SAMS Missionaries and home office staff gathered last week at the Casa San Carlos Retreat Center in Delray Beach, Florida, for a time of refreshment and rejuvenation. The four day retreat provided the Missionaries time to connect with each other and to share what the Lord is doing in their lives. We were led in worship by Hunter Van Wagenen, a SAMS Associate Missionary. Hunter led the group through a series of reflections from his time over the last fifteen years on the Camino de Santiago. Hunter compared and contrasted his experience walking the 500-mile pilgrim’s path in northern Spain to the various stages of missionary service: Preparing to Go, Starting Out, Lost in the Middle, and Finishing Well.
Mike and Kim Miller, SAMS Associate Missionaries who live in St. Petersburg, led the group through the TCK (Third Culture Kids) Care Program that has launched this month to provide resources for Missionary Parents whose children are in the field with them. Mike Miller also led the group through a time of listening to God and thinking about Spiritual Discernment while helping the group apply those disciplines to their current ministries.
His reflections were received very well and were interspersed with break-out groups for times of sharing, listening and prayer. There was plenty of time to walk around the Retreat Center, play games, take group walks at nearby wetlands, soak in the jacuzzi, and talk over meals. On the last day some of the missionaries headed to the beach. Most importantly, God was present and active in the conversations, in the times of prayerful discernment, and in the one-on-one time that each missionary had with the Lord.
“A man makes his plans, but God directs his steps.”
Since January 2019, Roger and I have been living full time in Aguascalientes Mexico. Most of Roger’s service in that time has involved an unplanned appointment to the office of the Dean of Mexico. It wasn’t even imagined in our strategies, but God, through the ACNA Diocese of the Southwest, had His own.
Then, Roger was ordained as a priest in ACNA, which also was never in our plans! Best of all, the ordination was in the lovely palapa-church in Puerto Vallarta– complete with mariachis! Priestly ordination means Roger now works in the supply-side of available priests for the congregations in Mexico. It provides more opportunity to visit churches, to assist pastors, and to financially support them in their work and seminary studies.
Trinity Church in Guadalajara
Practical Plans
Whatever the plans, SAMS is our compass point of unflagging support with their prayers and care for us. That, too, wasn’t exactly planned, but the Diocese of South Carolina arranged that at the beginning of our journey. We have found out how wise that step was! To have a sending organization that is tuned in, available, and effective makes all the difference for length of service. And length of time in-country counts toward lasting fruit. The long vision is in the bones of SAMS’ founding, and we’re blessed –and challenged– to be part of that lengthy presence in missions.
44 Years as Supportive Sidekick
My plans? Well, for the last 44 years of marriage, I’ve been the blogger, the chronicler, and the chief cook and laundry queen of my happy little domain of support. I am tasked to be the social-butterfly of outreach, to make connections with new neighbors, and find new events and opportunities to bless Mexico. Roger says it’s like I’m his social crash-test sidekick. (Heh. My plans are coming together!) We are growing lasting friendships here, as permanent residents. I write about it all, and more, in our Facebook group, The Griffins in Mexico, and will share more here in the coming year.
Certainly, in five years we have had many unplanned events, most of which turned out miraculously well!, may God be praised! We do depend on God to direct our steps to where He is working. We love His church here in Mexico and hope to help you love it, too.
The topic of third-culture kids (TCK) is like talking inside baseball. It’s a topic that most Christians have never heard of, much less considered, even if they do support missionaries. Yet, unlike change-ups and four-seam fastballs, it’s no game. It’s a dynamic that is present within missionary families and sending organizations. SAMS is pleased to announce a new program aimed at helping families with TCKs.
SAMS Associate Missionary, Kim Miller, is mobilizing a new TCK Care program specifically designed for SAMS missionary families. After serving with SAMS in Honduras for 14 years, Mike and Kim Miller learned first-hand the joys and challenges associated with raising a family overseas. When they repatriated to the U.S. in 2020, their daughters faced not only cultural adjustments but significant grief and emotional challenges.
Third-culture kids are those who are raised in a culture other than their parents or of the culture of their nationality. Because of this, ‘home’ is a complex concept for missionary kids whose citizenship is in one country, but their upbringing, or a significant part of it, is in another.
A recent Christianity Today article, ‘The Kids Are Not Alright,’ states that an estimated 425,000 foreign missionaries are serving around the world, and many are American. Regardless of their national origin, many of the kids of these families feel helpless.
Some are stuck in the United States having left because of the pandemic. Others are back in the U.S. to attend high school or college. There are other reasons as well, but the common thread is a loss of identity. With this loss comes grief, confusion, disillusionment, and even loss of faith.
In fact, a 2021 TCK Training survey indicates the level of trauma missionary kids experience is much higher—nearly double that of kids growing up in the United States. The real challenge is that these kids’ needs are often overlooked, according to TCK advocate Lauren Wells. “There is a myth that children are simply naturally resilient,” she says. “But resiliency is something that has to be nurtured and built and cared for.”
Mission societies, local churches, partners, and even families on and off the mission field are responding. While searching for resources to help their daughters process their grief, Kim Miller dove into the world of TCK care and discovered a new opportunity for ministry. Kim’s husband, Mike Miller, on the other hand, was motivated by his desire to see missionary fathers lead their families well and has been taking courses in spiritual formation and pastoral care. Together, the Millers will be using their past experiences and newly developed skills to serve SAMS missionary families.
The Miller family currently live in Florida where they continue to nurture families, support children impacted by trauma, and daily live their faith by pointing others to Jesus. The Millers will be phasing in this TCK Care program in early 2024. Please be prepared for more forthcoming information on this important program, and join us in praising God for the Millers and their heart for missionary kids.
Lucy Chaves is a SAMS Associate Missionary serving mostly in western Kenya in conjunction with Kenya Connection, a ministry that she leads. She recently was in Kenya meeting with ministry partners in three areas: Siaya County the primary town within the Diocese of Maseno West, in Kilifi County among the Giriama people in an area that is predominantly Muslim, and in then in Nairobi.
In Siaya County they adopted a local primary school that was founded by the Anglican Church. They worked with the parents of students and with the students themselves,encouraging them in the faith and in their studies. Two of their students have both qualified for government scholarships for college.
The Giriama parents in Kilifi County were very responsive to instruction and counseling in encouraging their children to seek Christ and excel in their studies. Most of our students in Kilifi are Muslim and the Kenya Connection team experienced the spirit of unity despite the different religious backgrounds. Parents were asked to express at least one thing that they appreciated about their child, which is not an easy thing to do,especially in a culture where feelings of love and gratitude are demonstrated rather than said. Thankfully, many parents rose up to the occasion and affirmed their children. The team is grateful for the partnership they have with Reverend Moses and Mrs. Jane Oduor, and their leadership and mentorship.
In the Nairobi, the Kenya Connection team has approximately 45 students in High School, and the team emphasizes discipleship and responsibility to the students, while encouraging the parents to be active and present in their children’s life. They host a six-month discipleship program for those who graduate from high school. The program also includes job skills training and a newly established apprenticeship program. Following this meeting, staff member Asherry Wesonga, dedicated his weekends to setting up discipleship/fellowship for the parents. We have formed a relationship with the C.S Lewis Institute and we have been allowed to use one of their resources, The Ufalme experience which was tailor-made for Kenyan audiences. This is a double blessing for us because our media team in Nairobi helped the C.S Lewis institute to film the Ufalme project.
“Grant O Lord, that we may be instrumental in commencing this great and blessed work; but should Thou see fit in Thy providence to hedge up our way, and that we should even languish and die here, I beseech Thee to raise up others and to send forth labourers into this harvest. Let it be seen, for the manifestation of Thy Glory and Grace that nothing is too hard for Thee…” (prayer excerpt from Gardiner’s recovered journal, 1851)
The Anglican Calendar on September 6th commemorates Captain Allen Francis Gardiner, founder and missionary of SAMS, the South American Missionary Society. Gardiner’s story is little known today, but well worth telling, both for his unparalleled tenacity and the difficulties he faced, as well as the role he played in helping chart the course of Anglican cross-cultural mission engagement. His story set the stage for the ongoing endeavors that continue around the world today through missionary societies such as SAMS.
Anglican Missions Accelerate in the 19th Century
The 19th century in Britain marked a period of spiritual awakening and an increasing awareness of the world beyond Britain’s shores. Revival within the Church of England spread beyond the church. Conscious of the need for reform, duty, and new opportunities opening up all over the world, the British people, and Christians in particular, began gathering to contribute the best they had to give, energized to carry the gospel of Jesus Christ to people beyond Britain.
In conjunction with this sense of endeavor, the growth of the British Navy gave grander perspective of the world and its peoples. Men like David Livingstone were able to gain worldwide acclaim combining geographical exploration, service to country, and missionary work among people groups hitherto unknown. Global exploration and map-making became a worldwide interest, and if missionaries like Livingstone were not blazing the trail, they were not far behind. Early exploration and mapping expeditions were conducted for hydrographic surveys along the Patagonian coasts and the Magellan Strait. The best-known of these expeditions was that of Captain Fitzroy’s HMS Beagle, made famous by the writings of one scientist aboard, a young Charles Darwin. Darwin later popularized these expeditions through a series of published journals that were immensely popular, and along with other published reports captured the imaginations of many in Britain.
One of the people groups encountered by this group of English explorers were the Yaghan, whom Darwin described as the least civilized people on earth (and possibly even “the missing link”). It was to the Yaghan that Allen Gardiner was ultimately called.
Gardiner’s British naval service
Allen Gardiner was born into a Christian family in Berkshire in 1794. Like many British boys during this time, he yearned for adventure. Discovered asleep on the floor by his mother as a young boy, upon awaking told her of his intention to travel the world, and so, wished to accustom himself to hardship. He entered the Royal Naval College in Portsmouth in 1808. At age sixteen he volunteered to join the HMS Fortunee. During the War of 1812, he served as a midshipman aboard the Phoebe and received recognition for heroism in the capture of the American frigate Essex in the Pacific (the inspiration for several books and the 2003 film Master and Commander—though in that adaptation the French were substituted for the Americans as the enemy).
His return to England two years later meant a commission to lieutenant and subsequent service around the world. Eventually, he was promoted to Captain, but with the Royal Navy being downsized in peacetime, there were no ships for him to command. Despite his service, and love of the sea, the naval experience was a godless life in which the truths of the Bible and what he had learned as a boy were mocked. But his mother’s prayers remained with him.
A Significant Turn
While on leave in Portsmouth, he ventured into town one day to a shop that sold Bibles. One of his biographers described him as being ‘so ashamed to go into the shop to buy it, he spent time walking up and down to make sure no one saw him do so.’ He then experienced in succession a number of deaths including that of his Godly mother, and later, his wife, which drove him to become a man of prayer. These experiences had a great effect on him and shortly thereafter he wrote from Cape Town:
“The last time I visited, I was walking the broad way, and hastening by rapid strides to the brink of eternal ruin. Blessed be His name, who loved us, and gave Himself for us, a great change has been wrought in my heart, and I am now enabled to derive pleasure and satisfaction in hearing and reading the Word of Life, and attending the means of Grace.”
God Calls
On a voyage returning from China, Gardiner spent some time in Tahiti, where one Sunday he was personally struck by the quiet contentment and peace in the transformed lives of Tahitian Christians. He returned to London in 1834 offering himself for missionary service to the London Missionary Society, whose work in Tahiti had so blessed him. He earnestly felt that the Lord wanted him in South America, but neither the London Missionary Society, the Church Missionary Society (CMS), nor the Baptist Missionary Society had any work on that continent, nor were they willing to start anything new there. Eventually, he accepted a position with CMS in South Africa, working among the Zulus on the Tongaat River, but left after four years, when tribal warfare made it impossible to continue his work. Today he is remembered in the city of Durban as one of its founders.
With no society to sponsor him, Gardiner began exploring opportunities to work in South America on his own. He arrived in Rio de Janeiro in 1838 and worked his way around the coast to Chile, distributing Bibles in Portuguese and Spanish, noting several openings for missionary work, but his heart remained with the native peoples. Leaving his family in Concepcion, Chile, he crossed the Andes to try to work among the Huilliche-Mapuche people. Suspicion among the natives and opposition from Catholic clergy thwarted his efforts there.
The Beginning of SAMS
Back in England, Gardiner began writing letters and pamphlets to call attention to the need for taking the Gospel to South America. He wrote in his letters that ‘all the world was his parish,’ and he was content to seek out people alone to reach those who were without hope and without God. Friends in England received letters of appeal from him for help with funding to support the mission. He appealed to the established mission societies but was turned down. In 1844, he finally organized a society for the work in South America. Initially called the Patagonian Missionary Society, as that seemed the most likely spot to make inroads at the time, it was renamed the South American Missionary Society in 1851, in honor of Gardiner and his desire to expand the original mission from Patagonia into all of South America. Gardiner made successive missions with companions to South America, including Bolivia, but ultimately set his sights on Tierra del Fuego.
The Final Journey
Gardiner learned more with each mission he attempted. He had decided they needed their own 120-ton schooner as a base of operations in the islands at the southern tip of the world. When the cost for such a ship became too expensive, he had two 26-foot launches built, named Speedwell and Pioneer. Gardiner left England from Liverpool aboard the Ocean Queen on September 7, 1850. Aboard the ship were the two launches and six companions – Joseph Erwin, Dr. Richard Williams, John Maidment (a catechist), and three Cornish fishermen, John Badcock, John Bryant, and John Pearce. They landed on Picton Island in December with six months of provisions. They had difficulty engaging with the Yahgans who eluded them, and when they did engage, met resistance and attack. But the more pressing issue was the limited food on hand. The men had their rifles, but somehow had departed the Ocean Queen without unloading their gunpowder, which severely limited their ability to hunt, making them dependent upon what little seafood they could find along the coast.
By the end of six months with no sign of further supplies, sickness, hunger, and exposure to one of the worst climates on the globe began taking their toll. In June, Badcock, was the first to die, followed by Williams. Then, in August, it was the turn of Erwin and Bryan; then Pearce; then, on September 4th, Maidment. The last entry in Gardiner’s journal was dated Friday, September 5th, 1851:
“If a wish was given to me for the good of my neighbor it would be that the Mission in Tierra Del Fuego be pursued with vigor. Butt the Lord will direct and do everything because time and reason are His, your hearts are in His hands… great and marvelous are the loving kindnesses of my gracious God unto me.”
When the Admiralty supply ship, the John Davison, finally arrived in late October, Gardiner had been dead for six weeks. Lying beside him, they found his journal.
News of Gardiner’s Death
The news of Gardiner’s death was reported in The Times with an editorial deploring the foolish waste of the lives of a cultured Englishman and his companions and of the money spent on hordes of savages. There arose a nationwide protest against this view, as Englishmen contrasted their lifestyle with Gardiner’s self-denying vocation. Gardiner and his companions were like the
kernel of wheat Jesus talked about which, unless it falls into the ground and dies, “remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” The Lord honored Gardiner’s prayers, sending forth laborers into His harvest in South America, many of whom also became fallen kernels of wheat.
One such kernel that bore fruit was in a young English Missionary named Thomas Bridges. George Pakenham Despard, who assumed leadership of the Society in Gardiner’s absence, had found baby Thomas on a bridge and adopted him. When Despard felt called upon to continue Gardiner’s work with the Yaghans, he took the 13-year-old Thomas along with him to Keppel Island in the Falklands. The new strategy was to bring a few Yaghans over at a time to learn their language and teach them the faith, then resettle them among their tribespeople. Bridge’s young mind quickly absorbed the Yaghan language and he became a fluent speaker and interpreter. After another attempt by missionaries in 1859 to establish a base in Yaghan territory resulted in their massacre by the natives, Bridges visited the Yaghan settlements in complete weakness and vulnerability. Unthreatened by Bridges, and moved by the forgiveness he brought, the Yaghans at last received the Good News. Those who were baptized included several who had killed Bridge’s friends. Later a ship sank offshore, but the Yaghans who in the past would have killed the sailors, risked their lives to save them. Their transformation in Christ was so dramatic that even Charles Darwin became a committed giver to SAMS.
Gardiner’s Seed Bears Fruit
Today through SAMS-USA The seed of Gardiner and his companion’s efforts continued to call many into mission in South America after his death. Those efforts continued spreading to South America and other countries where Societies were founded to join in the vision to reach the continents with the Gospel. It wasn’t until 1976, however, that the U.S. branch of SAMS was founded by a group of mission- minded Episcopalians concerned about missional drift and dilution.
Today the Society of Anglican Missionaries and Senders (1) is a sending organization which works alongside the Anglican Church in the sending out what today equates to 117 total missionaries serving 29 countries around the world. SAMS’ purpose, like Gardiner’s, is to serve the church throughout the world in obedience to Jesus’ Great Commission. Our Society partners with Anglican churches and dioceses overseas, and therefore, works to place missionaries where they can take full advantage of well-established relationships in a given cultural context in order make disciples who make disciples of Jesus Christ.
SAMS emphasizes the crucial role of the Sender as much as the Missionary, and seeks to mobilize the church to pray, encourage, communicate with, and financially support a missionary’s cross- cultural ministry. The Society also comes alongside those who feel called to serve long-term or short-term, to mutually discern their call, and once confirmed, provides the necessary language and cultural coaching and training in raising financial support.
If you meet a SAMS Missionary and get to know them and their own stories, one trait will surely emerge. Not unlike the Apostle Paul, Allen Gardiner, or Thomas Bridges, they’ll exhibit that mysterious Grace to derive energy from opposition, tenacity from hardship, and courage from rejection. As the tribal adage goes, ‘God has created lands with lakes and rivers for man to live, and the desert so that he may find his soul.’
Author: Brendan Kimbrough; Contributors: Dana Priest and Stewart Wicker
(1) SAMS maintained the acronym, but changed its name in 2009, from the South American Missionary Society to the Society of Anglican Missionaries and Senders. The change better reflected the emphasis on the combined role that both Missionaries and Senders play in any cross-cultural work as well its alignment with global Anglicanism, further reflecting the global nature of its missionary placements.
It provides more opportunity to visit churches, to assist pastors, and to financially support them in their work and seminary studies.
