Missionaries of the World

Devicode Church is one of the District Church in Church of South India of Kanyakumari Diocese, situated in Midalam Village, Vilavancode Taluk of Kanyakumari District, Tamilnadu, India. Before the construction of the church, the surroundings people did not know the Jesus and worshiped other idols. Rev.Charles Mead, the father of the South Travancore Mission and head of Neyoor District church came to Devicode in 1828 and made people know about Lord Jesus. After lot of challenges faced by the missionaries, the Church was constructed in palm leaves by Rev.Charles Mead and Rev.Pelis Iyer. In 1893 the new church was built and the old church was destroyed by Rev.Issac Henry Hacker. Rev.Sinclair Iyer was the third missionary who arrived in 1929, when the mission house was constructed. Mr.T.Richard Nelson (Late), Church Secretary (1992-2006), who was a remarkable, dedicated his life for the construction of the new church.

John Smith Griffin, an American missionary in Oregon Country, was born on 23rd November, 1807 at Castleton, Vermont in United States of America, to parents who emigrated from England. In New England and Ohio in USA, he received an education in both the schools and seminaries and was finished in Oberlin. Then he was ordained as a Pastor in the Congregational Church and sent to Litchfield County, Connecticut in United States of America. He was sent him as an unaffiliated missionary to Oregon Country to convert Native Americans by the Congregational Church. On 10th April, 1839, he married Desire C.Smith in Saint Louis, Missouri of USA, who taught school to the native children.         John Smith Griffin arrived in Oregon in the State of United States of America in 1839 and stayed at the Whitman Mission, he moved to the Hudson's Bay Company's Fort, Vancouver on the Columbia River. Until 1841, he stayed at Vancouver; he tutored children of the fort and served as the post's chap

John Allen Manton, an Australian Methodist Missionary and Educationalist, was born on 17th August 1807 in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, England to his parents, Thomas and Jane Manton. At the age of fifteen, he was admitted on trial to the Methodist Society in 1823, beginning a life of vital Christian commitment and piety. After six years of lay preaching, in 1830, he accepted the Wesleyan Ministry. Called to the Missionary work, he was ordained at London as a missionary on 13th January 1831 and sailed for Australia, arrived at Sydney in 1831.         On his arrival in Australia in 1831, Rev.John Allen Manton was appointed to Parramatta. He married Ann Green on 13th April, 1833 at Greater Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Ann Green was born on 21st May, 1809 at Spilsby, Lincolnshire, England, United Kingdom. Manton was designated to Van Diemen's Land (VDL) for most of his ministry, sailed to Macquarie Harbour, in Van Diemen's Land as chaplain to its infamous convict settlement.

Dr.Graham Stuart Staines was an Australian Christian missionary, born on 18th January 1941 at Palmwoods, Queensland, Australia as the second child of William and Elizabeth Staines. His mother Elizabeth was a godly person, she had a great influence on the life of little Graham. At the fifteen years old, a visiting missionary made a slide presentation about people who suffered from leprosy. That is when he saw the photograph of Josia Soren, a boy of approximately his age, suffering from severe leprosy. Filled with sorrow and compassion for those suffering from leprosy and because of his profound love for God, he decided to dedicate his life to serve God by serving leprosy patients. The specific call to serve the leprosy patients in India came two years later, as his devotional reading on Christ, coincided with a missions meeting where the speaker challenged the attendees to serve the people with leprosy in the villages of Mayurbhanj, a town in Orissa, India. Interestingly, his tryst with