March 1 - Maud’s Missionary Journey

Maud Sisley Boyd
was the first woman missionary

sent by the Seventh-day Adventist
Church’s Foreign Mission Board.

Maud Sisley was born in 1851,
in Kent, England.

After her father died,

her family went to the United States

where they learned about
the Adventist message.

A visit by James and Ellen White
convinced them

to relocate to church headquarters
at Battle Creek, Michigan.

Maud was an Adventist member
for 10 years

when she was called to serve
as a missionary.

In 1877, she left for Europe

where she eventually served
in Switzerland and England.

After several years in Europe,

Maud returned to the United States

in time to attend

the second annual session
of the General Sabbath School Association

held in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Here she met another participant,
the widower Charles L. Boyd.

The couple wed in 1879
and had two daughters.

The Boyds went as part of the first group
of Adventist missionaries

to Cape Town, South Africa.

Tragically, their youngest daughter, Ethel,
died at age three and a half in Africa.

The family remained in Africa
for about four years

before returning to the United States.

They reached Battle Creek
in time to attend

the 1891 General Conference Session.

At this General Conference Session,

Charles was asked to become president
of the Tennessee River Conference,

located in Nashville, Tennessee.

The Boyds were early workers
in the American South,

striving to break down racial barriers

in response to Ellen White’s call
to do so.

They created a church that allowed
both black and white members

to worship together.

In 1898 she and Charles were in Asheville,
North Carolina, when Charles died.

After his death, Ellen White invited
Maud and her family to Australia

to assist with the newly formed
Avondale School.

Maud was “highly respected as a teacher.”

She spent nine years there.

Her daughter, Ella,
went as a missionary to Tonga.

When her sister fell ill,
Maud returned to Massachusetts

to be closer to her
while continuing to conduct Bible work.

During the last 17 years of her life,

she served as a Bible teacher
at the Loma Linda and Glendale Sanitariums

in California.

She spent one school year teaching
at Oakwood Junior College in Alabama.

After her sister died,
she returned to Australia

to live with her daughter, Ella.

Here she died in 1937

and was buried next to her mother

in the Avondale Adventist Cemetery
in Cooranbong, New South Wales.

Maud Sisley Boyd spent her life
in service to others,

and her legacy lives on to this day.

For more stories about
pioneer missionaries,

visit: encyclopedia.adventist.org.