When choosing the 2016 Older American’s Month theme “Blaze a Trail,” organizers must have had Rev. David (Dave) Jones in mind. A pioneer Alliance missionary to Brazil, Dave recently published So Being Sent . . . They Went: A History of the C&MA Mission in Cabinda: 1885 to 1957.
For the energetic, upbeat 74-year-old author, it is a labor of love that includes new facts and insights about Alliance founder A. B. Simpson’s first missionary endeavors in Cabinda (part of the former Portuguese Congo), in Central Africa. He also unpacks previously unknown details about Alliance ministry ventures in the region that followed.
“This is more than a mere narrative,” says Rev. Mabiala Justin-Robert Kenzo, PhD, president of the Evangelical Community of the Alliance in Congo. “It is a critical analysis of missionary policies and practices.
“With much courage, [Dave] does not hesitate to . . . ask tough questions concerning the theology, motivation, and wisdom behind some of the decisions about The Alliance’s first missions field.”
Cabinda on My Mind
“Missions history is important because of a malady I call ‘ecclesiastical amnesia,’” says Dave, who has deep Alliance roots (his father was a denominational pastor in the Eastern [now Metro] District). “If a church doesn’t know who it is or where it came from, it loses its identity.”
Yet he admits, “I kind of stumbled on the idea of this book.” In 1968, Dave and his wife, Judy, were attending language school in Brazil and met a missionary couple who had served in Cabinda. “I was surprised to learn that we had an Alliance church there!” he exclaims.
“So I had this fascinating Cabinda thing in the back of my mind for years.”
Fast forward to 2012 when he met 80-year-old Rev. André Conga da Costa, then president of the Christian Alliance Church in Angola (Cabinda is a province of present-day Angola). Rev. André had written a manuscript, telling part of the history of The Alliance in the region.
“He was the only living Alliance guy in the area who actually remembered our missionaries who left there in 1957 when he was a boy,” Dave recalls. Impressed with his knowledge about the earliest missionary team sent to Cabinda, the elderly leader asked Dave if he would help write their history.
“I said, ‘Sure!’ having no idea what I was getting myself into,” Dave says, chuckling. “That’s what really got me started.”
Intrigue, Insights
When asked what most surprised him in his research, Dave cites the story of John Condit, who led the “Congo Band,” the first expedition A.B. Simpson sent to Cabinda that ended in failure. Within months of the group’s arrival in Africa, Condit contracted malaria and died; three of his teammates returned to the States shortly thereafter.
“I was intrigued by why Simpson chose John to lead the group, a 20-year-old, who was quite smart, artistic, but sickly,” he says. “I have my theory. He was a lot like Simpson, who was brilliant, musical, and quite ill until he was 37 or 38, which is when he was healed. I think A.B. saw himself in John.”
Also, Dave says, “No one knew about that second attempt that took place after the 1885 failed expedition. We actually had property and a mission station right in Cabinda; I found out where it was.
“Since I love history, I was so excited—it was like winning the Super Bowl!”
Don’t Quit, We’re Praying
Reading about the hardships missionaries endured in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) also moved him. “In 1907, all of them were ready to quit. But the homeland wrote to say: ‘Don’t quit—we’re praying!’
“A Congo missionary by the name of Allison fasted and prayed, and there was a sudden move of God. Hundreds of people came to Christ. (Today, the DRC church is one of the C&MA’s two largest national bodies.) That really spoke to my heart.”
Probably the most powerful take-away from the project Dave says, was the deeper respect he gained for Alliance founder A. B. Simpson. “Here was this brilliant, bright man of God, who, out of a lack of knowledge, made some big errors in sending those first teams.
“I thought, Wow. A lesser man after that first fiasco, or whatever you want to call it, would have just cashed in his chips and walked away from the table. But A.B. said, ‘OK, we’re going to do it better.’”
Dave currently works with the College of Prayer, founded by Alliance leader Rev. Fred Hartley, serving as director for the Lusophone world (Portuguese-speaking peoples). He is writing a book about Alliance missions history in Brazil to publish in 2018—the national church’s 40th anniversary.