Richard Carter in his account of the martyrdom of the seven Melanesian Brothers recounts how one of them, Brother Robin Lindsay who was the assistant head brother, had come to see Richard Carter to ask him about a dream that he had had three times. This was about a month before Brother Robin was murdered.

‘He told me that he dreamt he was on a beach, and that he looked up and saw the most terrible storm clouds and cyclone approaching and huge waves mounting. He was full of fear and dreamt that the storms engulfed him. He said he drowned, and that everything was swept away by the waves. He dreamt that the waves carried him to the top of a mountain and that as the water receded he was in warm sunshine and that he could see for miles, the world flooded with light. He said that he believed that God was saying to him that he must not be afraid and that all, would be well, all would be made good. I told him he had a lot on his plate at the moment with a coming conference and not to worry …

How could I know all that he was about to face? I did not know the tragedy that awaited him on a beach …’

Richard Carter describes this dream at Brother Robin’s requiem and the new meaning and truth that the dream took on following the murder. The dream imparts the truth of eternal life ‘far more vividly and miraculously, for in my memory it was a revelation of immortality and God’s love being greater than his coming death, a spiritual truth he left with me.’

Why did the men go knowing the danger? What was the sacrifice about? Richard Carter says that they went because they believed the gospel as action not just in word. ‘They believed that the Good Shepherd must go in search of the one who is lost’.