By Dr. Tom Wallace

A trip to Africa was a mountain peak experience in my life! After fifty–seven years of preaching, traveling, and visiting mission fields around the world, I thought that I had seen it all. Although my travels had taken me to nearly every continent, I had never been to Africa.

I knew something about the Dark Continent by reading of the life of David Livingstone and the love and concern he had for the people of that great land. It was captivating to read the account of how that when he died, the natives cut out his heart and buried it in Africa and shipped his body back to be buried in England.

I had seen numerous slide presentations of the huts, the villages, and the nearly naked savages with their spears and machetes dancing around a village campfire. I had listened to missionaries on furlough share their burden and make their appeal for help to get the Gospel message to these unfortunate souls in darkness to whom they were willing to give their lives.

Now, it was my turn to experience first–hand the burden for Africa that I had only seen in others. Landing in Kampala, Uganda, my wife, Mary, and I were met by Marvin and Jewell Wright, who in the next few days would become some of our very cherished friends. As we traveled the primitive roads and witnessed the deplorable economic conditions, we were overcome by the fact that these were real people—souls for whom Christ died. They were families in need of housing, food, water, schooling for their children, and all the necessities of life. Even more important, they cried out for a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

In the larger cities there were cars, buses, hotels, restaurants, government and commercial activities, and people hurrying about just like any other city in the world. However, just a few miles out of town in the countryside, there were thousands of villages with mud huts and thatched roofs. There were little piles of stones in the front of these huts where meals were cooked over a charcoal fire. The roads leading into each small town or village were lined with tables, booths, umbrellas, and wares spread out on the ground. People were selling vegetables, fruit, chickens, bicycles, tires for cars, tools, and everything imaginable. The roads were filled with people coming and going with water containers on their heads. Getting clean water from a well several miles away is a daily chore to most villagers. When rising up in the morning, the main issue is getting food to eat for the day and getting water for the family’s needs. Even the very small children were carrying a container of water on their heads.

The main purpose of my trip was to speak at the annual meeting for the BIMI missionaries in Uganda. More than a dozen BIMI missionary families were gathered in a hotel in Mbale for the weeklong field conference. It was a special time of refreshing for everybody, especially the wives and children. Meal times, church services, fellowship, and supervised play time for the kids all provided opportunities for fellowship. One of the couples, Tony and Kristy Applegate, was from our church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Several of these missionaries have been able to start a number of village churches in their area. One of the missionaries has 22 different churches pastored by national men. Most of these missionaries have started Bible schools to train the men to preach, visit, win souls, and pastor churches out in the bush. Many of the missionaries also have Christian day schools.

The difference the missionaries are making was obvious. In every place we traveled, we saw a group of people who were saved and on their way to Heaven who would be on their way to Hell except for these faithful men and women. The local churches they have established will result in more souls saved and more men surrendering to preach and evangelize other areas. The schools established will build into the children and young people Biblical principles that will help to establish Christian homes for the future. On one occasion, Eric Bohman, Assistant Africa Director of BIMI, scheduled an all day meeting of national pastors and their wives and some of their people. They came from miles back in the bush to attend the all–day conference. Many walked and others rode bicycles the long distances. There were several hundred there, and I preached to them four times.

Of course, the main reason for missionaries going to Africa is to rescue the perishing, but that’s only half the great commission. We are commissioned to baptize and teach them. Through classes and individual discipling, converts are taught to turn away from heathen ideas and practices and to develop a Biblical view of life, death, and eternity. The results of a consistent program like this will cut down on the crime rate, the immorality, the AIDS epidemic, the spread of Islam, and greatly improve the living standard.

We visited a bush church in a village that was at the end of the road. From there on it was total wilderness. The church was made of bamboo and had a thatched roof, and old plank board benches. Over 350 people were crowded into that place. A national pastor was doing a great job under the direction of Eric Bohman.

Although ministering to the missionaries and national people was our first priority for the trip, we also enjoyed God’s amazing creation there in Africa. The sights and sounds of hundreds of animals on the safaris and the beauty of the mountains on the equator were to be long remembered. Mrs. Wallace was busy with her camera, snapping pictures of people, places, and animals.

The one experience that stands out most was the trip to Thompson Falls in Kenya. These falls drop over 300 feet to the rocks below. It is a place where people dying with AIDS cast themselves over to end their suffering. One woman with only a short time to live gathered all the money she could find and gave it to her junior age boy. She told him to go to the street and exist the best he could. She took her four small children and headed to the falls. Her neighbor followed, suspecting that she was going to throw her children over to their deaths and then jump herself.

The neighbor pleaded with her, saying, “The Baptists will help you; the Baptists will help you!” She was able to persuade her, and they were soon on their way to find the Baptist church. The leaders of the church took the children, placed them with a Christian family and enrolled them in a feeding program. The woman died a short time later. My missionary guide took me to the feeding center and pointed out the four children.

I came home realizing how blessed we are and how much we have to be thankful for. I found myself wanting to be more, do more, give more, and go more. I got so carried away that I gave away my best suits to the national preachers I met and wished I had brought more to give. I realized how little they meant to me compared to how much they meant to these godly pastors.

Any word now from these fields that I have visited is not just news from missionaries “over there somewhere.” It is news from very dear people that I know and care about. I read the prayer letters and e–mails now with interest and concern. What a great thing it would be for the cause of Christ if pastors could take an annual trip and visit missionaries on a foreign field. I am sure it would be, as it was for me, a mountain peak experience!