Missionary died thinking he was a failure; 84 years later thriving churches found hidden in the jungle
May 19, 2014
By Mark Ellis
http://blog.godreports.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Y ansi-crossing-river.jpg"> After crossing the Kwilu
In 1912, medical missionary Dr. William Leslie went to live and
minister to tribal people in a remote corner of the Democratic Republic
of the Congo. After 17 years he returned to the U.S. a discouraged man –
believing he failed to make an impact for Christ. He died nine years
after his return.
But in 2010, a team led by Eric Ramsey with Tom Cox World Ministries
made a shocking and sensational discovery. They found a network of
reproducing churches hidden like glittering diamonds in the dense jungle
across the Kwilu River from Vanga, where Dr. Leslie was stationed.
http://blog.godreports.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Y ansi-loading-Cessna.jpg"> Loading Cessna Caravan
With the help of a Mission Aviation Fellowship pilot, Ramsey and his
team flew east from Kinshasa to Vanga, a two and a half hour flight in a
Cessna Caravan. After they reached Vanga, they hiked a mile to the
Kwilu River and used dugout canoes to cross the half-mile-wide expanse.
Then they hiked with backpacks another 10 miles into the jungle before
they reached the first village of the Yansi people.
Based on his previous research, Ramsey thought the Yansi in this
remote area might have some exposure to the name of Jesus, but no real
understanding of who He is. They were unprepared for their remarkable
find.
“When we got in there, we found a network of reproducing churches
throughout the jungle,” Ramsey reports. “Each village had its own gospel
choir, although they wouldn’t call it that,” he notes. “They wrote
their own songs and would have sing-offs from village to village.”
They found a church in each of the eight
http://blog.godreports.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Y ansi-stone-church.jpg"> The Yansi jungle “cathedral”
villages they visited scattered across 34 miles. Ramsey and his team
even found a 1000-seat stone “cathedral” in one of the villages. He
learned that this church got so crowded in the 1980s – with many walking
miles to attend — that a church planting movement began in the
surrounding villages.
“There is no Bible in the Yansi language,” Ramsey says. “They used a
French Bible, so those who taught had to be fluent in French.”
Apparently, Dr. Leslie crossed the Kwilu River once a year from Vanga
and spent a month traveling through the jungle, carried by servants in a
sedan chair.
http://blog.godreports.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Y ansi-people.jpg"> Yansi men and boys
“He would teach the Bible, taught the tribal children how to read and
write, talked about the importance of education, and told Bible
stories,” Ramsey notes. Dr. Leslie started the first organized
educational system in these villages, Ramsey learned.
It took some digging for Ramsey to uncover Leslie’s identity. “The
tribal people only knew him by one name and I didn’t know if that was a
first or last name. They knew he was a Baptist and he was based in that
one city and they knew the years.”
When Ramsey returned home he did some additional investigation and
discovered Dr. Leslie was affiliated with the American Baptist
Missionary Union. The American Baptist Missionary Union was founded in
1814 by Adoniram Judson, who led a pioneering work in Burma.
Born in Ontario, Canada, William H. Leslie followed his intended profession as a pharmacist until his conversion
http://blog.godreports.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/L eslie-William-H-MD.jpg"> Dr. William H. Leslie, M.D.
in 1888. He moved to the Chicago area, where God began to grip his heart with the desire to become a medical missionary.
Dr. Leslie initiated his Congo service in 1893 at Banza-Manteke. Two
years later he developed a serious illness. A young missionary named
Clara Hill took care of him until he recovered. Their budding friendship
ripened into love and a marriage proposal. They were wed in 1896.
In 1905 William and Clara pioneered a work in Cuilo, Anglola, where
they overcame a hurricane that struck the night before one of their
children was born, and more mundane obstacles like charging buffaloes
and armies of ants.
Seven years later they cleared enough of the leopard-infested jungle along the Kwilu River at Vanga for a new
mission station perched on a small plateau. Some of the villages
surrounding Vanga were still practicing cannibalism at that time.
They spent 17 years at Vanga, but their service ended on a rocky
note. “Dr. Leslie had a relational falling out with some of the tribal
leaders and was asked not to come back,” Ramsey says. “They reconciled
later; there were apologies and forgiveness, but it didn’t end like he
hoped.”
“His goal was to spread Christianity. He felt like he was there for
17 years and he never really made a big impact, but the legacy he left
is huge.”
http://blog.godreports.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/L eslie_Vanga_Settlement_Africa.jpg"> Land for the Vanga mission was first cleared in 1912 Source: http://blog.godreports.com/ -
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