First Adventist Missionary to India

Georgia Burrus Burgess (1866-1948)

Georgia Burrus Burgess was the first Adventist missionary to India (including present India, Pakistan, Bangladesh) and the first single-woman missionary of the Adventist church to a non-Christian country. She pioneered the work in Bengal, Punjab, the foothills of the Himalayas and Meghalaya. She learned several Indian languages and was foremost in urging other missionaries to learn local languages.

Early years: Preparation for Mission Service (1866-1905)

Georgia Anna Burrus was born July 19, 1866. Despite family opposition, she joined the Adventist church at age 16 and enrolled as a working student at Healdsburg College in California. She then taught in the Bible Training School in Oakland. While engaged as a Bible Worker she responded to a call by S. N. Haskell for women to work in zenanas in India. In 1893 the General Conference voted to send her to India. Georgia enrolled for the nursing course at St Helena and then a special class at Battle Creek that prepared workers for foreign mission service.

After a year of preparation and additional weeks of waiting Georgia joined a party of workers bound for South America sailing via London. Georgia proceeded to India alone with the understanding that the General Conference Mission Board would pay her fare and she would support herself by selling literature or teaching while learning the local language. She sailed on the SS Bengal in December 1894 and arrived in Calcutta (Kolkata) on January 23, 1895.

In Calcutta, Georgia Burrus found accommodation at the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) and began Bengali language study with a pundit. When her finances ran out, she received funds from a South African, arranged by Stephen Haskell. During her spare time, Georgia visited women living in zenanas, made friends at the YWCA, and paved the way for Adventist work. Towards the end of the year, she rented a bungalow for the small group of Adventist missionaries who arrived in November.

Later Years: A Life of Pioneering (1896-1948)

Georgia Burrus and Martha May Taylor who arrived with the Robinsons organized the first Adventist school in India. With some assistance from her pundit, Georgia taught in Bengali. Kheroda Bose, who joined Georgia in teaching at the school, was the first to be baptized. Nanibala, whom Georgia had visited regularly, was the first non-Christian to be baptized. Thus, the first two baptisms in India were a direct result of Georgia’s witness.

In 1902 Georgia married Luther Burgess who was sent a year earlier to India Mission as Secretary and Treasurer. The following year Luther Burgess gave up his office and the couple moved to Karmatar to care for the school and orphanage there. They moved back to the US in the middle of 1904 because of Luther’s poor health. Since the Mission Board lacked funds to send them back to India, they came up with a plan to raise the amount needed.

Upon their return in 1906, they moved to the northwest part of India. They learned Hindustani and pioneered the work in many parts of India, establishing schools and conducting evangelistic meetings, working untiringly for almost 30 more years.

Failing health finally forced the couple in 1934 to return permanently to the US where they settled in California. Georgia passed to her rest on September 25, 1948.

Contribution and Legacy

Georgia will be remembered as the first Adventist missionary to the Indian subcontinent, and the first single Adventist woman to venture into a non-Christian country. At a time when people hesitated to learn foreign languages, Georgia showed the way of learning Bengali and Hindustani and pioneering the work among the Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, and the Khasi-speaking people of India.

The earliest conversions in India resulted from Georgia’s witness. The church in what is now known as Bangladesh, then part of India, traces its learning about the Sabbath to a tract Georgia handed out at the Calcutta railway station. A vegetarian recipe book she arranged for led to the conversion of the Hardinge family. A faithful chronicler, Georgia regularly reported her work in the Eastern Tidings, the Review and Herald, the Pacific Union Recorder, and the Bible Training School.

Condensed from the article by Gordon E. Christo

Read the whole article:
https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=AHXD

Photo courtesy of Lucy Kharkongor.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We Have Messed Up the Earth

Image
Living in a temperate climate, I have been used to having cold winters and warm summers. We never thought we would need air conditioning. But things have changed. We are in the middle of climate change and scientists are saying that we have almost passed the point of no return. The last two summers were extremely dry and hot. This summer we are having a mixture of heat and thunderstorms causing vast amounts of rain, and flooding. Hail is clogging the sewers and destroying crops. Streets are transformed into fast-flowing rivers, houses are flooded and even collapsing. Rivers and lakes overflow their banks. Rescue services are working at capacity and still, we hear of people drowning or not being accounted for. I am shocked at the news reports of calamities from all over. Many have lost everything to the flood. Even in areas that are used to flooding, people say that they have never experienced anything like this. In other parts of the world, the problem is extreme heat. When polar regi...
Read more

Adventist Women Missionaries

Image
 Women’s History Month 2024 As I was browsing through the Adventist Encyclopedia, looking for women to be presented during Women’s History Month 2024, concentrating on missionaries, I found many women who had accompanied their husbands to foreign lands. Most of these women were mentioned as being part of a missionary team, working together to bring the Advent message to the area they were sent to. Both, husband and wife, were important, and both gave their all to serve God and the church they loved. Many even gave their health and life in the process. I also found single women who pioneered in unentered areas, reaching out, particularly to the women in these countries who would otherwise not have been reached. They were intrepid women who showed courage and initiative in bringing the message of salvation to the people they served. Then there were the women whose efforts were listed first, although they had a husband because their work seemed to merit special mention, lik...
Read more

What Feminism is about for me (7) What about the Apostle Paul?

Image
So what about Paul? Why do so many people consider Paul a misogynist? As women we tend to cringe when they hear his name, but should we really? Maybe we should study the bulk of Paul’s writings and not just a few verses that have been used for women’s subordination. Could it be that those verses have been interpreted in a way Paul never intended? The life of Paul is recorded in the New Testament and we can see how his encounter with Jesus on the way to Damascus changed him completely. He experienced a complete change of perspective that he would include in his testimony during the rest of his life. The strict follower of Jewish laws became a follower of Jesus. We see him working closely with Priscilla and Aquila not only in their tent-making business but also in proclaiming and teaching the gospel. In Philippi, his first converts were women he met at a women’s prayer meeting, who formed the first house church in Europe. This, to me, proves that Paul was by no way a misogynist. He follo...
Read more