"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"