Calista Vinton - Kemmendine Mission

Kemmendine Mission

Mrs. Vinton was completely responsible for running the mission school in Kemmendine, which had 200 to 250 pupils. Besides teaching, conducting prayer meetings, acting as physician and nurse to her own pupils and the sick in the neighborhood, making and translating textbooks and hymns, she traveled, in the dry season, to villages in the north and west of Rangoon, preaching the gospel. During the dry season, her older pupils usually went home to help their parents in harvesting. In addition, she educated her son Brainerd and daughter Calista. In 1854, Brainerd was sent to Hamilton, New York, and Calista to Suffield, Connecticut, to continue their studies.

In 1854, Sister Miranda went home to visit her aged parents, and on her return to Rangoon she married Rev, Norman Harris of the Karen Mission in Shwekyin, a very unhealthy place in those days. Less than four months after the marriage, Sister Miranda was taken ill with a high fever and died.

After the situation had stabilized in Rangoon, renewed efforts were made to build Frank's Chapel. More donations came in from the native Christians as well as the British residents in Rangoon. Many officers of the British army donated their architectural and engineering talents and their time to draw plans for the church. Lord Dalhousie, the Governor General of India, made the land in Kemmendine overlooking the Rangoon River a gift to the mission. On 20 May 1855, a cornerstone of the church was laid by Rev. Vinton in the presence of many native and British friends. It was a large two-story brick building with the upper story for church services and the lower story for schoolrooms. The Karen Home Mission Society was also housed in that building. It was called Frank's Church, and later came to be known as Reverend Vinton Memorial Church.

In 1858, Rev. Vinton went on an excursion to Shwekyin, to select locations to post his native preachers and came home with the jungle illness and died on 31 March. Mrs. Vinton continued the mission work of Rev. Vinton assisted ably by native preachers, Mao-yay, Nga-lay, and Yai-pau. She deputized two very able assistants, Fidelia and Eliza who were earlier trained by Sister Miranda in Karen Normal School in Moulmein. In 1858 Calista arrived back from Suffield and mother and daughter were reunited. Calista engaged in the mission work immediately teaching mathematics, vocal music and supervising the boarding school. As usual, Mrs Vinton traveled and spent time in jungle villages. Often, she found herself settling disputes between church members.

In 1861, Brainerd completed the course in Madison University (now Colgate University) and married Julia A. Haswell, eldest daughter of Rev. James Madison Haswell of the Burmese Mission in Moulmein. Brainerd and Julia were playmates in the mission compound in Moulmein. He found both his mother and sister to be in failing health. Nevertheless, Mrs. Vinton went on a tour with Brainerd, and the disciples in villages rejoiced at seeing the "son of his father". In 1862, Mrs. Vinton and Calista left Rangoon for Falmouth, England and visited many British friends, most of whom had retired from civil and military service in Burma. They spent one month as guests of their old friend Mrs. and General Bell, Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces during the Second Anglo-Burmese War. They then sailed for New York, where Mrs. Vinton attended the Free Mission Society meeting and met R. M. Luther, who had just completed his study at Princeton Theological Seminary. He was resolved to devote his life to mission work but had not decided on his field. Mrs. Vinton persuaded him to make the Karen mission his field. While in America, she was called upon to make many missionary addresses. She and Luther made a trip through Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, and churches of northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin and part of Canada. She sailed to England in December 1863 and took the overland route through Egypt and Red Sea to Calcutta and Rangoon.

Mrs. Vinton engaged immediately in the work of the mission and started building a second mission house for the newly married Rev. R. M. Luther and her daughter Calista. On 1 November, Mrs. Vinton was attacked with an acute form of inflammation of the alimentary canal. On 6 December, Mr. and Mrs. Luther arrived and gave her some strength for a while, but she died peacefully on 18 December 1864.

In 1872, the Baptist Missionary Union vindicated Rev. Vinton of the "deputation" and Brainerd and Calista rejoined the Union.

Mr. and Mrs. Luther remained at the Kemmendine Mission until 1872, when Mr. Luther fell sick with jungle fever and they were compelled to return to America. He later became the district secretary of the Baptist Missionary Union and a pastor at Newark, New Jersey. Calista became a practicing physician. She wrote a memoir, The Vintons and the Karens, Memorials of Rev. Justus H. Vinton and Calista H. Vinton, and published it in 1880.

Dr. J. Brainerd Vinton continued the mission work of his parents until his death in 23 June 1887.