June 20, 2025 • 25 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
About one hundred and fifty years ago, missionary John G.
Peyton went to share the gospel on an island in
the New Hebrides. Cannibals were known to live there, and
previous missionaries had been killed. Filmmaker Stephen mccaskell tells us
why John G. Peyton would take that kind of risk.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
One of the fellow Christians in his church he warned him,
like you will be eaten by cannibals, and Peyton replies,
mister Dixon, you are advanced in years now, and your
own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave
there to be eaten by worms. If I can but
live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it
(00:40):
will make no difference to me whether I am eaten
by cannibals or by worms.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Jesus never promised his followers an easy path. In fact,
he told his disciples that the world would hate them.
He sent them out as sheep among wolves. Jesus's words
came true in the life of the Apostles, and they're
still coming true to in the lives of his followers
around the world. Join host Todd nettletons we hear their
inspiring stories and learn how we can help right now
(01:08):
on the Voice of the Martyrs Radio Network.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Welcome again to the Voice of the Martyrs Radio. My
name is Todd Netleton. We are in the studio today
in Bartosow, Oklahoma, with Stephen mccaskell. Stephen is the producer
and director of a series of films called Missionary, six
films telling the stories of names we have heard of
or should have heard of. William Tindale, you know, John G. Patten,
(01:33):
some of those people. He is also a leader at
an organization called Missionary. You can go to their website.
It's a fantastic url Missionary dot com. Easy to remember
Missionary dot Com. Stephen, Welcome to Voice of the Martyrs Radio.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Why does the church need these films? Why do we
need to be reminded of the fact that every time
we open our English Bible we should remember someone gave
their life to translate the Bible in to English. Why
do we need the stories of people who went to
places where the Gospel had never been told. It seems
like it's a really timely message for the church right now.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, I mean, how often do we take things for
granted that we just have every day, things like the
Bibles in our houses. Many of us would say that
we have dozens of Bibles in our house. It wasn't
that long ago, a few hundred years ago, if you
were caught with a piece of the Lord's prayer, you
might be sentenced to death or at least to lashings.
(02:31):
And so you have people that come onto the scene
like William Tyndale and see the necessity of having the
Word in your own language, and how important that is.
When people have the Word of God that they can
read for themselves. It's not just guarded by the priests.
And even then it was all in Latin, and the
priests didn't even read Latin. They just had memorized what
(02:53):
they would preach every Sunday. And so you have guys
like William Tindale who set his mission was to translate
the Bible into the English language, and despite it being
illegal and it costing him everything, he was constantly on
the run, constantly moving from house to house, and it
eventually cost him his life. There's a quote that is
(03:16):
attributed to Tyndale. He said that if God spares my
life one day, I will cause the boy that drives
the plow to know more of the scriptures than you do.
It's just a reminder of what the power of having
God's Word in our own hands is and how instrumental
it is to the Christian faith. William Cameron Townsend says,
the greatest missionary is the Bible in the mother tongue.
(03:38):
It needs no furlough and is never considered a foreigner.
The necessity of the Word is the very foundation of
the Christian faith. We're a people of the Book, and
imagine not having the book in your own language. We
can't even comprehend that.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
We're talking this week on Voice of the Martich Radio
with Stephen mccaskell. He's the producer and director of Missionary,
a six part series of films telling the stories of
great missionaries. Stephen, how many countries did you travel to
in the filmmaking process?
Speaker 3 (04:09):
You know?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
So there's six different missionaries, and so we want to
not only tell the story of where they came from,
but where they went to. And so you know a
lot of them are starting in England or Northern Ireland
and they're going to some of the hardest places on Earth.
They're going to to India, to the New Hebrides or
what's now known as van Watu. They're going to China,
(04:30):
they're going to the heart of Africa, and so we
probably touched on most continents except for Antarctica.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
It's a lot of airplane miles.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Thankfully, a lot of them. Most of the planes are
just you know, your regular commercial passenger planes, but you know,
when you get to the islands of van Watchu, you
have to take small chartered planes and there's there's really
not a lot of options. Then you're definitely not plugging
in your frequent flyer number as you're hopping on that airplane.
And so there's a lot of praying as we are
(05:02):
hopping from island to island where John Payton, you know,
lived and served.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
And we've got a link on the show notes this
week to a kind of a behind the scenes video
about the making and particularly in Vanuatu, and some of
the challenges there of tracking down the legacy of John G. Peyton.
Tell me about one of the more challenging days in
the process, and maybe it's you know, one of those
(05:27):
Vanuatuo days, but maybe it's a different day that comes
to your mind of just one of the days where you're.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Like, is this gonna work? Are we gonna be able
to get this done?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Documentary filmmaking is consistently it's having a plan, but then
also just fully knowing it's never gonna go according to plan.
I mean, that's kind of the fun of documentary filmmaking.
It's never a mundane thing. Every day looks different. Each
day is the Lord's and you trust the Lord each
day and so he'll always provide and give you the
strength that you need for the day. When I think
(05:58):
of John Payton, you know he's going to these islands.
So you know, he grew up in Scotland and had
a father that raised him in a way that they
would do family worship, and they're spending time praying and
studying the Word, but then praying for people that have
never yet heard of Christ. And Peyton grows up, you know,
in this kind of family environment, and then he himself
(06:18):
decides that he should be going to some of these
these people that have never heard of Christ. But fully
aware that he knew two well known missionaries had gone
to these islands, these exact same islands that he was
going to, and they were killed and eaten by cannibals,
and so Peyton chose to go to the new hebrides.
Knowing this, he could imagine the opposition that he faced.
(06:42):
You know, back at home. One of the fellow Christians
in his church, a guy named I think mister Dixon.
He warned him like he's like, it's foolish to go,
and he says, here's an exact quote. You will be
eaten by cannibals, just like these other two missionaries had been.
And Peyton replies, mister Dixon, you are advanced in years now,
(07:03):
and your own prospect is soon to be laid in
the grave there to be eaten by worms. If I
can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus,
it will make no difference to me whether I am
eaten by cannibals or by worms. He goes on to say,
as he's reflecting on this in his autobiography, the Lord
kept saying within me, since none better qualified can be got,
(07:25):
rise and offer yourself. Wow. That grave site was the
site where his first wife and son were buried, and
he he actually had to sleep on that grave site
at night to prevent it prevent the cannibals from like
digging up the grave and eating those bodies. And that
(07:47):
like that's the environment in which he's ministering and laboring.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
And you think about the just the sense of hopelessness
that he must have experienced it, like, Lord, how are
you ever going to break through? I'm I'm literally protecting
my loved one's bodies from cannibals. How are you ever
going to reach these people? And yet there's a church
there today?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
There is, Yet Peyton was there. It was roughly one
hundred and fifty years ago, and Peyton was sent by
the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Scotland, and those islands today
are full of Presbyterian churches. The very islands that he
served and ministered on where his wife and son died
and he had to sleep on the grave to prevent
(08:28):
them from being eaten. There are churches not far off
from there where there are active and thriving congregations. The
guide that walks us to this graveside where Peyton's wife
and son are buried, was brought there by his dad
as a child. So clearly there's this legacy of these
missionaries that came beforehand bringing the good news that Jesus
(08:52):
Christ died for sinners. It's amazing, it is amazing.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
That quote on the stone. I have claimed this land
for God clearly got honored that claim.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
So in Peyton's life, yes, you know, the island of
a Niwa that he ministered fifteen years on for all
intents and purposes, becomes entirely converted, like the whole island.
I mean, that's hard to believe, but that's not always,
you know, promised. One of the other episodes in the
Missionary series is on David Livingston and so I live
in Orlando, Florida, and within a three minute drive of
(09:25):
my house is this mini golf course and the kids
love going there. They love playing mini golf, and this
mini golf course is it's it's Explorer themed and to
my surprise, our first time going there, we get the
scorecard and it's entirely David Livingston Explorer themed. So you're
kind of following David Livingston's journey, and there's these different
things that you find as you're like playing mini golf.
(09:46):
But in David Livingston's own life, you know, he saw
himself as a missionary first and foremost, but there's so
many other things that he ended up doing. I mean,
exploring the the inlends of Africa essentially opening it up
to trade, but not only trade, but the spread of
the gospel. What we know about Livingston's life is that
(10:07):
there was one convert, just one convert. But if we
think of what the impact of opening up the heart
of Africa to all of the trade and the people
that would come, and then the gospel that was then brought,
I mean that happened after his life. So he never
saw that. In his lifetime, he was often away from
home and it was so common to just see family
(10:31):
members die, and he had a particularly hard life. And
he says they were always writing about the sacrifice that
he was making because when he went back home to England,
he was famous, like he could have lived in that
fame and that glory and had a nice house and
had all of his family close by. But he saw
his mission in Africa as being far more important, and
(10:54):
so people are writing about his sacrifice that he makes.
And Livingston reflects on that and says, this talk of
the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of
my life in Africa, I never made a sacrifice. It's
just this sense of my life is not my own.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
If you're doing what God called you to do, it's not.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
A sacrifice exactly.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
There's joy and there's contentment, and there's excitement in following
that path that he's laid out for you.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah and yeah, and he says, you know, I'm prepared
to go anywhere, provided it be forward.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
That's a good quote, Stephen. One of the things I
found interesting is that you open the series with William Tindale.
And I think if you ask the average Christian list out,
you know, your the five greatest missionaries in history, not
very many of them would pull up William Tindale as
a missionary. Yeah, the series is called Missionary. You open
with Tyndale. Talk a little bit about that decision and
(11:50):
why he fits.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Yeah, you're right, most people don't think of William tindal
as a missionary, but in the sense of the importance
of having God in your own language. That was his
single focus in life. And I think, you know, for
any missionary going into an unreached language group, that's often
one of the things you're doing. You're learning their language,
(12:13):
you're creating the orthography, you're doing the translation, and you're
translating the Bible so that they can read not only
hear God's word, but they can read it for themselves,
and so we wanted to start the Missionary Series off
with the necessity of the word, just the importance of
having God's word in your own language, and William Tyndale
exemplifies that better than anyone else. One of those kind
(12:36):
providences that the Lord provided as we were filming the
Missionary Series was with filming the episode on William Tyndale.
We knew that William Tyndale had done translation of the
New Testament in a specific house in England, and it's
this gigantic estate. It was owned, i believe by John Walsh.
(12:57):
He gave William Tyndale a small room in this life
large manor. And we knew where the manor was, but
it was private property, but we knew where it was,
and we were, you know, as we were traveling from
point A to point B, we were driving by the manor,
and so we thought, let's go stop in and knock
on the door, knock on the let's knock on the
door and ask. And so we go to the manor
(13:19):
house and we knock and knock, and no one is answering.
There's cars outside, and so we assume there's people here,
but it's it's it's a huge house. Eventually, a lady
comes to the door and is very hesitant to have
us film or do anything. But as as we're talking
to this lady, a car pulls up and a man
(13:42):
comes out with his son and they just finished soccer
practice or as they call it in England football. And
we start talking to this man. And this man is
a former tech executive from Silicon Valley who purchased this
house just says like an escape, you know, to get
out of the Bay area. And so we start talking
(14:02):
to him about William. You know, we're here because William
Pindale spent time doing his translation of the New Testament
here and you know, can we film on this property.
We have a few lines. We won't be more than
thirty minutes. One of the reasons this man bought this
house is because of the history it has. It was
formerly King Henry the Eights house. It was John Walsh's house,
(14:24):
and it had this history with William Tyndale, and so
he knows all this, and he hears William Tyndale and
he's also like a history guy, not particularly church history,
but just history, and he starts telling us all these
things and he's like, come, come, come follow me, and
so we don't go inside, but he walks us through
the beautiful garden area in the courtyard and then to
(14:47):
the back where they where they previously had a church
and you can see the ruins of the church. So
he walks us through this estate and he says, you
can film however long you want, whatever.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
You want, all out of knocking on the door.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
All of well knocking on the door and really just
a prayer and a hope and the Lord provides this window.
And so when you watch the first episode of the
missionary series on William Tyndale, you will see this house.
It's really there's there's no other place like this in
the first episode. So this story is because of the
kindness of this man just letting us film there and
(15:25):
uh it. But how amazing is it to not only
hear and read of the stories of like where William
Tyndale did translation work in secret and where he's being
kept up in this you know, small little or you
know in this room in this house, but to actually
go and see it. And so if it's the beauty
of documentary filmmaking, it brings some of these stories to life.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Yeah, absolutely, Stephen, one of the things about starting with
William Tyndale is you also start with persecution. It wasn't
free for him to translate the Bible into English. It
cost him, ultimately, it cost him his life. How does
persecution play into this missionary series and into really helping
people understand, Yeah, if we're going to go to the unreached,
(16:08):
we have to address persecution. We have to be ready
for that.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
I feel unqualified to speak of any of this. I'm
not a missionary. I tell these stories and so you
know the people that have been there. And when I
talk about sacrifice, I think of man. I was born
in Canada, I live in the US.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
Now, have I.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Made any sacrifices and the sacrifices I think that I make,
you know, on a daily basis, Like, for example, I'm
away from home right now. That's that's hard. You know,
I have four kids at home and my wife is
solo parenting right now. That's that's not easy. But that's
not a sacrifice in the same sense in any way
(16:49):
to not being burned. Well, and exactly that's what happens
to William Tindil, and that's what happens to so many
that have gone before us and so much of what
we take for granted every day in the Christian life,
Like the reason we have the Bible in English is
because William Tindall was willing to die for us to
have the Bible in English. He didn't actually get to
(17:10):
see the final fruit of his work. So he's running
and the authorities are trying to chase him. So he
leaves from England to the continent, and he spends time
in Belgium, and eventually they catch him and they sentence
him to death, and so he's being burned at the stake,
and the very last words he says is Lord opened
(17:33):
the King of England's eyes. And it's only three years
later that that prayer is answered when there would be
a Bible in English in every parish across the country.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
We're talking this week on Voice of the Marches Radio
with Stephen mccaskell. He's the producer and director of Missionary Steven.
I know the films are available for purchase on different
streaming services, Amazon Prime, I saw them on Apple TV.
The current batch of six is labeled season one, so
that raises the obvious question, when is season two? Is
(18:07):
there a season two? And I see you smile like,
so you've been asked this before.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
There is going to be more missionary films. The one
that we're going into production in this summer is about
the Saint Andrews seven and so the Saint Andrew seven
I wasn't familiar with at all. The sant Andrew seven
is the story of a professor and six of his students,
and the professor is Thomas Chalmers and six students that
(18:35):
he mentioned along the way and felt the call to
missionary work and would go to India. And so I
think all of them actually ended up going to India.
One of them died before he could even leave to
go to India. But yeah, so the sant Ander seven
is the next film that we're working on. The sant
Andrew seven film comes at it from a different angle.
So we've you know, the sixth part series that we
(18:57):
started with. The subtitle is Obeying the Great Commission? What
does it mean to obey the Great Commission? And there's
these different themes that we pull from from each person's life,
you know, William Tandale, the necessity of the word, Amy Carmichael,
singleness and the sufficiency of God, Hudson Taylor, culture and language,
William carry a longevity, David Livingston the cost of family
(19:19):
and with the final one, John Payton, the patient goal
of an enduring church. And so we look at all
these different themes in the six part docu series, and
now what we want to do is we want to
look at what does it mean to send well? You know,
not all of us are going to go, but we
all have a part in this missionary endeavor and so
(19:40):
you know what does that mean? And often it means,
you know, we all belong to a local church, and
so we are a part of sending missionaries to the
last places on earth. And so to send well means
to pray, it means to give, It means to train
and support, how you know, in all the ways that
a local church does. So the Saint Andrews seventh film
(20:02):
focuses on that sending side of things.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
So I think that answers my next question which I
was going to ask, which is who was the seventh
who was the one that got crossed off the list
last for season one? And I was wondering about add
and Iram Judson, are you are you going to do
a Judson one?
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Yeah, the original six was William Tyndale Hudson, Taylor, Amy Carmichael,
William Carey, aden Iram Judson and John Payton. We couldn't
film the Adnaim Judson one because of the conflict.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
In Memma, because of the coup.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yeah, all the you know, the rebels fighting with the
government and all that, and so the script is written.
We want to tell the story of Ama and Judson,
and so Lord Willing. One day we'll be able to
tell that story. But we replaced this story with David Livingston,
and in God's providence, I actually think that has worked
really well with the six part series. So Adnairam Judson
(20:58):
is another one. We want to do the saying age
of seven, like I said, Thomas Chalmers and six of
his students and then Lord Willing. In twenty twenty seven
will go into production on a news series tentatively titled
Martyr with the subtitle The Blood that Speaks, and it
kind of harkens back to that one of the early
(21:21):
church fathers, Tourtullian, has a quote where he says the
blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.
And in the Martyr film, we want to trace martyrdom
from the early church history all the way up to
modern history. And so we're gonna start at Stephen and
kind of work our way, but we're going to spend
the bulk of our time on the five guys who
(21:43):
went down to Ecuador. And so you know Operation Alka,
if you're familiar with it, Jim Elliot, Nate Saint. And
why is there this scene of martyrdom throughout church history?
And what does Tourtollian mean by the blood of the martyrs?
Is the seat of the church, It's it's often you
see it in William Tindall's life. You know, he dies
and then there's this the Word of God in English
(22:06):
becomes accessible across the country.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
And so.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
That's a plan.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
That's the plan. Last question, Stephen mccaskell, what do you
want people to walk away from I sit through these
six episodes, or maybe with my family, maybe with a
small group, maybe with my Sunday school class. Maybe I
show them in church. You mentioned resources for churches. When
I finish episode six, What do you want me to
(22:33):
be thinking about or be carrying with me as I
walk out of the room.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
I think it depends on the individual, but I hope
that some people are inspired to go themselves Amen. There
are roughly three thousand unreached language groups remaining in the world.
Those are three thousand different groups of people that do
(22:58):
not have a Bible church. So there's a reason why
they're the last three thousand as well, there are the
hardest places to go to. And I think, you know,
in some of these missionary stories, you can see what
it looks like to live a life of sacrifice and
then see how the Lord uses just that sacrificial obedience.
(23:20):
And so that's one way I think, you know, that's
one way I want to see the Missionary series use.
But then the other way is just to see local
churches take up the mantle of following the Great commission.
And so, yeah, that is going, that is that's that's sending.
And so what does it mean to raise up men
and women in our local churches that will go? And
(23:44):
then what does it mean to send them?
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Well?
Speaker 4 (23:47):
Hemen. We've been talking this week on Voice the Martist
Radio with Stephen mccaskell. He's the producer and director of Missionary,
a six part series films about great missionaries throughout history.
Even thank you for your work. This is a great
tool for the church, A great blessing to the church,
and thanks for being our guest this week on Voice
(24:08):
of the Martyrs Radio.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
You've been listening to the Voice of the Martyrs Radio.
I want to encourage you. Go to vomradio dot net.
We will give you a link to that behind the
scenes video filming in Vanuatu. Will also give you a
link to the entire Missionary series their website missionary dot com.
And I'd love to hear from you. How is God
teaching you? How are you reading the stories? What stories
(24:33):
are you reading that are inspiring you about taking the
Gospel to the last unreached places on Earth? And I
hope you'll be back with us next week. Every week
we talk about what God is doing around the world.
We talk about serving Him in places where it is
difficult and hard, and you will be encouraged by those stories.
So be sure you're back with us next week, right
(24:54):
here on the Voice of the Martyrs Radio Network.
About one hundred and fifty years ago, missionary John G.
Peyton went to share the gospel on an island in
the New Hebrides. Cannibals were known to live there, and
previous missionaries had been killed. Filmmaker Stephen mccaskell tells us
why John G. Peyton would take that kind of risk.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
One of the fellow Christians in his church he warned him,
like you will be eaten by cannibals, and Peyton replies,
mister Dixon, you are advanced in years now, and your
own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave
there to be eaten by worms. If I can but
live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it
(00:40):
will make no difference to me whether I am eaten
by cannibals or by worms.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Jesus never promised his followers an easy path. In fact,
he told his disciples that the world would hate them.
He sent them out as sheep among wolves. Jesus's words
came true in the life of the Apostles, and they're
still coming true to in the lives of his followers
around the world. Join host Todd nettletons we hear their
inspiring stories and learn how we can help right now
(01:08):
on the Voice of the Martyrs Radio Network.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Welcome again to the Voice of the Martyrs Radio. My
name is Todd Netleton. We are in the studio today
in Bartosow, Oklahoma, with Stephen mccaskell. Stephen is the producer
and director of a series of films called Missionary, six
films telling the stories of names we have heard of
or should have heard of. William Tindale, you know, John G. Patten,
(01:33):
some of those people. He is also a leader at
an organization called Missionary. You can go to their website.
It's a fantastic url Missionary dot com. Easy to remember
Missionary dot Com. Stephen, Welcome to Voice of the Martyrs Radio.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Why does the church need these films? Why do we
need to be reminded of the fact that every time
we open our English Bible we should remember someone gave
their life to translate the Bible in to English. Why
do we need the stories of people who went to
places where the Gospel had never been told. It seems
like it's a really timely message for the church right now.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, I mean, how often do we take things for
granted that we just have every day, things like the
Bibles in our houses. Many of us would say that
we have dozens of Bibles in our house. It wasn't
that long ago, a few hundred years ago, if you
were caught with a piece of the Lord's prayer, you
might be sentenced to death or at least to lashings.
(02:31):
And so you have people that come onto the scene
like William Tyndale and see the necessity of having the
Word in your own language, and how important that is.
When people have the Word of God that they can
read for themselves. It's not just guarded by the priests.
And even then it was all in Latin, and the
priests didn't even read Latin. They just had memorized what
(02:53):
they would preach every Sunday. And so you have guys
like William Tindale who set his mission was to translate
the Bible into the English language, and despite it being
illegal and it costing him everything, he was constantly on
the run, constantly moving from house to house, and it
eventually cost him his life. There's a quote that is
(03:16):
attributed to Tyndale. He said that if God spares my
life one day, I will cause the boy that drives
the plow to know more of the scriptures than you do.
It's just a reminder of what the power of having
God's Word in our own hands is and how instrumental
it is to the Christian faith. William Cameron Townsend says,
the greatest missionary is the Bible in the mother tongue.
(03:38):
It needs no furlough and is never considered a foreigner.
The necessity of the Word is the very foundation of
the Christian faith. We're a people of the Book, and
imagine not having the book in your own language. We
can't even comprehend that.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
We're talking this week on Voice of the Martich Radio
with Stephen mccaskell. He's the producer and director of Missionary,
a six part series of films telling the stories of
great missionaries. Stephen, how many countries did you travel to
in the filmmaking process?
Speaker 3 (04:09):
You know?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
So there's six different missionaries, and so we want to
not only tell the story of where they came from,
but where they went to. And so you know a
lot of them are starting in England or Northern Ireland
and they're going to some of the hardest places on Earth.
They're going to to India, to the New Hebrides or
what's now known as van Watu. They're going to China,
(04:30):
they're going to the heart of Africa, and so we
probably touched on most continents except for Antarctica.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
It's a lot of airplane miles.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Thankfully, a lot of them. Most of the planes are
just you know, your regular commercial passenger planes, but you know,
when you get to the islands of van Watchu, you
have to take small chartered planes and there's there's really
not a lot of options. Then you're definitely not plugging
in your frequent flyer number as you're hopping on that airplane.
And so there's a lot of praying as we are
(05:02):
hopping from island to island where John Payton, you know,
lived and served.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
And we've got a link on the show notes this
week to a kind of a behind the scenes video
about the making and particularly in Vanuatu, and some of
the challenges there of tracking down the legacy of John G. Peyton.
Tell me about one of the more challenging days in
the process, and maybe it's you know, one of those
(05:27):
Vanuatuo days, but maybe it's a different day that comes
to your mind of just one of the days where you're.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Like, is this gonna work? Are we gonna be able
to get this done?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Documentary filmmaking is consistently it's having a plan, but then
also just fully knowing it's never gonna go according to plan.
I mean, that's kind of the fun of documentary filmmaking.
It's never a mundane thing. Every day looks different. Each
day is the Lord's and you trust the Lord each
day and so he'll always provide and give you the
strength that you need for the day. When I think
(05:58):
of John Payton, you know he's going to these islands.
So you know, he grew up in Scotland and had
a father that raised him in a way that they
would do family worship, and they're spending time praying and
studying the Word, but then praying for people that have
never yet heard of Christ. And Peyton grows up, you know,
in this kind of family environment, and then he himself
(06:18):
decides that he should be going to some of these
these people that have never heard of Christ. But fully
aware that he knew two well known missionaries had gone
to these islands, these exact same islands that he was
going to, and they were killed and eaten by cannibals,
and so Peyton chose to go to the new hebrides.
Knowing this, he could imagine the opposition that he faced.
(06:42):
You know, back at home. One of the fellow Christians
in his church, a guy named I think mister Dixon.
He warned him like he's like, it's foolish to go,
and he says, here's an exact quote. You will be
eaten by cannibals, just like these other two missionaries had been.
And Peyton replies, mister Dixon, you are advanced in years now,
(07:03):
and your own prospect is soon to be laid in
the grave there to be eaten by worms. If I
can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus,
it will make no difference to me whether I am
eaten by cannibals or by worms. He goes on to say,
as he's reflecting on this in his autobiography, the Lord
kept saying within me, since none better qualified can be got,
(07:25):
rise and offer yourself. Wow. That grave site was the
site where his first wife and son were buried, and
he he actually had to sleep on that grave site
at night to prevent it prevent the cannibals from like
digging up the grave and eating those bodies. And that
(07:47):
like that's the environment in which he's ministering and laboring.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
And you think about the just the sense of hopelessness
that he must have experienced it, like, Lord, how are
you ever going to break through? I'm I'm literally protecting
my loved one's bodies from cannibals. How are you ever
going to reach these people? And yet there's a church
there today?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
There is, Yet Peyton was there. It was roughly one
hundred and fifty years ago, and Peyton was sent by
the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Scotland, and those islands today
are full of Presbyterian churches. The very islands that he
served and ministered on where his wife and son died
and he had to sleep on the grave to prevent
(08:28):
them from being eaten. There are churches not far off
from there where there are active and thriving congregations. The
guide that walks us to this graveside where Peyton's wife
and son are buried, was brought there by his dad
as a child. So clearly there's this legacy of these
missionaries that came beforehand bringing the good news that Jesus
(08:52):
Christ died for sinners. It's amazing, it is amazing.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
That quote on the stone. I have claimed this land
for God clearly got honored that claim.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
So in Peyton's life, yes, you know, the island of
a Niwa that he ministered fifteen years on for all
intents and purposes, becomes entirely converted, like the whole island.
I mean, that's hard to believe, but that's not always,
you know, promised. One of the other episodes in the
Missionary series is on David Livingston and so I live
in Orlando, Florida, and within a three minute drive of
(09:25):
my house is this mini golf course and the kids
love going there. They love playing mini golf, and this
mini golf course is it's it's Explorer themed and to
my surprise, our first time going there, we get the
scorecard and it's entirely David Livingston Explorer themed. So you're
kind of following David Livingston's journey, and there's these different
things that you find as you're like playing mini golf.
(09:46):
But in David Livingston's own life, you know, he saw
himself as a missionary first and foremost, but there's so
many other things that he ended up doing. I mean,
exploring the the inlends of Africa essentially opening it up
to trade, but not only trade, but the spread of
the gospel. What we know about Livingston's life is that
(10:07):
there was one convert, just one convert. But if we
think of what the impact of opening up the heart
of Africa to all of the trade and the people
that would come, and then the gospel that was then brought,
I mean that happened after his life. So he never
saw that. In his lifetime, he was often away from
home and it was so common to just see family
(10:31):
members die, and he had a particularly hard life. And
he says they were always writing about the sacrifice that
he was making because when he went back home to England,
he was famous, like he could have lived in that
fame and that glory and had a nice house and
had all of his family close by. But he saw
his mission in Africa as being far more important, and
(10:54):
so people are writing about his sacrifice that he makes.
And Livingston reflects on that and says, this talk of
the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of
my life in Africa, I never made a sacrifice. It's
just this sense of my life is not my own.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
If you're doing what God called you to do, it's not.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
A sacrifice exactly.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
There's joy and there's contentment, and there's excitement in following
that path that he's laid out for you.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah and yeah, and he says, you know, I'm prepared
to go anywhere, provided it be forward.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
That's a good quote, Stephen. One of the things I
found interesting is that you open the series with William Tindale.
And I think if you ask the average Christian list out,
you know, your the five greatest missionaries in history, not
very many of them would pull up William Tindale as
a missionary. Yeah, the series is called Missionary. You open
with Tyndale. Talk a little bit about that decision and
(11:50):
why he fits.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Yeah, you're right, most people don't think of William tindal
as a missionary, but in the sense of the importance
of having God in your own language. That was his
single focus in life. And I think, you know, for
any missionary going into an unreached language group, that's often
one of the things you're doing. You're learning their language,
(12:13):
you're creating the orthography, you're doing the translation, and you're
translating the Bible so that they can read not only
hear God's word, but they can read it for themselves,
and so we wanted to start the Missionary Series off
with the necessity of the word, just the importance of
having God's word in your own language, and William Tyndale
exemplifies that better than anyone else. One of those kind
(12:36):
providences that the Lord provided as we were filming the
Missionary Series was with filming the episode on William Tyndale.
We knew that William Tyndale had done translation of the
New Testament in a specific house in England, and it's
this gigantic estate. It was owned, i believe by John Walsh.
(12:57):
He gave William Tyndale a small room in this life
large manor. And we knew where the manor was, but
it was private property, but we knew where it was,
and we were, you know, as we were traveling from
point A to point B, we were driving by the manor,
and so we thought, let's go stop in and knock
on the door, knock on the let's knock on the
door and ask. And so we go to the manor
(13:19):
house and we knock and knock, and no one is answering.
There's cars outside, and so we assume there's people here,
but it's it's it's a huge house. Eventually, a lady
comes to the door and is very hesitant to have
us film or do anything. But as as we're talking
to this lady, a car pulls up and a man
(13:42):
comes out with his son and they just finished soccer
practice or as they call it in England football. And
we start talking to this man. And this man is
a former tech executive from Silicon Valley who purchased this
house just says like an escape, you know, to get
out of the Bay area. And so we start talking
(14:02):
to him about William. You know, we're here because William
Pindale spent time doing his translation of the New Testament
here and you know, can we film on this property.
We have a few lines. We won't be more than
thirty minutes. One of the reasons this man bought this
house is because of the history it has. It was
formerly King Henry the Eights house. It was John Walsh's house,
(14:24):
and it had this history with William Tyndale, and so
he knows all this, and he hears William Tyndale and
he's also like a history guy, not particularly church history,
but just history, and he starts telling us all these
things and he's like, come, come, come follow me, and
so we don't go inside, but he walks us through
the beautiful garden area in the courtyard and then to
(14:47):
the back where they where they previously had a church
and you can see the ruins of the church. So
he walks us through this estate and he says, you
can film however long you want, whatever.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
You want, all out of knocking on the door.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
All of well knocking on the door and really just
a prayer and a hope and the Lord provides this window.
And so when you watch the first episode of the
missionary series on William Tyndale, you will see this house.
It's really there's there's no other place like this in
the first episode. So this story is because of the
kindness of this man just letting us film there and
(15:25):
uh it. But how amazing is it to not only
hear and read of the stories of like where William
Tyndale did translation work in secret and where he's being
kept up in this you know, small little or you
know in this room in this house, but to actually
go and see it. And so if it's the beauty
of documentary filmmaking, it brings some of these stories to life.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Yeah, absolutely, Stephen, one of the things about starting with
William Tyndale is you also start with persecution. It wasn't
free for him to translate the Bible into English. It
cost him, ultimately, it cost him his life. How does
persecution play into this missionary series and into really helping
people understand, Yeah, if we're going to go to the unreached,
(16:08):
we have to address persecution. We have to be ready
for that.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
I feel unqualified to speak of any of this. I'm
not a missionary. I tell these stories and so you
know the people that have been there. And when I
talk about sacrifice, I think of man. I was born
in Canada, I live in the US.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
Now, have I.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Made any sacrifices and the sacrifices I think that I make,
you know, on a daily basis, Like, for example, I'm
away from home right now. That's that's hard. You know,
I have four kids at home and my wife is
solo parenting right now. That's that's not easy. But that's
not a sacrifice in the same sense in any way
(16:49):
to not being burned. Well, and exactly that's what happens
to William Tindil, and that's what happens to so many
that have gone before us and so much of what
we take for granted every day in the Christian life,
Like the reason we have the Bible in English is
because William Tindall was willing to die for us to
have the Bible in English. He didn't actually get to
(17:10):
see the final fruit of his work. So he's running
and the authorities are trying to chase him. So he
leaves from England to the continent, and he spends time
in Belgium, and eventually they catch him and they sentence
him to death, and so he's being burned at the stake,
and the very last words he says is Lord opened
(17:33):
the King of England's eyes. And it's only three years
later that that prayer is answered when there would be
a Bible in English in every parish across the country.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
We're talking this week on Voice of the Marches Radio
with Stephen mccaskell. He's the producer and director of Missionary Steven.
I know the films are available for purchase on different
streaming services, Amazon Prime, I saw them on Apple TV.
The current batch of six is labeled season one, so
that raises the obvious question, when is season two? Is
(18:07):
there a season two? And I see you smile like,
so you've been asked this before.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
There is going to be more missionary films. The one
that we're going into production in this summer is about
the Saint Andrews seven and so the Saint Andrew seven
I wasn't familiar with at all. The sant Andrew seven
is the story of a professor and six of his students,
and the professor is Thomas Chalmers and six students that
(18:35):
he mentioned along the way and felt the call to
missionary work and would go to India. And so I
think all of them actually ended up going to India.
One of them died before he could even leave to
go to India. But yeah, so the sant Ander seven
is the next film that we're working on. The sant
Andrew seven film comes at it from a different angle.
So we've you know, the sixth part series that we
(18:57):
started with. The subtitle is Obeying the Great Commission? What
does it mean to obey the Great Commission? And there's
these different themes that we pull from from each person's life,
you know, William Tandale, the necessity of the word, Amy Carmichael,
singleness and the sufficiency of God, Hudson Taylor, culture and language,
William carry a longevity, David Livingston the cost of family
(19:19):
and with the final one, John Payton, the patient goal
of an enduring church. And so we look at all
these different themes in the six part docu series, and
now what we want to do is we want to
look at what does it mean to send well? You know,
not all of us are going to go, but we
all have a part in this missionary endeavor and so
(19:40):
you know what does that mean? And often it means,
you know, we all belong to a local church, and
so we are a part of sending missionaries to the
last places on earth. And so to send well means
to pray, it means to give, It means to train
and support, how you know, in all the ways that
a local church does. So the Saint Andrews seventh film
(20:02):
focuses on that sending side of things.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
So I think that answers my next question which I
was going to ask, which is who was the seventh
who was the one that got crossed off the list
last for season one? And I was wondering about add
and Iram Judson, are you are you going to do
a Judson one?
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Yeah, the original six was William Tyndale Hudson, Taylor, Amy Carmichael,
William Carey, aden Iram Judson and John Payton. We couldn't
film the Adnaim Judson one because of the conflict.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
In Memma, because of the coup.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yeah, all the you know, the rebels fighting with the
government and all that, and so the script is written.
We want to tell the story of Ama and Judson,
and so Lord Willing. One day we'll be able to
tell that story. But we replaced this story with David Livingston,
and in God's providence, I actually think that has worked
really well with the six part series. So Adnairam Judson
(20:58):
is another one. We want to do the saying age
of seven, like I said, Thomas Chalmers and six of
his students and then Lord Willing. In twenty twenty seven
will go into production on a news series tentatively titled
Martyr with the subtitle The Blood that Speaks, and it
kind of harkens back to that one of the early
(21:21):
church fathers, Tourtullian, has a quote where he says the
blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.
And in the Martyr film, we want to trace martyrdom
from the early church history all the way up to
modern history. And so we're gonna start at Stephen and
kind of work our way, but we're going to spend
the bulk of our time on the five guys who
(21:43):
went down to Ecuador. And so you know Operation Alka,
if you're familiar with it, Jim Elliot, Nate Saint. And
why is there this scene of martyrdom throughout church history?
And what does Tourtollian mean by the blood of the martyrs?
Is the seat of the church, It's it's often you
see it in William Tindall's life. You know, he dies
and then there's this the Word of God in English
(22:06):
becomes accessible across the country.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
And so.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
That's a plan.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
That's the plan. Last question, Stephen mccaskell, what do you
want people to walk away from I sit through these
six episodes, or maybe with my family, maybe with a
small group, maybe with my Sunday school class. Maybe I
show them in church. You mentioned resources for churches. When
I finish episode six, What do you want me to
(22:33):
be thinking about or be carrying with me as I
walk out of the room.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
I think it depends on the individual, but I hope
that some people are inspired to go themselves Amen. There
are roughly three thousand unreached language groups remaining in the world.
Those are three thousand different groups of people that do
(22:58):
not have a Bible church. So there's a reason why
they're the last three thousand as well, there are the
hardest places to go to. And I think, you know,
in some of these missionary stories, you can see what
it looks like to live a life of sacrifice and
then see how the Lord uses just that sacrificial obedience.
(23:20):
And so that's one way I think, you know, that's
one way I want to see the Missionary series use.
But then the other way is just to see local
churches take up the mantle of following the Great commission.
And so, yeah, that is going, that is that's that's sending.
And so what does it mean to raise up men
and women in our local churches that will go? And
(23:44):
then what does it mean to send them?
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Well?
Speaker 4 (23:47):
Hemen. We've been talking this week on Voice the Martist
Radio with Stephen mccaskell. He's the producer and director of Missionary,
a six part series films about great missionaries throughout history.
Even thank you for your work. This is a great
tool for the church, A great blessing to the church,
and thanks for being our guest this week on Voice
(24:08):
of the Martyrs Radio.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
You've been listening to the Voice of the Martyrs Radio.
I want to encourage you. Go to vomradio dot net.
We will give you a link to that behind the
scenes video filming in Vanuatu. Will also give you a
link to the entire Missionary series their website missionary dot com.
And I'd love to hear from you. How is God
teaching you? How are you reading the stories? What stories
(24:33):
are you reading that are inspiring you about taking the
Gospel to the last unreached places on Earth? And I
hope you'll be back with us next week. Every week
we talk about what God is doing around the world.
We talk about serving Him in places where it is
difficult and hard, and you will be encouraged by those stories.
So be sure you're back with us next week, right
(24:54):
here on the Voice of the Martyrs Radio Network.
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