An English school teacher in the 1780s, William Carey was inspired by reading the journals of the explorer Captain James Cook, and became obsessed about spreading the good news throughout the world. This was at a time when the vast majority of Christians in the world were located in Europe, and there was very little effort being made at sharing the good news with any other cultures.
In 1789, Carey became the full-time pastor of a Baptist Church, and in 1792 he published a small book which became extremely influential, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens, and later that year he was one of the founders of the Particular Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen (now the Baptist Missionary Society). He then set of with another missionary and his family, and arrived illegally in Calcutta, because missions work in India was prohibited.
Although Carey’s direct missionary efforts were not particularly successful (he was in India for over 6 years before baptising the first convert, and he neglected his wife and children), he completed a number of Bible translations into local languages. His greatest legacy, however, was in inspiring others to missionary service. He was directly influential in the foundation of the Baptist Missionary Society and the London Missionary Society, and indirectly influential in almost every other missionary effort of the time. Now, 200 years after his death, there are more Christians in Africa, Asia and South America than in Europe and North America.