No research documenting African American overseas missionaries has been available for over 20 years, of which we are aware. That research in 1998 was in an unpublished doctoral dissertation, also available on this website. An article summarizing some of that earlier research, primarily to assist mission executives in recruiting African Americans, can be downloaded here (PDF).  Prior to 1998, systematic research by Wilbur Harr (1945) and Sylvia Jacobs (1982) focused upon Black missionaries in Africa. We hope this work will inform, assist, and motivate toward realizing the huge potential of the African American church for global Christian mission!

This is the accepted manuscript for the (very slightly updated) article appearing in the April, 2023 edition of Missiology: An International Review. We deeply appreciate the assistance of many in the African American mission mobilization community, as well as significant help from mission executives. Walt Robertson, our webmaster, posted research surveys and oversaw data-gathering since around 2000. We’re grateful for invaluable critiques of peer reviewers, and encouragement provided by Missiology. Unusually, we credit the assistance of intercessors who prayed for years that this work would reach the academic and, hopefully, the general missions community.

While the authors hold the copyright, and while you may freely download and print the article, Sage Publications controls reproduction beyond personal use—please see the text box on p. 1 for permissions.

https://rmni.org/files/afam/HistoryandResearch/African-American-Missionaries-Serving-Overseas.pdf

South Sudan is the world’s newest country, having gained its independence in 2011. Sadly, in that short time it has become a study of a nation’s collapse.

Though South Sudan is oil-rich, pervasive corruption and nine years of tribal warfare have left it the world’s poorest country. Heavy inflation has critically reduced food production, leaving 7 million people on the edge of starvation. Almost 60% of the population are refugees of one category or another.

I will turn our attention to the widows of South Sudan. We know God’s eye is on the fatherless, so his compassion touches the widows who hold the fatherless. They are the ones left with babes in arms, with makeshift “homes” in the vast UN camps, with distress for their own safety, and grief for the losses which their children suffer.

The following analysis will reveal how widows suffer the most and in the worst ways.

I have been in Kenya 14 years now. My current title is Assistant to the Director and Founder of PACE Ministries. I do a lot of things, but teaching is probably my best description. I help with staff chapel as well as lead the Sunday worship and teaching for our primary and secondary students. I have a hand in developing partnerships; I mentor students. Our ministry sponsors two schools and I am a part of the administrative team.

Cross-cultural expatriate missionaries pay a price for their calling. They must learn a new language and culture, leave their family, and develop a new circle of friends. They generally have to wait years to raise financial support. Depending upon their adopted location, they may be liable to exotic diseases, dysfunctionad is necessary—but is most of the extra for ministry, or for the missionary and the agency? Missionaries are ultimately accountable to the Lord, not to my standards of what is “reasonable.” However, I am accountable to the Lord for the use of funds entrusted to me, so must make a value judgement as to whether or not a figure makes sense to me.

Was Jesus packing?  I only asked because inquiring minds want to know.  Was He strapped?  Was the Lord carrying a concealed weapon?  Was the  Christ armed?  I know these may seem like heresy and to say the least undignified questions.  However, the matter came up as I was reading a passage of the Bible that referred to the advice the Lord gave to His
disciples, just shortly before His arrest. Here it is as recorded in Luke's gospel.

Lu 22:36 Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.
Lu 22:37 For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end.
Lu 22:38 And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough.

Now I have not had the privilege of Biblical study in a seminary.  I have yet to hear a sermon preached on this.  I have read a few commentaries on this passage.  To say the least, I am as confused as ever.