This is a special news item submitted by Jack Gillmar

Official Special Commemorative Envelope, Stamp and Post Mark

Haystack Monument, commemorating the place where 5 Williams College students first gathered to discuss overseas mission work.

The Church of the American Ceylon Mission has been celebrating its 200-year old history of work with missionaries from the United States for two years. Five young men, students of Williams College in Massachusetts, decided to serve God in some area that did not yet know Christianity. They arrived in the northwestern part of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and began learning the language and translating the Bible into the Tamil language spoken by the people living in the area.

Dr. John and Mrs. Harriet Scudder, set sail for Sri Lanka.

Dr. John and devoted wife Harriet Scudder

Soon after they arrived, a man by the name of Dr. John Scudder arrived with his intrepid wife, Harriet, to live their strong Christian faith by bringing John’s western medical practice to the area.His faith was as strong as his dedication to medicine, and soon the missionaries already there ordained him as an evangelist. He clearly was serving the needs of body and soul with his patients.

His dedication to God’s work showed itself best when he began to build schools for children and adults, as well as a hospital and clinic. His most important contribution to the Tamil people with whom he worked was education – especially a medical school and translations of his medical texts so that he could use them to teach and train Tamil people to do the work of treating injuries and illnesses that he was doing.

His gifts as a medical missionary did not die with him – his descendants carried on his work in India as well as in Ceylon. For missionaries all around the world, he was and is an inspiration and lesson in the real nature of God’s mission. Dr Scudder did not do medicine to, for or instead of the people with whom he worked – he did medicine with them, sharing the gifts God had given him so that others could share them also.

In celebration of all the missionaries that have served in Ceylon/Sri Lanka, the CACM had a wonderful Service of Celebration with CACM clergy and lay people gathering on October 18 in Pandaterrippu, at the church by Dr. Scudder’s home – now the church parsonage!

The service was followed by the release of a Sri Lankan stamp in Dr. Scudder’s honor. Public officials, CACM clergy and laypeople spoke to the importance of Dr. Scudder’s influence, then and now. It is wonderful – inspiring! – to know that his work of 200 years ago in Ceylon is held in high esteem by the country and the people of today’s Sri Lanka!

This account was submitted by Jack Gillmar.  The Scudder Association welcomes any stories or accounts that may be of interest to our members. We are grateful to Jack for sharing his journey with us. Here is a bit about cousin Jack Gillmar:

Jack Gillmar is the grandson of Frank Scudder, missionary to Japan in 1895 and Hawaii in 1906. Jack is Dr. John and Harriet’s great great grandson. In March if this year he visited Sri Lanka on the chance of finding out more about the Scudder mission there. To his surprise he found the Scudder memory there alive and well as the Church of the American Ceylon Mission was preparing to celebrate its 200th anniversary.  Jack and his wife Janet live in Honolulu where Jack is a retired history teacher and active real estate investor.

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