David Livingstone was the first white man to cross Africa from coast to coast. He was also an incredible missionary. In 1843, he set out to open a station at Mabotsa, a beautiful valley surrounded by mountains. There was only one drawback; it was infested with lions.

            Livingstone knew that if the natives could kill one lion, the others would leave. “He succeeded in shooting a lion himself, but before he could load again the beast had sprung upon him. ‘The lion caught me by the shoulder and we both came to the ground together. Growling horribly, he shook me as a terrier dog does a rat.’” (Quoted from David Livingstone: First to Cross Africa with the Gospel by Mrs. J.H. Worschester, Jr., p.19). He was maimed for life.

            In 1873, he died in the heart of Africa. Faithful friends carried his body all the way back to the coast and eventually his body was brought back to England. The only way to positively identify his body was the fractured joint in his shoulder that the lion had crushed thirty years prior.

Some quotes:

“Nothing will induce me to form an impure church. Fifty added to the church sounds fine at home, but if only five of these are genuine what will it profit on the Great Day?”

“We have a difficult, difficult field to cultivate here. All I can say is that I think knowledge is increasing. But for the belief that the Holy Spirit works and will work for us, I should give up in despair.”

“Men may think I covet fame, but I make it a rule never to read aught written in my praise.”

“The qualities required in a missionary leader are not of the common kind. He ought to have physical and moral courage of the highest order, and a considerable amount of cultivation and energy, balanced by patient determination; and above all these are necessary a calm, Christian zeal, and anxiety for the main spiritual results of the work.”