In 1806 five students from Williams College in Massachusetts met together to pray together for world missions under a New England haystack during an afternoon thunderstorm. Their prayers became increasingly fervent as rather than their usual invocation for a spiritual revival on campus, instead they began praying for a missionary movement that would carry the gospel from New England to Asia and other distant lands.
Once the storm had abated one of the students Samuel Mills (1783-1818) stood up and cried "We can do this, if we will". This became their adopted motto as they proceeded to answer their own prayers by forming the Society of the Brethren, one of the first Protestant missionary societies and the first nationwide student missionary movement in North America.
In 1816 Mills was influential in forming the American Bible Society to provide Bibles for the pioneers flooding into the American mid west and the various tribes of Indians.
Once the storm had abated one of the students Samuel Mills (1783-1818) stood up and cried "We can do this, if we will". This became their adopted motto as they proceeded to answer their own prayers by forming the Society of the Brethren, one of the first Protestant missionary societies and the first nationwide student missionary movement in North America.
In 1816 Mills was influential in forming the American Bible Society to provide Bibles for the pioneers flooding into the American mid west and the various tribes of Indians.
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