The 18th-century missionary David Brainerd was a man who had a brief life but an astonishing influence.

Brainerd was born in 1718 to a prosperous local administrator in a New England still influenced by the Puritans. Orphaned early and lacking any relationship with God, Brainerd decided to enter the newly created Yale College. In 1739, after an intense spiritual search, he underwent a conversion to Christ.