Few mission stories sound as improbable as that of a poor Scotsman who chose to live among peoples who practiced cannibalism, with no promise of safety whatsoever. John G. Paton took that path out of conviction that no one should be left without hearing the gospel, not even the most feared.
Born in 1824 in Kirkmahoe, Scotland, he grew up in a humble home and worked as an urban missionary in the poor neighborhoods of Glasgow before training in theology and medicine. At age 33, now ordained, he sailed with his wife Mary Ann Robson to the island of Tana, in the New Hebrides, an archipelago now called Vanuatu.
The joy did not last long. Months after their arrival, Mary Ann and their newborn son died of tropical fever, and Paton buried them with his own hands. Alone, he lived for years under constant threat from warring tribes, eventually fleeing Tana in 1862, after other missionaries in the region were killed.
He did not give up. He married again, to Margaret Whitecross, and in 1866 the two settled on the island of Aniwa. There, digging a well of fresh water, something the islanders believed impossible, shook the local traditional religion and opened the way for mass conversions.
Over time, he reduced the Aniwan language to writing and translated portions of Scripture, published as the New Testament in 1899. His autobiography, compiled by his brother James in 1889, recounted these years and became a landmark read in mission circles for generations.
Paton also had documented limitations. On certain occasions, he supported British naval bombardment of villages in Tana and the annexation of the New Hebrides by the British crown, positions now recognized as paternalistic and tied to the European colonialism of his era. Historians also record that he acted on his own, against the mission synod’s wishes, such as raising funds in Britain for a steamship in 1884 without the church leadership’s approval.
He spent decades traveling through Australia, Britain, Canada, and the United States, raising funds and mobilizing Sunday school children to support the mission ship Dayspring. He died in 1907, in Melbourne, at age 82, having seen entire islands abandon war and cannibalism for the gospel.
His life is a reminder that faithfulness in hostile places, even at high personal cost and with decisions not always right, can open the way for transformations that outlast a generation.
