The rope can either represent the connection between the missionary

and his/her support network.

OR

The rope can represent the coming together of such support.

#1 The Baptist Missionary Society in London on October 2, 1792 included people such as William Carey, Andrew Fuller, John Ryland and more. Carey expressed willingness to go to India as a missionary. John Ryland, recorded the story where the famous “rope holder” image came up. According to him Carey stated:

“Our undertaking to India really appeared to me, on its

commencement, to be somewhat like a few men, who were

deliberating about the importance of penetrating into a deep

mine, which had never before been explored, we had no one to

guide us; and while we were thus deliberating, Carey, as it were,

said “Well, I will go down, if you will hold the rope.” But before he

went down he, as it seemed to me, took an oath from each of us,

at the mouth of the pit, to this effect—that “while we lived, we

should never let go of the rope.”

#2  With the second view, the braided image of a rope is used

recognizing the metaphor from Ecclesiastes 4:11-12:

11Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep

warm, but how can one be warm alone?

12And if one can overpower him who is alone, two

can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly

torn apart.