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Origins of the Punjab Mission
Will Porteous left Dunedin at the age of 19 to study medicine in Edinburgh. Seven years later he would become the first missionary doctor to India from the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand.
Will’s parents were God-fearing, prayerful people and it is not surprising that he responded to the challenge of Dr John R Mott “to evangelise the world in this generation”.
His friend and colleague, S K Datta, turned Will’s thoughts to India. Professor Hewitson of Dunedin asked Will if he was willing to become the Church’s first medical missionary to India.
Events moved quickly. In 1907 the General Assembly instructed the foreign missions committee to arrange for the opening of missionary work in India. Will was asked to visit India after graduation in 1908 to select a suitable area.
After extensive touring in North India and meeting many missionaries, Will recommended that a mission be established in East Punjab, near where some American Presbyterians were already working.
Back in New Zealand in 1909, Will spent five months visiting the churches and raising funds to build a hospital. Then he was off to England to marry Edith Rayner, a trained dispenser. Finally the young couple arrived in Bombay and travelled north to the Punjab to stay with Scottish missionaries. They gained valuable experience in the working of a mission hospital, but also spent much time learning Urdu.
In October 1910, Will and Edith travelled to a small town called Shahabad to begin their work. For some months Will and Edith lived in a tent. Their dispensary was an old three-roomed shed that they cleaned out and whitewashed.
On opening day, the young couple with their two untrained Indian helpers knelt to commit their work to God. Seventy patients came the first day and later as many as 250 came in one day. Every day the Indian evangelist preached the Gospel to the waiting crowd.
Eventually finding Shahabad an unsuitable centre from which to work, they decided to move to Jagadhri, a larger town in the midst of a densely populated rural area. In 1911, land for two bungalows and a hospital was purchased and an old renovated building became a temporary hospital. A school for girls was established, evangelistic work in the villages continued and a new hospital opened in 1914.
Celebrations of the centenary of this work will start at this year’s General Assembly in October.
By Doreen Riddell