John Hunt

As a boy in the early 1800s, John Hunt prayed.  He prayed for protection from the many things that made him afraid: dogs and thunder among them.  As he grew older, his prayers grew less frequent and his faith drifted.  He was clumsy and was bullied on the farm where he worked.  He realized his own lack of faith and often promised the Lord that he would change, but did not.

Then, illness set in and John faced a literal fight for his life.  He knew then that his promises were in vain.  Desperately, he vowed that if God would spare his life that he would serve Him the rest of his life.  Upon his recovery John told godly neighbors about his promise, in a bid to keep himself accountable for his own spiritual growth.  He attended church and read the Bible and other books in his spare time.  He prayed about what God would have him to do.

God drew his heart toward missions.  He had a mind to go to South Africa – an arm of the British Empire at the time.  South Africa had a modicum of civilization and some advanced medical care available for his fiancée, Ms Hanna Summers, who was in poor health.  John, however, received a direct appeal to go to Fiji.  At the time, Fiji was known as the home of savage cannibals.  Despite the incivility of the place, Hanna agreed to go.

The couple sailed from England in 1838.  En route, they refused a lucrative offer to remain in Australia and arrived near Christmas Day of that year.  John and Hanna mastered the language fairly quickly, but initially saw few conversions as they moved from island to island.  At times, they were treated cruelly – one king threatened them with death if they closed the windows to dull the smell of roasting bodies near to their home.  Eventually, however, they found an island that was receptive and revival broke out. 

Lives of the natives were changed dramatically.  John translated the New Testament into the native language and worked tirelessly to fan the embers of this small flame.  Overwork led to dysentery and John became deathly ill.  The islanders who were taught so well by John and his example gathered around him praying, asking God to take any ten of them rather than him.  Despite their prayers, John Hunt slipped into eternity as the young age of 33.

The seeds he planted, the zeal of the islanders he nurtured, and missionaries who followed him were all used by God for a great awakening in the Fiji Islands.  Within 50 years of John Hunt’s arrival on the islands, there was not a single person remaining who professed the old religions.

Almost entirely from:

https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1801-1900/john-hunt-arrived-in-fijis-cannibal-land-11630453.html