The hero of the Congo
by Thomas Ray
George Grenfell was converted and baptized at the age of 15 at Heneage Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, England. He and several zealous young men had a profound spiritual impact upon the church. They met each Sunday at 7 a.m. for prayer and their day usually included participating in seven services in addition to tract distribution and personal work.
Grenfell, believing God was calling him to be a missionary, enrolled in the Baptist College at Bristol, but urgent needs in Africa would cut short his education. Alfred Saker, the renowned Baptist missionary, had returned to England to enlist volunteers. Grenfell offered his services to the Baptist Mission Society and after a year of training he accompanied Saker to Africa. They arrived in the British Cameroons in January 1875, though George Grenfell’s major contribution would not be made in the Cameroons but 600 miles away in the Congo.
In 1877, Robert Arthington had given the Baptist Missionary Society 5,000 pounds (see the Baptist History column in the January 2011 Tribune) to open a mission in the Congo and to build and maintain a steamer named Peace to be used on the Congo River. Grenfell returned to England in 1879 to oversee the construction of the Peace. After being tested on the Thames, the Peace was dismantled and shipped to Africa in 800 packages weighting 65 pounds each. It took 1,000 people four months to carry the cargo to its destination. A young missionary engineer had accompanied Grenfell with the task of reassembling the vessel and keeping it in good running order. Tragically, he was taken sick and died. The Missionary Society promptly sent two additional engineers, both of whom died within a few weeks. Grenfell was forced to personally oversee the reassembling of the steamer. He would later write, “The Peace was prayed together.”
Finally, in February 1881, Arthington and Grenfell’s dream became a reality. The steamer made her maiden voyage. It was estimated this bold venture made it possible to preach the gospel to between 20 and 25 million people. Grenfell was excited with the possibilities of preaching the gospel, but he was sick at heart when he observed the people’s sin and degradation. They were addicted to drunkenness, immorality, murder, witchcraft, cannibalism, and unspeakable cruelty. In the early days of his ministry, he had several close calls that almost cost him his life. At the end of one voyage he wrote, “We have been attacked by natives about 20 different times; we have been stoned and shot at with arrows, and have been the mark for spears more than we can count.”
But the Congolese were not the only danger the missionaries faced — death by disease was a constant threat. The Congo was called “the short-cut to heaven.” In 1883-84, seven of Grenfell’s colleagues died after only a few months of service. In 1885, four men died in three months. In 1887, six missionaries fell in five months. These enormous losses prompted the missionary society to consider abandoning or at least curtailing the work in the Congo.
But Grenfell possessed a different spirit. In 1888, he wrote the Society, “We cannot continue as we are. It is either advance or retreat, but if it is retreat, you must not count on me, I will be no party to it, and you will have to do without me.” Thankfully, the Society chose not to retreat. For almost 25 years Grenfell labored in the Congo. His last years were darkened by the sorrows of illness but gladdened by the joys of harvest. In 1902, he wrote, “Our services are crowded as they have never been before; God’s spirit is manifestly working.” In his journeys up and down the river, he saw many evidences of change, and he reported, “The light of life was beginning to dawn in many dark hearts.”
Grenfell’s death occurred shortly after he opened a new mission station at Yalemba, near Stanley Falls. He fell ill from the dreaded haematuric fever and entered into the presence of his Lord, July 1, 1906. His last words were, “Jesus is mine.”