"Mended by Love"

Last month after preaching throughout southern Africa for four weeks, I discussed with those on our team about the possibility of taking a couple of days prior to returning to the US and going to see the mission that Robert Moffat had established in Kuruman, South Africa, between 1818-70. We all agreed to make the journey, and after 14 hours on the road, we arrived  at the mission on a Saturday. We were able to secure housing there on the property in a nice comfortable room. We then spent all day Saturday, meeting some of the staff and local pastors, as well as visiting the sites on campus that had historical value.

One of the most moving experiences of our stay was musing though the cemetery where men, women, and children who had left their countries behind for the gospel were laid to rest on this distant soil. The names of children will be forever etched in my memory, as I sat alone thinking of mothers who sobbed over the sacrifices they had made for the souls of Africans. I visited the house where the printing press that Moffat that used to print the first of all African Bibles into the Setswana language, a

project that to him more than 30 years. I had an opportunity to preach that Sunday in the old Stone Church that he had built in 1838. I toured a house called the "Livingstone House" where David had come to recuperate from his well-recorded "Lion Attack" in 1845. It was while spending time here in Kuruman recovering from that awful wound that he fell in love with the eldest daughter of Moffat, Mary. It was also, nearby under an almond tree in a lovely garden, that he proposed to Mary, and later that year be wed to her in the Stone Church.

As I spent time reminiscing over all the events that took place over 150 years ago on this hallowed ground, I couldn't help but think of all the hurt that had been felt by those giants of this missionary land. The many heartbreaks that were endured to see the Word of God established in this darkened land were nearly unimaginable. The seeds of the gospel had been watered by the tears of these saints. Then I thought of a wounded Livingstone that had come to this mission to find rest and healing, and had instead found love. He had no doubt over months of recovering found a balm for his body and soul through the tenderness and care of Mary Moffat. He also, found a life-long companion and friend that would complete him and help him to penetrate the interior of Africa with the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

He might have come to Kuruman with a limp, but he left with a leap. He found strength and courage to continue the hard path that God had called him to trek. He had indeed found healing. He was mended by more than simply a doctors medicine, rather he was "mended by love".

"The Influence of One"

In 1820, Robert Moffat would travel to Capetown, South Africa, as a pioneer missionary with the London Missionary Society. Moffat was not from a wealthy or educated home. He had been saved at the age of eighteen and from the outward appearance, had little to offer the world by means of talent. However, he would become known a missionary who had great endurance, and would spend his life winning the lost tribes of Africa for Christ and paving the way for other devoted missionaries to follow.

After settling in a place called Kuruman, Moffat began to develop a burden, not only for the local Setswana people, but he also, had a longing to see the gospel go into the interior of Africa. These were regions where few others ever dared to go. He would at times travel by foot, boat, or oxen hundreds of miles to places like present-day Zimbabwe to share Christ. Moffat cared not what personal cost that he or his wife Mary might pay. They buried their children in the soil of Africa. They suffered attacks by lions and cannibalistic warring tribes. Yet nothing would drive them from this land that so desperately needed Jesus.

In 1839, the Moffats travelled back to Scotland for a brief but productive furlough. On a cold and rainy night, while speaking to a relatively small congregation, he made mention of "the smoke of a thousand villages where no missionary had ever been". A young man that would hear him that evening would answer the call of God in his own life. Visionary, David Livingstone, would join Moffat and family in Kuruman in 1841. While Moffats life would be primarily spent among the Setswana tribe in southern Africa, Livingstone would cut deep into the center of Africa and travel nearly 40,000 miles preaching Christ and discovering new lands.

As a missionary and lover of the African people, I will go this month to share the gospel in places Livingstone once pioneered along the Zambesi River. Our party of four Baptist preachers will speak in churches, schools, and prisons in Gaborone, Pretoria, Bulawayo, Victoria Falls, Livingstone, and Katima. Though it may have been a Livinstone who inspired hundreds of others to converge on these regions and give their lives to the people and cause of Christ, it should be remembered that Moffat first influenced Livingstone. Had there not been the faithfulness of a Robert Moffat, there would never have been a David Livingstone. Thank God for the "Influence of One"