First Baptist Missionary to Africa, Pastor’s Wives & What is Christian Work

David George (1742-1810) spent much of his life as a refugee. He endured beatings, hunger, persecution, poverty, loneliness, harsh environments and war. Yet by God’s grace, he blazed a trail that thousands have followed. Escaping slavery in South Carolina following the American Revolution, George pioneered Black Baptist work in Nova Scotia, Canada, for 10 years before sailing to Sierra Leone in 1792 to becoming the first Baptist missionary to serve in Africa. As a pioneer preacher, church planter and international missionary his valuable contributions have been largely overlooked, His courageous leadership and example should not be forgotten.

In Sierra Leone, George established a Baptist church in 1792, and became the first Baptist missionary to that continent. Several years later the British Baptist Missionary Society, which had sent William Carey to India, sent two white missionaries to Sierra Leone.
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Have you ever thought about the life of your pastor’s wife? Ever thought about what the world might look like from her eyes? Jacki C. King has been a pastor’s wife for 20 years, and in our Toolbox she offers some observations.

I often feel inadequate and I’m the first to tell you I’m not perfect.

She admits the fish bowl is a real part of ministry which means that her family’s lives are on display, both the good and the not so pretty.

I’ve been hurt by the Church, and still deeply love her.

She says some of her deepest wounds have come from people in the church, yet some of close friends are there.

The isolation I feel is often the hardest.

She admits relationships are hard and she’s often felt as if she’s working to create community and a safe place for everyone else, while never having one for herself.
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Good News for Today is made possible through our friends at The Voice of the Martyrs, a nonprofit organization that serves persecuted Christians around the world. Founded in 1967 by Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, VOM is dedicated to inspiring believers to deepen their commitment to Christ and to fulfill His Great Commission — no matter the cost. Find out more and sign up for their free monthly magazine at vom.org/goodnews.
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When you think of “Christian” work, what comes to mind? A pastor or other professional church leader perhaps? Maybe a missionary to an exotic locale or remote people? What about a professor or administrator in a school determined to educate from a Christian perspective?

Would it surprise you to know that late missionary and author Elisabeth Elliot said, “There is no such thing as Christian work”? In her work Joyful Surrender: Seven Disciplines for the Believer’s Life, Elliot explained, “Christian work is any kind of work … done by a Christian and offered to God. … Work done for Christ all the time must be ‘full-time Christian work.’”

Have you ever considered what you do to be Christian work? It is if you offer it to God. And therein lays the need for discipline. Let us train and discipline ourselves to recognize what we do, even if it is non-religious, as an offering to God. And as an offering, let us discipline ourselves to do what we do to the utmost of our ability. Whether you do Christian work is not determined by what you do, but by how and why you do it.

Just as we need to discipline our work lives, so our feelings need to be brought under disciplined control. We might not be able to prevent ourselves from experiencing certain feelings at times. Nor, for that matter, might we be able to generate certain feelings. But we can discipline ourselves to control our feelings rather than being controlled by them.

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