The young missionary lay on his deathbed. He had arrived in Liberia, West Africa, just four and a half months earlier full of vision and enthusiasm. The small congregation that had been established, as well as a school for the native children, was proof that his labor had not been in vain. The last entry in his journal was “To God, I commit all.” A short while later, Melville Cox slipped into eternity. The date was July 21, 1833. To his mission office, he sent this message, “Let a thousand die before Africa be given up!”

What a statement! In other words, he said that the sacrifice was not too great; it was equal to the task. I have read the accounts of many missionaries who have labored for Christ—some who have suffered immensely, even to the extent of giving their own lives for the cause of the Gospel. However, I have yet to read of one saying that the sacrifice was too much—that the task was not worthy of their sacrifice. Never do they warn young people not to come to where they have suffered, but rather the opposite—they plead for more laborers to come and take their places.

Alexander Mackay, who labored in Uganda, East Africa, during the late eighteen hundreds, was urged to return home when he became deathly ill. To this he replied, “It is not a time for anyone to desert his post. Send us our first twenty [missionaries], and I may be tempted to come and help you find the second twenty.” He was buried a short while later, but he got his twenty and many more! Many followed in his footsteps, and the missionaries who are serving in Uganda today are reaping the benefits of the sacrifice he made many years ago. Before his death he wrote, “The conquest of Africa has already cost many lives, but the end to be gained is worth the price paid. Let us not forget that the redemption of the world cost infinitely more.”

It has been this thought of sacrifice that has challenged me over the past couple of months. Recently, on a survey trip to Botswana, I, along with South Africa missionary Adam Lewis, visited one of David Livingstone’s old mission stations named Kolobeng. All that was left of the church and the house Livingstone built were a few foundation stones. However, near where the front door of his house would have been still sits the large flat rock where Livingstone sat to preach, teach, and doctor the hundreds that visited this mission station during the five years he lived there. My excitement of being in such a place was checked by the sacrifice revealed: the remains of a small, humble cemetery farther down the hill from the house. A large pile of rocks in the center had been identified as the burial place of one of Livingstone’s children, a “bonny, blue eyed lass” named Elizabeth. There were three other unmarked graves.

It was at this station where the first church, later doubling as the first school in modern day Botswana was erected. It was here that Livingstone had one of his few salvation decisions, a chief named Sechele—the first recorded Botswanan convert.

Before his conversion, Sechele was the “rain maker” for the tribe, using various witchdoctor incantations. However, after his conversion, no rain fell and a serious drought ensued. For a reason God only knows, it did not rain for the next four years. The tribe blamed Sechele’s conversion as the cause and threatened to kill him as well as Livingstone. Famine, drought, disease, and discouragement nearly destroyed the young missionary family, and in despair, the Livingstones left, never to return to Kolobeng again.

Livingstone later wrote in his journal: “…The fact which ought to stimulate us above all others is not that we have contributed to the conversion of a few souls, however valuable these may be, but that we are diffusing a knowledge of Christianity throughout the world…future missionaries will see conversions follow every sermon. We prepare the way for them. May they not forget the pioneers who worked in the thick gloom, with few cheering rays except such as flow from faith in God’s promises. We work for a glorious future which we are not destined to see…”.

History views Livingstone’s time in Kolobeng as a failure. I am glad God does not hold the same view! However, the need is still great in that country. Botswana, not as densely populated as other African countries, does not get the missionary attention it needs. As Adam and I drove around the modern capital of Gaborone, as well as the surrounding countryside, we were hard–pressed to find a church—any church. After some searching, a few were found, but not even remotely sufficient for the population of the area. Laborers are needed in this vast country, but let me warn you, there will be some sacrifice. As Livingstone learned, there will always be sacrifice, but the sacrifice is equal to the task!

Just four hundred fifty kilometers southwest in present–day South Africa was the mission station of Livingstone’s father–in–law, Robert Moffat. The station is in an area called Kuruman where Moffat and his wife, Mary, labored for fifty years. Kuruman, in contrast to Kolobeng, was a success story. It was there that Moffat translated the entire Bible into the native language of Setswana. This was the first Bible translated into a previously unwritten African language and the first Bible ever printed on African soil.

Upon my visit to Kuruman, I was surprised to see both the house and church that Moffat and his partner, Robert Hamilton, built still intact. Moffat’s original printing press is there and actually still operates on a limited basis. The printed Word off that press ignited an evangelistic flame that reached far into the interior. I was told that natives would walk up to a hundred kilometers, driving sheep in front of them, willing to trade them for a copy of the Word of God. Spears were even offered in exchange for a copy of the Bible. Although some records exist, it would be impossible to determine the tens of thousands that were influenced through the efforts of this humble missionary couple.

Nevertheless, this supposedly “successful” mission station was not without its sacrifice, too. In a small grove of trees were the graves of several of Moffat’s children, his partner Robert Hamilton, and many others. One grave, a very large one, held the wife and five children of William Ashton, the man who helped print Moffat’s Bible. However, each small grave seemed to whisper, “The sacrifice is equal to the task!”

Standing in the little grove where so many heroic missionaries were buried, I was overwhelmed. Tears filled my eyes as I realized that in comparison to how these people lived and ministered, we as God’s servants today know nothing of sacrifice!

Yet, it was this sacrifice that became the catalyst for the great missionary endeavor that we are still living through today.

One would think that since we have the advantage of modern medicine and many modern conveniences even on the mission field, there would be a great surge of people enlisting to go to these needy places. Sadly, this is not the case. In spite of the fact that the sacrifices of today are minimal in comparison to even what the past generation endured, the number of missionaries dwindles each year with fewer recruits to take their places.

The question demands to be asked: “Is this generation equal to the task of missions?” The answer must be a resounding “Yes!” The youth of today have far more resources and advantages available to them than previous generations could have even imagined. This could be the generation that rekindles the evangelistic passion and ignites the flame of revival throughout the world! But what is holding us back? Are we afraid…afraid of sacrifice? If so, then we do a great disservice to our Lord and the host of others in generations past who sacrificed to bring the Gospel to us. No matter what sacrifice is required, it is equal to the task!

Tertullian, a native of North Africa and one of the early church fathers, made the observation that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. How true that is! For with each life given, with each seed of sacrifice sown, a bountiful harvest of souls has been reaped. But how much more sacrifice is needed? How many more laborers are required? How many more souls are waiting to be won? May we, through neglect, never cause the sacrifices of those who have labored before us to reap a less bountiful harvest. They continue to reap their reward through us. May God grant us the grace to continue the precedent of sacrifice for all those who have yet to hear. Indeed, the sacrifice is equal to the task!