The Missionary's One Verse - Missional (John 3:16)

When missionary John Paton arrived in the New Hebrides in the 1850s, the indigenous language had no word for "believe" or "trust." For years, he searched for how to translate John 3:16. One day, exhausted, he collapsed into a chair. A local helper asked what he was doing. "I'm resting my whole weight on this chair," Paton replied. "That's it!" The helper said there was a word for that—leaning your whole weight on something. That's how John 3:16 was translated: "Whoever leans their whole weight on Him shall not perish." Mission requires translation—not just of words, but of meaning. The gospel must be understood to be believed.