The Moravian Lots

In 1732, two young Moravian men — Leonard Dober and David Nitschmann — stood on a dock in Copenhagen with almost nothing. They had volunteered to sail to the Caribbean island of St. Thomas to share the gospel with enslaved Africans. The Moravian community in Herrnhut, Germany, had drawn lots and confirmed their calling. Dober was a potter. Nitschmann was a carpenter. Neither had missionary training, financial backing, or a return plan.

They carried so little that fellow passengers mocked them. Some asked how they expected to survive. Dober reportedly answered that if necessary, he would sell himself into slavery just to be near the people he was called to reach.

When they arrived, doors opened in ways no one anticipated. Enslaved men and women hungry for hope welcomed them. Within a decade, the Moravian movement had sent over a hundred missionaries across the globe — to Greenland, South Africa, Suriname — always in pairs, always traveling light, always depending on the hospitality of those they served.

Jesus told the seventy-two to carry no purse, no bag, no sandals. He sent them out lean and dependent because the mission was never about the messenger's resources. It was about the Father's harvest. Dober and Nitschmann understood what every disciple must learn: God does not send the equipped. He equips the sent. And when they returned, what mattered most was not the work accomplished but that their names were written in heaven.