
Punta Arenas, Chile
More prophesy about the "Uttermost part of the Earth"
NOTE: In this day of self-focus, many seek God so that He will bless them. They want all the good things so they can spend it on themselves. (see James 4:3) Jesus came to show us that the Father is always giving, so we must be always giving. I love Zac’s teaching which I received this morning. Take this to heart with me today!
ARE YOU SEEKING A BLESSING
OR SEEKING TO BE A BLESSING?
Zac Poonen
The Bible says that the gift of the Holy Spirit is meant to bring to us "the blessing of Abraham" (Gal.3:14). When God blessed Abraham, He told him, "I will bless you and you will be a blessing. In you all the families of the earth will be blessed..." (Gen.12:2-3).
There are two parts to that blessing: "I will bless you" and "You will be a blessing". This is what happens when we are filled with the Holy Spirit.
Most believers seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit to be blessed themselves, and not in order to be a blessing to others. This is why there are so many counterfeit experiences of the Holy Spirit rampant in Christendom today.
Jesus said that the power of the Holy Spirit would make us His witnesses ("a blessing to others", as He Himself was) to the uttermost parts of the earth (Acts 1:8). This is "the blessing of Abraham" who was told that "the entire world will be blessed because of you" (Gen.12:3-Living). Families living in the uttermost parts of the earth would be blessed through Abraham. And families living in the uttermost parts of the earth will be blessed through us, when we are filled with the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus told the Jews in the synagogue at Nazareth about His being anointed with the Spirit and the blessings that would flow out as a result, He mentioned, "preaching the gospel to the poor, healing the brokenhearted, delivering the oppressed, announcing freedom for the captives, sight for the blind and the blessings of God, to one and all" (Lk. 4:18-19-Living). Notice that every single result of the anointing was blessing to others. Peter's words in Cornelius' house agrees with this : "Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit and power and He went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil." (Acts 10:38). Again we notice that the emphasis is on blessing to others.
When Jesus taught His disciples to ask their heavenly Father for the Holy Spirit, He illustrated it with a parable (see Luke 11:5-13). He spoke of a man who went to his neighbour's house and kept on knocking until he got the loaves of bread that he needed for feeding a visitor. The main point of the parable is persistence in asking for the Holy Spirit (as becomes clear in verse 13). But we must also notice the fact that the man did not go to get bread for himself, but for another. It was someone else's need that drove him to his neighbour's house. Once he had got the bread from his neighbour and had fed his visitor, I presume he must have gone to bed and not gone around "reporting" this good deed to others. I can't imagine this man getting someone to take a photograph of him giving the bread to his visitor at midnight and then sending copies of the photograph to all his neighbours.
Yet many Christians do just that: They advertise the good they do, in order to impress people that they are serving God. Jesus told us that even our left hand should not know what our right hand does.
God wants to bless us - immensely. But He does not want us to become reservoirs or lakes. He wants us to be channels through which rivers of living water flow out to others (Jn.7:37-39). And He wants those rivers to flow secretly and quietly, for the glory of God alone.
Every gift of the Spirit mentioned in the New Testament epistles is meant to bless others (1 Cor.12; Rom.12; Eph.4). Even the gift of tongues that edifies us personally is given primarily so that we might always be spiritually fresh and in touch with God, so that we can serve others better.
Those who seek after personal blessing primarily - whether physical health, material prosperity or emotional excitement - have not understood God's purpose at all. These are only the crumbs that fall from His table.
Our calling as believers is to follow in Jesus' footsteps - and He did not come to earth to be blessed Himself, but to bless others.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
The Uttermost Parts of the Earth
March 4, 2011
"Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." (Psalm 2:8)
This colorful and comprehensive phrase, usually translated "ends of the earth," occurs no less than thirty times in the Old Testament and five in the New. The verse in our text is God's promise to His Son (v. 7), and it appears again and again. For example: "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth" (72:8). "Now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth" (Micah 5:4); "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord" (Psalm 22:27).
This divine Son, whose future dominion will extend to the uttermost parts of the earth, is also the Creator of the ends of the earth. "Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell?" (Proverbs 30:4).
He who both created and will ultimately regain all the ends of the earth will also be their judge. "The LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed" (literally, Messiah; 1 Samuel 2:10).
For the present, however, He is still "despised and rejected of men" (Isaiah 53:3), both as Creator and as coming King by all the nations of the world. Nevertheless He has provided "salvation unto the ends of the earth" for all who will receive Him (Acts 13:47), and He has both commanded and prophesied that His followers must be "witnesses unto me . . . unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). The great message we carry from Him is: "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth" (Isaiah 45:22). HMM
On December 17, 1850, Captain Allen Gardiner and six companions, after
enduring a long trip from England, landed at Patagonia on the southern
tip of South America. They came to bring the Gospel to people
there who were so primitive that evolutionist Charles Darwin said they
existed "in a lower state than in any other part of the world."
The natives were fierce cannibals and the land and weather absolutely
treacherous. The team had brought six month's worth of
supplies. England had committed to sending a relief ship with
more supplies in six months.
(A classic example of a miracle of God is related -- strange to say --
to Charles Darwin):
On his 1831 voyage around the world on the Beagle, the well-known
naturalist observed the aborigines of Tierra del Fuego, situated off
the southern tip of South America. This tribal people Darwin
dubbed as "the missing link" between man and monkey and declared them
incapable or moral discernment.
Later a converted British naval officer, Captain Allen Gardiner ,
worked as a missionary among these aborigines. Such was the
change in these darkened souls that Darwin himself was astonished and,
in appreciation of Gardiner's work, sent a donation to the South
American Missionary Society and asked to be made an honorary member!
Whether we think of the Aucas or the Sawis or the Hmars, the evidence
is overwhelming: When the story of God's love is preached and the
message of the Cross is proclaimed, the hearts of men the world around
are broken and their eyes opened to see the reality of these spiritual
truths.
References:
Alice Gibbons, The People that Time Forgot (Chicago: Moody Press,
1981), p. 346
Robert Hall Glover, revised and enlarged by Herbert Kane. The Progress
of World-Wide Missions (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1960),
pp. 360-361.)
After leaving England, Gardiner wrote in his journal, "Nothing can
exceed the cheerful endurance and unanimity of the whole party . . . I
feel that the Lord is with us, and cannot doubt that He will own and
bless the work He permitted us to begin."
Unfortunately, things began to go wrong. Unbeknown to Gardiner,
his supporters back in England couldn't find a ship to carry the next
six months' supplies to Patagonia. No one wanted to make such a
dangerous journey. So as the missionaries carried out their work
on the cold tip of South America and as their supplies ran dangerously
low, they scanned the horizon for the approaching ship. It never
arrived.
Those men faced a tough test. Alone in a hostile environment,
without food or supplies, hunger and death stalked them like hungry
wolves.
By the time a relief ship finally reached Patagonia in October 1851,
almost a year after the missionaries had arrived, Gardiner and his men
had all died of starvation. Gardiner's emaciated body was found
lying beside a boat. He was clothed in three suits, with wool
stockings over his arms to ward off the numbing cold. The supply
arrangements for the under-funded party failed, leading to the death of
the entire expedition from scurvy and starvation in Spaniard Harbor
(now Aguirre Bay), Tierra del Fuego.
What had that English missionary thought during those last horrifying
days? Had this terrible ordeal destroyed his faith? Were his
dying days filled with nothing but despair and disillusionment? The men off the relief ship found his journal. They were amazed at one
of his latter entries:
"Poor and weak as we are, our boat is the very Bethel [house of God] to
our soul, for we feel and know that God is here. Asleep or awake,
I am, beyond the power of expression, happy."
The death of the missionary party had the belated effect of arousing
public sympathy back in the UK, and the PMS was revitalized. Gardiner's
original plan for the Society was threefold: to supply the spiritual
wants of his own countrymen, of Roman Catholics, and of the unreached
in South America. With these aims in mind, the Secretary of the PMS,
the Reverend George Despard, determined to persevere with the work
initiated by Gardiner. In 1854, one of the Falklands, Keppel Island,
was established by Despard as the Mission's headquarters, from where,
by boat, missionaries communicated with the Fuegians. Over the next
five years, contact was maintained, with the Fuegians receiving visits,
food and clothes, and Bible and agricultural instruction, and the
missionaries learning the Yahgan language. Unfortunately, an attempt in
1859 to establish a permanent mission station on the mainland led in
the massacre of eight missionaries. In 1863 the Reverend Waite Stirling
joined the team on Keppel Island, and subsequent attempts at
establishing stations, at Liwya and Ushuaia, were more successful. By
the 1870s many of the local Fuegians had converted to Christianity;
however, the native population dwindled to such an extent over the next
couple of decades that the Fuegian mission was closed down in the
opening years of the 20th century.
Ritchie, John. STORY OF CAPTAIN ALLEN GARDINER, MISSIONARY
MARTYR OF DARK PATAGONIA. Kilmarnock: John Ritchie, 190-'s?. 1st ed.
Size: 5x7. [33p, several b&w illust] (A short account of the
mission work of Captain Allan Gardiner, who along with a small crew,
died at Tiera del Fuego near Cape Horn at the tip of South America in
1851 while waiting for provisions.)
Besides Allen Gardiner and others, the missionary ship MV LOGOS I,
which sunk on the Islote Snipe on 6 January, 1988 was a kernel of wheat
which fell to the ground and died in order to produce many seeds (Revival) here
at the "ends of the earth"
.
Click
on MV LOGOS to see her
ship wrecked near Puerto Williams
MV LOGOS, Operation Mobilization's pioneering first ship, was purchased
in 1970. Over a 17-year period, more than seven million visitors came
to the MV LOGOS during 250 ports of call in 102 countries. In 1988, MV
LOGOS ran aground on rocks off Tierra del Fuego, Chile, in atrocious
weather conditions. Though the ship could not be saved, not a single
crewmember was lost. Later that year, the former ANTONIO LAZARO became
the LOGOS II.
Our Father's Children Click on the above cartoon to visit Our Fathers Children.com
he
Yagan Canoe
Indians paddled mainly
in
flat water fjords and channels-lined with
wild green forests, glaciers and snowcapped
peaks - where the Andes meet the sea. The
area is called TIERRA DEL FUEGO, Fireland. It
is so named for the hundreds fires that were
seen on the beach which the Indians used to
keep themselves warm and cook their main diet
of mussels. The Yagans were the last
representatives of one of the most primitive
human beings to live on the earth. They
paddled their flimsy Beech bark canoes out as
far as the treacherous islands of Cape Horn
and beyond. These nomads of the sea had lived
there for perhaps 10,000 years.
Their shellfish middens may still be seen,
some as high as 4 meters, lining the beaches.
They had no protection from the Antarctic
cold except for seal grease on their skin and
a loose fur around their shoulders.
Unlike their neighbors, the Onas, who had skin
over their tents and capes for their bodies; the
Yagans made tents only of tree branches and leaves
and wore no clothes. They did not have
space in their small canoes to carry clothes, blankets,
tent covers and capes. They were the most
rugged individuals to ever walk the face of the earth!
They walked barefoot in the snow and "warmed"
their feet in near freezing ocean water. The
women skin dived naked for their
food, cared for the canoes and fished. The
Yagan men did not know how to swim and spent
most of their time looking for firewood and
hunting. The islands, fjords and channels in
the area of Tierra del Fuego were their home
where archaeological evidence of their
ancient culture still abounds. These coasts
are still the home of sea lions, seagulls,
seals, and skuas, which enjoy a practically
untouched habitat.
Yagan Boys
Old photo, author unknown
Old photo, author unknown
SOME OF THE ONA TRIBE
OF TIERRA DEL FUEGO INDIANS
n
December 27, 1831, H.M.S. BEAGLE,
a 240 ton, ten-gun brig left Plymouth, England,
on a survey voyage to chart the coastline of
South America.
The Beagle was a rather small, ninety feet
in length. She was being completely refitted
and rebuilt after her last voyage.
On the upcoming trip she would be home to
74 people including the captain, three officers,
the crew, a doctor, an artist, and of course the naturalist.
Darwin shared the poop cabin (at the back of
the ship) with two officers. Their space was
so cramped that Darwin had to remove a drawer
each night so that he would have room for his
feet. It was a journey that would
last almost five years, and would carry the
ship around the world. It was also a voyage
that would change the history of human
thought. The BEAGLE was under the command
again of Captain Robert Fitzroy, and carried
seventy-four people, including its unpaid
naturalist, Charles Darwin, recently
graduated from Cambridge.
aptain
Robert FitzRoy was
young to be a
captain, yet seasoned and very able. When he
was only 23, he had assumed the command of
the Beagle on a previous voyage. FitzRoy was
devoutly religious, and he planned some
missionary activities for this voyage.
It was actually Captain Robert Fitzroy who had
the first vision for starting an evangelistic mission
for the Yagan Indians of Tierra Del Fuego.
In 1832 the "HMS Beagle", at the command of
Captain Fitzroy, came back to Wulaia in
Navarino Island, from England and returned
three "Fuegian" Yagan Indians that the BEAGLE
had taken to England on a
previous voyage.
Aboard the BEAGLE with a young naturalist,
Charles Darwin.
itzroy
wanted one of
the Yagans, Jemmy
Button, to be an interpreter to
the others.
Navarino island is at the tip of the South
American continent. Captain Fitzroy wanted to
set up his mission here, so Darwin was able
to spend considerable time ashore and
discovered things which would intrigue him.
Wulaia is where the founding of Tierra Del
Fuego, Ushuaia and Puerto Williams really
began with the first missionary house.
When he returned to England, Darwin wrote of
the Fuegians:
"The perfect equality among the
individuals composing the Fuegian tribes must
for a long time retard their civilization.
...In Tierra Del Fuego, until some chief
shall arise with power sufficient to secure
any acquired advantage, such as the
domesticated animals, it seems scarcely
possible that the political state of the
country can be improved.
At present, even a piece of cloth given to one is torn into
shreds and distributed; and no one individual
becomes richer than another. On the other
hand, it is difficult to understand how a
chief can arise till there is property of
some sort by which he might manifest his
superiority and increase his power."
The HMS BEAGLE at the
Bay of Good Success, Tierra del Fuego
(Not far from Puerto Williams)
Following is what Darwin wrote
about
the Indians he found in Wulaia:
...painted devils... ...a measure of happiness...
Dec 17, 1832 - "It was without exception the
most curious and interesting spectacle I ever
beheld: I could not have believed how wide
was the difference between savage and
civilized man: it is greater than between a
wild and domesticated animal, inasmuch as in
man there is a greater power of improvement."
"Their only garment consists of a mantle
thrown over their shoulders, leaving their
persons as often exposed as covered. [They
were painted like] devils which come on stage
in plays. They are excellent mimics ...they
could repeat with perfect correctness each
word in any sentence we addressed them... Yet
we Europeans all know how difficult it is to
distinguish apart the sounds in a foreign
language. Is it a consequence of the more
practised habits of perception and keener
senses, common to all men in a savage state?"
"uring
the former voyage,
[1826-30]
Captain Fitz Roy seized on a party of natives as
hostages for the loss of a boat which had
been stolen ...; some of these natives, as
well as a child whom he bought for a
pearl-button, he took with him to England
...to educate and instruct them in religion
at his own expense. To settle these natives
in their own country, was one chief
inducement to Captain Fitz Roy to undertake
our present voyage."
"Although all three could both speak and
understand a good deal of English, it was
singularly difficult to obtain much
information from them ... partly owing to
their apparent difficulty in understanding
the simplest alternative. It is certainly
true that when pressed in winter by hunger,
they kill and devour their own women before
they kill their dogs: 'Doggies catch otters,
old women, no'." Not so. Fuegians were not
cannibals. (Bridges suggests, in The
Uttermost Part of the Earth, that reports of
Fuegian cannibalism were "no more than
agreement with suggestions made by their
questioners." )
"They sometimes bury their dead... Jeremy
Button would not eat land-birds because '
[they] eat dead men': they are unwilling to
mention their dead friends. [It is unclear
if] they perform any sort of religious
worship. Each family or tribe has a wizard or
conjuring doctor. Jeremy believed in dreams,
though not in the devil: I do not think that
our Feugians were much more superstitious
than some of the sailors."
"Whence have they come ...to one of the most
inhospitable countries within the limits of
the globe? There is no reason to believe that
the Fuegians decrease in number; therefore we
must suppose that they enjoy a sufficient
share of happiness, of whatever kind it may
be, to render life worth having. Nature, by
making habit omnipotent, and its effects
hereditary, has fitted the Fuegian to the
climate and the productions of his miserable
country."
arwin
describes
the Indian's vestements
:"On the east
coast the natives, as we have seen, have guanaco cloaks,
and on the west they possess seal-skins. Amongst these
central tribes (The Yagans) the men generally have an
otter-skin, or some small scrap about as large as a
pocket-handkerchief, which is barely sufficient to
cover their backs as low down as their loins."
His excellent chapter on Tierra Del Fuego may be
seen in chapter 10 of "Voyage of the Beagle"
at http://www.victory-cruises.com/darwin.html
Missionary work in Wulaia started
after
Captain Fitzroy brought Jimmy Button back
from his 1830 voyage t to live here again
among the Yagan Indians in Wulaia and to help
Rev. Richard Mathews. Charles Darwin in in
his last days possibly became a Christian is
supposed to have renounced evolution and
converted to Christianity on his deathbed.
Shortly after his death, a Lady Hope claimed
she visited Darwin on his deathbed, and
witnessed his conversion. But, Lady Hope's
story was refuted by Darwin's daughter
Henrietta who stated, "I was present at his deathbed ......But some say It is debatable if he
later
became a Christian.
HARLES
DARWIN'S
thinking and writing
on the subject of evolution and natural selection
caused him to reject the evidence for God in
nature and ultimately to renounce the Bible,
God, and the Christian faith.
Darwin did not lack religious influences in
his youth. Baptized an Anglican and steeped
in his mother's Unitarianism, young Charles
was brought up to pray. He used to run the
mile or so from home to school, concerning
which he wrote:
'I often had to run very quickly to be on
time, and from being a fleet runner was
generally successful; but when in doubt I
prayed earnestly to God to help me, and I
well remember that I attributed my success to
the prayers and not to my quick running, and
marvelled how generally I was aided.'
e
had dropped
out of medical studies after
two years at Edinburgh, and his father
suggested to him the calling of an Anglican
clergyman. Charles wasn't sure whether he
could accept everything in the Thirty-nine
Articles of the Church of England. However,
he later wrote,
I liked the thought of being a country
clergyman. Accordingly I read with care
Pearson on the Creed and a few other books on
divinity; and as I did not then in the least
doubt the strict and literal truth of every
word in the Bible, I soon persuaded myself
that our Creed must be fully accepted.'
uring
his
three years of theological studies
at Christ's College, Cambridge, he was
greatly impressed by Paley's Evidences of
Christianity and his Natural Theology (which
argues for the existence of God from design).
He recalled:
'I could have written out the whole of the
Evidences with perfect correctness, but not
of course in the clear language of Paley,'
and, 'I do not think I hardly ever admired a
book more than Paley's Natural Theology. I
could almost formerly have said it by heart.'
In a letter of condolence to a bereaved
friend at that time, he wrote of "so pure and
holy a comfort as the Bible affords,'
compared with 'how useless the sympathy of
all friends must appear.'
Here, on Navarino island at the tip of the South
American continent, Captain Fitzroy wanted to set up a mission.
Darwin was therefore able to spend considerable time ashore
and discovered things which would intrigue him.
Darwin helped to finance the missionary
voyage of Captain Allen Gardiner in 1849.
Sister Rosa, Emelinda and Ursula
some of the last Yagans
in our church service
Emelinda, a Yagan speaker, has her grandchildren shown below.
Sister Rosa is now dead.
Ursula was a woman of much faith!
She prayed for her 2 sons and daughter
for years.
After her death in November of 2002 her
prayers were answered.
Ursula's sister, Cristina, the only other yagan speaker is the
last surviving pure Yagan Indian.
A story about an cold ember and going to church
A member of a certain church, who previously had been attending services regularly, stopped going. After a few weeks, the pastor decided to visit him. It was a chilly evening. The pastor found the man at home alone, sitting before a blazing fire. Guessing the reason for his pastor's visit, the man welcomed him, led him to a comfortable chair near the fireplace and waited. The pastor made himself at home but said nothing. In the grave silence, he contemplated the dance of the flames around the burning logs. After some minutes, the pastor took the fire tongs, carefully picked up a brightly burning ember and placed it to one side of the hearth all alone.
Then he sat back in his chair, still silent. The host watched all this in quiet contemplation. As the one lone ember's flame flickered and diminished, there was a momentary glow and then its fire was no more. Soon it was cold and dead. Not a word had been spoken since the initial greeting. The pastor glanced at his watch and realized it was time to leave, he slowly stood up, picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in the middle of the fire. Immediately it began to glow, once more with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it. As the pastor reached the door to leave, his host said with a tear running down his cheek, "Thank you so much for your visit and especially for the fiery sermon. I shall be back in church next Sunday."
he
Yagan Canoe
Indians paddled mainly
in
n
December 27, 1831, H.M.S. BEAGLE, 
aptain
Robert FitzRoy was
young to be a
itzroy
wanted one of
the Yagans, Jemmy
uring
the former voyage,
[1826-30] 
e
had dropped
out of medical studies after
