By Lloyd A. Cooke, ContributorIN A column in the Sunday Gleaner of January 5, 2003, Religion Reporter Mark Dawes quoted from the missionary reference work Operation World by Patrick Johnstone:"There are 18 persons from Jamaica serving in another country as missionaries and 192 missionaries from other countries serving here," he then comments that this "spells failure on the part of local churches as sending agents."
While these figures may be debated as to their accuracy (both in regards to how many Jamaicans are serving as true cross-cultural missionaries, and how many foreigners are serving here as missionaries), I would like to examine the need for missionaries coming to Jamaica at this time. Is there a need for us to be receiving missionaries still? What is their concept of missionary work, and what constitutes a 'mission field'? Is Jamaica really a mission field?
Christianity first came to Jamaica officially with the Spanish in 1515 when Franciscan friars were sent from Hispaniola to evangelise the island. Protestant Anglican Christianity came with the ships of Admiral Penn and General Venables on their voyage of conquest on May 10, 1655. On that voyage were seven ministers, but they were more likely naval or military chaplains, and not missionaries.
The first impetus to Missionary work from Jamaica came from the Baptists beginning with George Liele in 1783. Also before the abolition of slavery, Baptist members, supported by their ministers, began to turn their eyes back to Africa for missions.
This desire of Jamaican Baptist Christians to take the gospel message to Africa came to fruition when in 1842 the decision was taken to send missionary John Clarke, formerly of Jericho, St. Catherine, and Dr. George K. Prince, an English doctor then resident here and married to a coloured Jamaican woman, on a reconnaissance trip to the Niger area of West Africa. With them went Alexander Fuller and Joseph Merrick, as well as Prince's wife and daughter. Their successful visit resulted in a party of 43 Jamaicans and other missionary personnel departing Falmouth harbour on the Chilmark on December 1, 1843 bound for Fernando Po, an island just off the coast of what is today West Cameroon. The result of the labours of this band of missionaries, teachers, and settlers, as well as of later English and other Jamaican replacements, is the Baptist Churches of West Cameroon today. Lloyd E. Kwast, in 'The Discipling of West Cameroon', states:
"The story of the evangelisation of West Cameroon did not begin in Europe or North America, as one would suppose, but in the small Caribbean island of Jamaica. With the emancipation of Negro slaves in Jamaica in 1838, there arose among the Jamaican Baptists a spontaneous concern to carry the message of Jesus Christ to West Africa, the land of their ancestry."
But it wasn't only the Baptists of Jamaica who felt this same urge. The spark they lit ignited the other denominations then active in Jamaica. The year 1843 also saw the Moravians sending Jamaicans to Ghana; the Presbyterians were quick to follow them in 1846, as Hope Waddell, after 13 years in Jamaica, to quote Horace Russell again (pg. 173):
"Sailed from Liverpool for Calabar on January 6, 1846 aboard the Warree. He was accompanied by four Jamaicans: Samuel Edgerley and his wife, Andrew Chisholm, Edward Miller and a servant called George Waddell.
Others evidently followed later, as we know that Rev. Henry Ward, later minister at Salem United Church in St. Mary, and founder of Meadowbrook High School, was a missionary to Nigeria. On his 99th birthday The Gleaner reported about him in the 1970s
"... An educator and founder of many schools, he served in Nigeria for 12 years, also at Calabar there and as one time in charge of Normal College in that country."
The Congregationalists, Methodists, Jamaica Evangelistic Mission of St. Ann, and later toward the end of the century the Anglicans all followed in sending Jamaicans (particularly teachers who often later entered the ministry), to other African countries, the Caribbean, Central and South America, and farther afield. This first wave, however, was not followed up by other waves. The energy to send Jamaican missionaries seems to have fizzled out in the early part of the 1900s. Many others have continued to go, but largely they went on their own initiative. Many who went to England, Canada, and the USA to study got challenged there, responded, and went out supported by the churches in those countries. Usually, the Jamaican churches know little about them, and certainly did not send or participate in their support at least, not substantively. The Jamaican Church, therefore, reaped no spiritual blessings from participation in their going.
Deserving of special mention is the Clarke/Lord families of Mandeville, of whom seven generations have served, and continue to serve as missionaries. John D. Clarke and his brother Douglas Stuart both served in Brazil and later Ecuador, where they both were involved in the establishment of the missionary radio station Heralding Christ Jesus Blessing (HCJB). Their cousin Raymond B. Clarke also served in Brazil, where "he and his cousin J.D. Clarke travelled the Araguaya River and up the Amazon... and into Peru trying to find a place to open a mission station for the Christian and Missionary Alliance."
The story of Ray B. Clarke's labours are documented in his son's book "Ray Clarke, Trailblazer for God in Amazonia." (David B.Clarke was himself a missionary to the Dominican Republic, and later the main instrument in bringing the Missionary Church Association denomination to Jamaica)
But these all served under missionary societies based abroad. It wasn't until 1961 that the first indigenous and Independent Nondenominational 'Faith' Mission agency, International Missionary Fellowship (IMF), was founded in Jamaica. Began through the vision of three men to harness the potential that they saw in Jamaicans for foreign missionary service: David Ho, a Chinese-Jamaican from the Brethren movement, Richard Bell, an Englishman serving with the Inter Schools/Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship, working among secondary and tertiary students in the Caribbean, and Thomas 'Mas Tom' Northern, an American working with the Tabernacle Churches of St. Ann. They operated a Missionary Training School in Alexandria, St. Ann. Until its demise about 1978, IMF recruited trained, and sent out 19 Jamaicans and 15 other Caribbean nationals to 13 different countries to serve as missionaries. Even after the mission ceased to exist, these young people continued to serve with distinction. One couple has just retired after nearly 30 years of distinguished service as church planters in Irian Jaya (Indonesia), Zimbabwe, Russia, and South Africa, with a stint as representatives for their Mission in South-East USA, operating out of Atlanta, Georgia.
Another, more recent Jamaican Mission Sending Agency, NEST (Networking, Equipping and Sending Team for World Evangelisation) has been raised up to continue the same work of promoting, recruiting, equipping, sending and supporting Jamaican young people into cross-cultural missions. They sent out their first missionary to northern Ethiopia to work in partnership with the American agency Sudan Interior Mission (SIM), on January 22 this year.
Marshalle Brown, a graduate of Jamaica Theological Seminary, and from the Washington Gardens United Brethren Church, will labour among youth and women in that country. Preceding her to the mission field by two years as Director of the said NEST is Jo-Ann Richards. Another graduate of the Jamaica Theological Seminary, and an accomplished musician, she serves with the Wycliffe Bible Translators, in the area of ethno-musicology. There she will learn the languages and indigenous musical styles of Unreached People of Burkina Faso and Benin, and train them in developing gospel songs and choruses utilising traditional instruments and forms of music.
Given this history of Jamaican involvement in missions, and the strength of the Jamaican Church, where then is the need for missionaries still coming to Jamaica? Do they come to do real missionary work, or only to establish their denominational flag where it is easy to get followers? Are they setting up truly indigenous churches, or do they continue to lead, oversee, and control the churches long after national leaders are able to take over? If they come as 'fraternal' workers to serve alongside and strengthen the Jamaicans then they are welcome. If they are in training roles seeking to strengthen the Jamaican Churches, they are serving a useful purpose. Otherwise, their services are more greatly needed in other places where People Groups still wait to hear the gospel for the first time. It is estimated that near 18,000 such groups of 10,000 or more peoples stll exit in our world where no church yet exists. This is the new frontier of missionary focus and activity.
Jamaicans have proven that they can and will do a fine job, alongside their European and North American brothers and sisters as missionaries. Today the bulk of missionaries are from the emerging world of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Nigeria alone boasts over 300 different Mission sending agencies. These are not adjuncts of foreign agencies, but indigenous agencies sending and financially supporting their own members as foreign missionaries. South Korea, Brazil, Chile, Peru, and many other 'Young Churches' have become sending Churches. Some of them are also sending missionaries back to the European countries that brought the gospel to them. Our Jamaican churches are lagging behind in their responsibility to evangelise their world. Missionaries are no longer only of white skin, but the full spectrum of colours can be found serving as missionaries. Many of us feel that our Jamaican Churches are not doing enough in this area.
Lloyd A. Cooke is Jamaican and
the local co-ordinator, Ministries In Action (MIA), an evangelical
missions and evangelism training organisation. Send feedback to
lcookemia@cwjamaica.com
