A New Name

“Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The old has gone, and the new has come!” — from 2 Corinthians 5

In Sierra Leone, Ajayi was sent to a village called Bathurst. He lived in the house of a missionary, Mr. Davey, and his wife. Every evening Mrs. Davey taught him for half an hour.

Ajayi learned very fast. After only six months he could read the New Testament! Soon he was made a monitor, which meant he helped to teach the younger children. He was paid sevenpence-halfpenny a month. As soon as he learned something, he wanted to teach it to others.

In the school and the church, Ajayi heard about Jesus. He said later that “the Lord was pleased to open my heart.” He understood that he had done wrong things and needed God’s forgiveness, and he wanted the forgiveness that Jesus gives. On 11 December 1825 he was baptised.

At his baptism he took a new name: Samuel Crowther. It was the name of a minister in London. Mrs. Davey had been a Sunday school teacher in his church, and she chose his name for the boy. But Samuel never forgot his Yoruba name. All his life he signed himself Samuel Ajayi Crowther.

At Bathurst there was also a girl named Asano. She had been rescued from a different slave ship, and she went to the same school. Years later, in 1829, Samuel and Asano were married. They were married for fifty-one years and had six children.

When you belong to Jesus, you become new on the inside. But you are still you! God does not throw away the person he made. He makes you new.

Dear Jesus, please open my heart to hear you, like you opened Samuel’s. Thank you that you forgive me and make me new. Amen.