In Greenland missions had generally failed.

But the gospel and its message of love succeeded.

In 1733 the Moravian missionaries settled down among the Eskimo people. They resolved at first to be very systematic in their method of preaching the Gospel; and to this end, they expounded to the simple Eskimo folk the whole scheme of dogmatic theology, from the fall of man to the glorification of the saint. The result was dismal failure.

At last the Brethren struck the golden trail. The story is a classic in the history of missions. As John Beck, one balmy evening in June, As John Beck sat in his tent translating the Gospels into the native tongue, a group of Eskimos gathered round him. They asked him about his work, and he began, as he had often tried before, to open up the questions of dogmatic theology with them. But they turned away. It suddenly flashed upon his mind that, instead of preaching dogmatic theology he would read them an extract from the translation of the Gospels he was now preparing. He seized his manuscript. “And being in an agony,” read John Beck, “He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” At this Kajarnak, the brightest in the group, sprang forward to the table and exclaimed, “How was that? Tell me that again, for I, too, would be saved.” The first Eskimo was finally touched. The power was the story of the Cross. From that moment the Moravians altered the whole style of their preaching. Instead of expounding dogmatic theology, they told the vivid human story of the Via Dolorosa, the Crown of Thorns, the Scourging, and the Wounded Side.

The result was brilliant success. The more the missionaries spoke of Christ and His brokenness for humanity the more eager the Eskimos were to listen.