At the same time, Henry Spalding and his wife traveled out with them. They ended up in Idaho. While there they were very successful. They baptized several of the leaders of the local native tribles and taught many of the tribal members about the gospel. The women loved Henry's wife and would follow her around her home to see how this "white woman" lived and did things. Spalding and his family went on to have a successful mission.
The Whitmans and the Spaldings were friends and came from the same church family. The Spaldings were affected by the Whitman massacre on many levels. Besides emotional, their youngest daughter was a survivor of it. Because of the Whitman massacre, their mission organization called off all mission work in the area and the Spaldings had to find a new and more creative way to reach the people, and they did, they did not stop.
Why where the Spaldings a success and the Whitmans a failure? Was it because the Cayuse were just a brutal tribe with impossibly hardened hearts, while the Nez Perce were peace loving and open hearted people? No. It was because the Whitmans were not willing to follow Paul's advice to be all things to all people where as the Spaldings were. The Cayuse's were upset with the Whitmans as they brought no gifts to them when they arrived, per Cayuse tradition. The Whitmans couldn't or refused to understand why that was a big deal. The Whitmans wanted the Cayuse to give up everything they knew and model their version of Christianity. Narcissa found everything about the Cayuse to be vulgar and savage. She even banished them from her parlour for fear of it being over run with fleas and filth.
The Spaldings, on the other hand, loved the Nez Perce and met them where they were. Henry worked to translate the Bible into their language and encouraged them to only give up what conflicted with scripture, not everything about their lives. Eliza loved the women of the tribe and happily allowed them into her home. Despite all that ended up happening to them and those they loved, they continued to work towards saving the Native Americans for Christ and Spalding's church were sponsors and supported relations with the US Indian Affairs agent.
Learning of this struck a chord with me. Paul wasn't the only one who called us to be all things to all people. Christ did as well. As a matter of fact, God emulated it in the most perfect beautiful way. In taking on human form as a helpless baby, to a poor family, in shaky circumstances. He could have simply saved us with a word or a wave of his hand. He could have saved us by showing up already as an adult and doing all the things he ended up doing in the new testament, maybe even in a week.... But he didn't. He knew the importance of relationships, the importance of being able to relate to those you came to save. He knew this because he made us and he made us to relate to us. He did not come in with trumpets. He was not born in a palace to a King and Queen and servants to attend to his every desires. He was born on a cool night surrounded by animals, feed and dung. He was born to young and poor parents. The first to come and see him were shepherds who were stuck pulling the night shift. He lived through many of the same experiences we did. The death of his earthly father, brothers and sisters who didn't always get along and having to work for a living. He lived according to his Father's word and yet also blended in with the rest of the culture, another face in the crowd.
To be successful in reaching people for Christ we must follow this example.
"I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some" 1 Corinthians 9:22
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