Georgia Burrus, First Adventist Missionary to India

Photograph of Georgia Burrus Burgess and Luther Burgess given to Jwinsilies Kharkongor (My great aunt). 

Glass Vase which belonged to Georgia Burrus Burgess given to Jwinsilies Kharkongor and bequeathed to me by her daughter Lucy Kharkongor.

          
  Georgia Anna Burrus, an attractive girl in her early twenties, listened intently as Elder Haskell described his trip across India.  Her heart stirred as he appealed for women missionaries to share the gospel with the women of India who lived in zenanas –enclosed quarters of a dwelling into which no man could enter.  She should go to India, she thought, and volunteered. 

Eventually at the 1893 General Conference the brethren approached her and Myrtle Griffs and requested them to go to India and start studying the language so that they could work among those shut-in women.  The girls enrolled in the nursing course at St. Helena and then joined a course for missionaries going overseas.   Then both girls took ill. Myrtle dropped out of the program but Georgia opted for surgery.  However, though scheduled twice, the operations never took place.  Georgia had prayed and recovered naturally.  She took this as a sign that God approved of her commitment to mission work in India.

The Foreign Mission Secretary instructed Georgia to travel to London with a party of missionaries.  There she would join the D. A. Robinson family and together they would sail for India.  But after buying her ticket and paying off some debts, Georgia found herself with only fifty cents—not enough to take her trunk to the station. 

While she waited in her room, wondering what to do, Brother Hall, in whose home she had been staying, rushed in shocked that she had not yet left.  When Georgia explained her problem, he dashed out of the room and returned with a hundred dollars.  Pressing the money into her hand he said “May the Lord bless you and make you a blessing in India.”  Then he ran out to procure a carriage for her. 

In London Georgia discovered that the Robinson family had postponed their travel to India for the following year.  She sold magazines for a while in England, but decided she’d rather go on ahead alone and start learning the language while waiting.  The Mission Board concurred and paid her fare, but Georgia would have to support herself till the others came.  She set sail on the SS Bengal and reached Calcutta on January 23, 1895.

Not Really Alone

At the Diamond harbor the ship picked up letters to passengers from relatives and friends waiting for them at the pier.  Georgia listened to their excited chatter as they opened letters.  It would have been nice to have someone waiting to meet her.  Then she heard her name.  “Miss Burrus, where is Miss Burrus?”  Who could know her in this strange land!  She tore open her letter as the ship steamed swiftly up the river to the city docks.

Captain Masters and his wife had accepted the Advent message in New Zealand and decided to share it with the people of India where the Captain had served for a while in his youth.  The couple sold literature in India for only a few months but during that time they were able to welcome Georgia. They had even booked a room for Georgia, but found the family had already given it to a relative.   As the sun began to set, they located another room in a respectable home.  It was rather expensive so Georgia could not dream of staying there for long.  Her new friends helped her with her luggage and bade her good bye.

Georgia glanced out the window and observed a group of natives assembling for some strange religious ceremony.  The unfamiliar sights and sounds reminded her that she now resided in a very strange land and a wave of homesickness swept over her.  She sat on the bed and pulled out her watch.  She had dropped it a few weeks before on the ship and it had stopped running.  Its silence worsened the feeling of homesickness.  She prayed earnestly, “Oh Father, I feel so lonely and homesick I don’t know what to do.  If only I could hear my watch going again I think I would feel better.”  Scarcely had she uttered the words when her watch began to tick again.  Amazing! It was all right and so was she as she realized that she was not really alone in India. 

Led by God

Georgia shifted to the Young Women’s Christian Association which proved to be pleasant, comfortable and reasonably priced.    About a month had passed when the matron of the YWCA came to her excitedly waving an open letter and asked,” Do you know anyone in Africa by the name Haskell?” The matron went on to explain that some time before she had arrived a certain Dr. MacDonald had come with a letter from Elder Haskell asking him to find suitable lodging in Calcutta for her while she learnt the language.  Accordingly, this missionary had approached the YWCA and arranged for them to take in Georgia.  Georgia never received information of this arrangement, but she now knew that God had guided her feet to the very place that had been selected for her.  One of the ladies at the “Y” eventually joined the Adventists.

About a month later, the superintendant told her that she was reducing her monthly bill by Rs 10 because Georgia didn’t drink the tea or eat the meat dishes.  Georgia found that her vegetarian diet also opened many doors for her.   As she walked down the street, children would beg their parents to invite Georgia into their homes exclaiming “She’s just like us.  She does not eat meat.”

Spending so much time on learning the language, Georgia had no time to earn her support.  After two months she suddenly realized that her money would run out in a month.  She tried to suspend her lessons, but the pundit insisted on continuing for free.  Providentially, the very next day Georgia received a check in the mail for twenty-five pounds with a note that she would be receiving a similar amount each quarter for the rest of the year.  An Adventist in Africa had sold his billiard table for a hundred pounds and had decided to use it to support the missionary girl in India.

No Longer Alone

Soon Georgia learnt that Elder Robinson and his wife and child would be arriving with Martha Mae Taylor to join her in Calcutta.  Recalling her difficulty in finding a suitable lodging place for herself, she secured a two-storey bungalow and furnished it.  One happy Sabbath in November she stood at the pier to welcome the new missionaries.  No longer would she be the sole Adventist missionary among the millions in India.   More importantly, she had equipped herself with adequate knowledge of the language to carry forward her mission to the women of Bengal.

Georgia helped open a girls’ school and taught Bible classes by writing out the lessons in Bengali and memorizing them.  In 1903 she married Luther J Burgess, who had come two years earlier to serve as secretary-treasurer of the India Mission field. He gave up his administrative duties and joined Georgia in pioneering the work among Bengali, Hindi, and Urdu speaking peoples.  They ended their mission work in India among the Khasis in the northeast hills.  Elder and Mrs. Burgess returned finally to California in 1935.

Sources:

"From Far-Off India," California Missionary, 2 (July 13, 1896): 2.

Mrs. Georgia Burgess, “Why I Went to India,” Bible Training School, 15 (June 1916): 5-6.

Mrs. Georgia Burgess, “My First Night in Calcutta,” Bible Training School, 15 (July 1916): 24-25.

Georgia Burgess, “How God’s Providences Paid My Bills,” Bible Training School, 15 (July 1916): 86, 87

Mookerjee, L. G. "Pioneers in India." Review & Herald, 107 (February 13, 1930): 20.

Mrs. L.  J. Burgess, “The Blessed Pioneer,” Eastern Tidings, 36 (May 8, 1941): 2-4

Burgess, Luther J. (Obituary), Review & Herald, 123 (July 18, 1946): 20

Burgess, Georgia Burrus (Obituary), Pacific Union Recorder, 48 (October 25, 1948): 11.

W. A. Spicer, "Our First Seed Sowing in India," Review & Herald, 127 (February 9, 1950): 1, 13-14.