David Brainerd's Ministry Style

David Brainerd spent over a year ministering to the tribes in New England with little success. He lived in the most primitive conditions in order that he could be close to the peoples with whom he was witnessing. This is a story of an early convert to his ministry.

That day one native appeared to gain comfort and assurance that she had been brought into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. She had been greatly concerned for her soul ever since first hearing Brainerd preach the previous June, but that day came to be at peace spiritually.
That young woman, Brainerd's first convert from Crossweeksung, was the sole survivng child of Weequehela, the last great saschem among the Delawares in New Jersey in the early 1700s. He once owned much land, many horses and cattle, as well as black slaves. He frequently entertained governors and other important white men in his home, which was fully furnished with English furniture, silverware, calico curtains and featherbeds.
In 1727 a land dispute developed between Weequehela and his English neighbor, Captain John Leonard. On more than one occasion, Leonard reportedly extorted large tracts of land from Weequehela after getting him drunk. Following a particularly grievous instance of such extortion, Weequehela, after becoming sober and realizing what had happened, shot Leonard dead, then surrendered peacefully to white authorities.
When his people offered to break him out of jail he refused, stating that it would not be right for a king to run away. He also exhorted them to live in peace with their pale-faced brethren. He was hanged at Pert Amboy, west across the bay from Staten Island. A reprieve from the Governor arrived too late, after he was already dead.
Following the chief's death, his widow and four or five children, one of them being only a few days old, were badly mistreated and deprived of all their property and possessions. Within a short time all of them except a three-year-old daughter of Weequehela died. During her difficult childhood she saw her aunt killed by a settler.
When Brainerd came to Crossweeksung, this daughter of Weequehela would have been about twenty years old and may have already been married to her husband, Stephen Calvin. Her husband, a man of high intelligence and goodwill, was one of the Indians who assisted Brainerd as an interpreter.
She would later tell her children and grandchildren that Brainerd was the first white man she could ever love, having suffered so much at their hands and always having feared them. One of her grandchildren testified of her: "She loved David Brainerd very much because he loved his heavenly Father so much that he was willing to endure hardships, traveling over mountains, suffering hunger, and lying on the ground that he might do her people good. And she did everything she could for his comfort.

(David Brainerd: A flame for God by Vance Christie.