Leon and Theophila Philippi

Savages and Saints Leon and Theophila Philippi

"Why don't we get married and go to New Guinea as missionaries?" It was a bold proposal from the other side of the world. After a whirlwind romance lasting scarcely six weeks, Leon and Theophila had spent several years in a long-range courtship across the Pacific. He was a farm boy from Nebraska, she a pastor's daughter born on the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia. Both had grown up during the Depression and Second World War under conditions the modern generation cannot imagine. But chance - or rather, God - had thrown them together, and what awaited them in New Guinea would be a test for both of them. It meant a forbidden valley guarded by sorcery. It meant an isolated jungle station where supplies had to be dropped by air. It meant expeditions into a fever ridden valley, malaria and leprosy, strange courtship customs, witchcraft, cargo cults, native wars, and family tragedy. But it also meant the relentless advance of both civilisation and the word of God, in a land ruled for thousands of years by disease, violence, and superstition. This is not only an unusual love story, but a window into a forgotten chapter of history: the archetypal missionary experience in the closing days of colonialism.