At "Peace" on the Congo River!

On February 14th I embarked on a five-nation evangelistic trip throughout Central and West Africa with my brother, Chris, and Missionary Jeff Stewart. We had no idea the things that would contront us as we travelled by road from Douala to Yaounde to Libreville to Brazzaville to Kinshasa. This 1500 mile journey would take us into some of the most difficult circumstances and terrain that I have experienced in my 14 years of serving the Lord in Africa. We would would preach in schools, churches, prisons, and the open air, and would rejoice as some 6,569 souls would receive Christ as their Savior. Our final stop would be on the Congo River near Kinshasa.

While travelling along this majestic African river, my mind raced to the day when an early Baptist missionary, George Grenfell, came here in 1884 with his steamship named the "SS Peace". Grenfell had helped with the design of it and it's construction a year earlier. It was a 78 foot long iron steamship built from the donation of Robert Arthington Jr. through the Baptist Missionary Society in London. It's purpose was to send the gospel into the interior of Africa by way of the Congo. These deadly waters had become a graveyard for the missionaries due to disease, crocodiles, and ambush from the local tribesmen. The gospel had not been able to penetrate far into the jungles due to these calamities. This was the case until George Grenfell and more than a thousand Africans carried in 800 crates the dismantled "Peace" more than 250 miles from the ocean's coastline to the banks of the river at Kinshasa. It took 13 attempts to reach the Stanley Pool, a place in the river that had a depth of 750 feet. Grenfell also, had another problem as 3 of the engineers sent from England to help in the reconstruction of the steamer all died within months. Greanfell decided at that point, with the help of some Liberian seamen, to do the work themselves. He said later in a journal that this blessed boat was "held together by their prayers".

Once the "Peace" was inaugurated she began for years carry the missionaries up this mighty river, stopping along the way for the preaching of the gospel in villages and ministering to people who before were some of the most destitute heathen of their day. Grenffell faced pratices such as cannibalism and human sacrifice. He continued on his service for the Lord all the way until 1906 when he died more than 3,000 miles up the Congo and was buried in a simple grave.

God bless all of those pioneer missionaries who paved a way for those of us who would one day follow. It was on this years eventful journey that we traversed many hours from the place where the "Peace" first entered these murky waters and came by wooden canoe to a village called "Village 19". While at this tiny village, where the people are but simple fishermen and farmers, I had the privilege of leading the local chief, Mayala, to Christ and one evening baptizing him in the river before a group of villagers who had also gotten saved. None of our efforts would have proven a success had it not been for the many sacrifices of men such as George Grenfell.

After more than 3 weeks of ministering in numerous towns and villages, we made our way to Kinshasa to fly back to Cameroon and onto the US. However, we decided to stop over at a place we had heard was the site of where some of the early Baptist had come and where some of the first buildings still stood. We found near the river an old church that was built in 1915. It was unique in and of itself, but when we went further towards the river, what we found what made our ministry there the most memorable of all. It was the original steam engine of the "Peace"! It was sitting just feet from the banks of the Congo and was at the rear of a building in which the Baptist kept century-old photos and documents of George Grenfell and this famous ship! It was truly an amazing day as we had the joy of interviewing the church historian and learning more about the history of the early days of the Baptist along the Congo. We eventually left Kinshasa and made our way back to our church here in Florida. We brought with us as a token of our journey the joys we had from seeing precious Congolese come to Christ, and a deeper appreciation for those who had first brought the "Peace" of God to this region more than 127 years ago!