“His geographical labours were not allowed to interfere with his primary work as a missionary, to which he devoted himself with unflagging zeal to the last.” [1]
Royal Geographical Journal, 1902
George Grenfell was a Baptist missionary and explorer to the Congo Free State (now Democratic Republic of Congo). Born on August 21, 1849 in Sancreed, Cornwall, Grenfell attended King Edwards School being raised by Anglican parents. However, at age 15, Grenfell began attending the Heneage Street Baptist Chapel, where he was baptized. The church served Grenfell well, grounding him in the Scriptures and equipping him for the work of ministry. Over time, Grenfell sensed a call to the mission field after being influenced by stories of David Livingtone. He set out for preparation at the Baptist College in 1873 and in November 1874 was commissioned by the Baptist Missionary Society.
Before beginning his work in the Congo, Grenfell accompanied Alfred Saker, a Baptist Missionary with the London Missionary Society, to Cameroon in 1875. In 1881, along with the Reverend T.J. Comber, Grenfell began his missionary and exploration efforts in the Congo. A few years later, Grenfell would return to England to oversee the building of the Peace, a boat that would aid his endeavor. The Peace served him well and was used throughout his ministry and exploration in the Congo’s vast river network.
The mission field on the African continent held some difficulties for the early Baptist missionary. Hardships with terrain, suffering and death, spiritual darkness, and government issues would all converge upon Grenfell’s work.
The first hardship was the loss of his wife. In 1877, just a couple of years into the ministry in Cameroon, Grenfell’s wife, Mary Hawkes, and their infant son, died during childbirth. The loss produced a great sense of loneliness for Grenfell, but the Lord, the calling his church confirmed years before, and the arrival of T.J. Comber a short time later, kept Grenfell pushing forward on the field.
Grenfell also experienced hardship with the difficult terrain of the Congo. Vast river systems, swamps, wild animals, all made the journey’s up and down the river networks difficult. To aid in the speed of navigation, the Peace, his trusty steam boat was built. Not able to be sailed to the Congo, the boat was shipped in separate parcels and assembled at Stanley’s Pool.
He also experienced deep spiritual darkness on the field in the Congo. Various peoples he encountered, participated in witchcraft, slave raiding, sensual practices, and even some in cannibalism. A famous story of Grenfell’s efforts include the rescue of two young girls from a chief who kidnapped them in a slave raid from a neighboring village up river. After meeting initial hostility from sent rescuers, upon the girl’s return, the village was opened to hearing the truth of the gospel. Furthermore, the government under Belgian influence made bureaucracy difficult for the ministry to obtain the permission they needed for building and establishing a mission presence. Nevertheless, Grenfell remained on the field committed to the work of ministry.
Overall, Grenfell would remain on the mission field for over three decades. He would trust God to work among the peoples he was able to evangelize. Upon his death, November 1, 1906 from Blackwater fever, Grenfell had kept the missionary endeavor as the primary task of his life.
“George Grenfell, who has just been struck down by death, is one of the most noble figures in the history of the foundation of the Congo Free State… Grenfell explored and evangelized Central Africa after the fashion of Dr. Livingstone… He came as a man of peace, winning the confidence of the savage natives by his patience, tact, and cleverness, taking care not to respond by violence to the brutish diffidence of these primitive beings… When we consider that the conquest of new land is so often accompanied, in spite of all, by abuses, excesses, and by guilty practices and doings, condemned by civilisation, it is refreshing to be able to recall the remembrance of this good man, a missionary in the purest sense of the word; who succeeded, as a messenger of peace, in irradiating the immense basin of the Congo by his itineraries and in endowing its geography with fixed points, carefully determined by astronomical observations.” [2]
-Belgian Geographer, Monsieur A.J. Wauters “Le Mouvement Geographique”, 1906.
References
[1] George Hawker. The Life of George Grenfell, Missionary and Explorer (New York, NY: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1909), xii.
[2] Ibid., xii.
Nicholas R. Martin 