At the age of 11 he went with his mother to the Islington Agricultural Hall to hear the American evangelists, Dwight L. Moody and Ira D. Sankey, and was very much affected by their message.

He and his brother, Robert, considered migrating to America, but had been discouraged by letters from other young men from their area who had failed to find opportunities in the US.

However, he was not very happy in his work and at some stage chose to join Māori gum workers in the Kauri forests north of Auckland.

[1][2] Abel arrived in Port Moresby in October 1890 and briefly relieved James Chalmers at the mission.

In August 1891 he joined another missionary, F. W. Walker, at Kwato Island, on the southeast tip of New Guinea in what is now Milne Bay Province.

Initially, he spent some time conducting an anthropological study of the people on Logea Island (also spelled Rogeia), immediately to the south of Kwato.

[1][2][3][4] At the mission, the couple began teaching elementary subjects and Bible-study, as well as carpentry, saw-milling and boat building for the boys, and sewing and lace work for girls, while Walker spent much of his time sailing around the islands to supervise local missionary teachers.

Although the system of putting children and adults to work was approved by the LMS, it was subject to some criticism by other missionaries and some of the lay preachers.

In 1895, Abel and his wife began building a large house, with LMS funding, considered by some to be too ostentatious for a missionary.

[1][2] From 1901, he became widely known for championing the rights of Papuans in court cases against Europeans and Abel experienced increasing conflict with some Australian residents in the Milne Bay area.

Conflict arose from a court action for rape against an Australian in 1902, in which a Kwato mission teacher gave evidence for the prosecution.

He further alleged that a group of armed traders led by a government officer had shot several Milne Bay villagers and burned 38 houses.

Noting the decline in the population of the Milne Bay area, he also became an opponent of the practice of blackbirding, a form of slavery in which islanders would be kidnapped and taken to work in Queensland and elsewhere.

In early 1918, Abel left the LMS, taking the 560 members of the Milne Bay church with him to form the Kwato Extension Association (KEA).

[1][2][3][4] In 1921, Abel and his family went to England, leaving Kwato in the charge of Madge Parkin (1865-1939), his wife's cousin, who had been working there since 1896.

This society paid for the education of his four children, who had all decided to become missionaries, and sent him back to Kwato in 1924 with enough funds to continue and with the promise of building a hospital.