Mark H. Logan
Representative at Large

Teaching National Pastors in the Third World: Since 2003, I have taken trips of 3 to 4 weeks in many nations where we do not have missionaries and mostly where there are no foreign missionaries. I spend all day teaching national independent Baptist pastors and/or young Bible college students. I have been several times to Malawi, Africa, teaching over 300 pastors and bringing money for food, clothes and with tin roofs for little mud brick churches. I have also taught in Zambia, Republic of Georgia, Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and Egypt. I will be going to Myanmar, India, Congo (DRC), Cambodia and Philippines in the next months Lord Willing. Travelling through countries such as Turkey and Dubai, which are overwhelmingly Muslim, I have had great liberty to pass out hundreds of Chick tracts in their language and would like to encourage house churches to be started there. In the places I am referring to, foreign missionaries are prohibited but the GOSPEL IS STILL GOING FORTH AND CHURCHES ARE BEING PLANTED BY NATIONALS WHO NEED MORE TRAINING IN BAPTIST DOCTRINE. I'm glad to be able to help in that great task. IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO INCREASE YOUR MISSIONS VISION AND REACH INTO UNREACHED MULTITUDES, I WOULD BE GLAD TO COME AND SHOW PICTURES AND PREACH ABOUT THE NEEDS IN THESE COUNTRIES.

Congo: My Missionary parents served in the jungle for 4 years until we were forced out by rebel soldiers in 1960.

Salvation: Saved at the age of 6 after a service with Dr. Albert Hughes in Ontario, Canada.

Education: Bachelor's and Masters Degree in Mathematics Family: Married my wife Donna in 1981, have 4 children: Heather, Andrew, Erin, Bethany

Church Staff Experience: Taught for 3 years at Northside Christian Acadamy in Charlotte, NC While working in the Youth Ministry, Dr. Hudson asked me to be the youth pastor in 1978 and I served until 1987.

Missions and Church Planting: We were accepted as BIMI missionaries to Canada in 1988. After 1 1/2 years of deputation, we arrived in Waterloo, Ontario in January 1990. We planted Northside Baptist Church that year.

Pastoral Ministry: After resigning our support in 1995, our church grew from about 40 people to 300 people. Many ministries have been added, a Bible Institute and a strong Missions program supporting over 60 missionary families. Northside baptist Church in Waterloo has a new pastor who assisted us in the mid 90's.

It is indeed an odd thing that when I was a boy, missionaries were being sent from England and Canada to Africa, and now there are places in East Africa that have a much higher percentage of believers than do England and Canada.

When my parents, Hugh L. (Tom) and Elizabeth (Peggi) Logan left in 1955 for Belgium and then to the Belgian Congo, there was much pioneer work to be done, and we went to a little village 40 miles from Stanleyville called Wani Rukula. I was just 2 years old and my brother Matt was just a newborn when we sailed up the Congo River in January 1956. Two English families, the Kerrigans and the Cunninghams lived on our station also.

We built a house out of bricks after cutting down the trees and undergrowth. A church had already been established, so my father had responsibilities there training believers, and our family would take treks into Jungle villages evangelizing and planting churches. We would stay in a mud hut In the village, usually chasing out the chickens and pigs who were the previous occupants.

The four and a half years we spent out there were filled with adventure as we saw, smelled, tasted, and learned things that most people only read about. My father killed many poisonous snakes like black mambas and a few boa constrictors, some of which had found their way into our house. We had some fascinating encounters with driver ants, having to leave our home twice because of them. Even with dangerous leopards, crocodiles, scorpions, tarantulas and snakes around the village, the mosquito proved to be our most feared foe as Matt and I became sick with malaria about once a month pushing dangerously high fevers and convulsions. Despite the witchdoctors and voodoo rituals, hundreds of Congolese came to know Christ and there were some strong native pastors to lead them.

As 1960 drew close, the people began to anticipate Independence Day and the Communists fueled rumors that everything would immediately change - that the white colonists would be forced to give up all their plantations and material wealth. The natives envisioned themselves as taking anything they wanted, but when the day came with full fanfare, nothing much changed. This became disillusioning so there was much frustration and animosity. Meanwhile the Communists took several leaders over to Russia to train in guerrilla warfare and Russian propaganda came in on the radio urging the Congolese to take possessions by force.

Very quickly, it became dangerous to be a white person in that nation. My father was away in Ponthierville when the trouble became so intense that the Canadian and American governments put bulletins on the radio that all their citizens were to flee the country, and gave a midnight deadline. Planes were flying in clusters, going out to the coffee and rubber plantations to evacuate the owners and managers. Rioting and pillaging had begun. After two days my father returned and we made hurried preparations to leave. The deadline had expired but my father wanted to get all the believers from surrounding villages together the next day for a service to say "good-bye"., so the information went out by drum beat and hundreds assembled the next day.

The missionaries should not have been lumped together with the European landowners and businessmen but because of the hysteria and frustration, no one was safe. We were even challenged by unruly crowds in Stanleyville on our way to the airport. All available passenger planes had already gone so we were loaded into a cargo plane and flown out to Entebbe, Uganda. From there we made our way, with two suitcases, to Europe and then Canada. We were due for furlough anyway so we remained there, and since Zaire was closed to missionaries for awhile, my parents made the decision to stay and pastor in Northern Ontario.

Eventually Zaire opened up, so missionaries who had fled to neighboring Kenya and Uganda went back but the rebel army called "simbas"(lions) began growing stronger in the jungles unknown to the outside world. They began attacking the government army and terrorizing, beating, killing, and raping foreigners. By 1964, the Simba army had taken control of the country and the violence escalated. Missionaries were arrested, kidnapped, and brutalized. We began hearing reports of the capture, torture and martyrdom of friends of ours. Although the Simba leaders tried to maintain control of their rebel army, many atrocities were committed by young teenagers they had recruited and under the influence of hemp, a marijuana - like drug. Some of our dear friends who were killed included the Perry family and Sharpe family from England, Hector McMillian and Mary Baker from the USA and Chester Burke from Canada. Even those who escaped suffered greatly. Three books written on the subject that I would recommend would be, "Out of the Jaws of the Lion" by Homer Dowdy, 111 Days in Stanleyville" by David Reed, and "Missing, Presumed Killed" by Margaret Hayes.

As I learned of these things, some involving children I played with out in Congo, it affected me greatly and I realized that it could have been me that was killed. I read all the books I could find about missionaries and I took the things of God seriously. I was saved the summer of the year we returned home and at the age of 12, I responded to an invitation given by Dr. Oswald J. Smith, after a missions message, to surrender my life to the Lord for whatever He would want me to do. It has been a real joy to have taken groups of teenagers to the mission field each year in the 1980's and to see some of those teenagers, now adults, on deputation, or in universities training for missionary service.

He can be contacted at:
3 Heavens View Dr.
Asheville, NC 28803
828-505-0557