Rowland Bingham - Into Africa's Interior (Benge)

As Karen and I talk more with SIM, I wanted to find out more about the history of this organization. I must say after reading this book "Rowland Bingham - Into Africa's Interior" by Janet and Geoff Benge, I'm quite impressed!

For those of you who don't know SIM is short for "Serving In Missions". It used to be "Sudan Interior Mission" but as it merged with other organizations over the past years the new name was adopted.

SIM was started by 3 men: Rowland Bingham, Walter Gowans and Thomas Kent. You'll hear more about these guys below, but the focus will be on Rowland Bingham. Rowland was born 1872 in England. He came to Halifax when he was 16 and then he moved to Toronto. Here in the GTA he met Walter Gowans mother, Mrs. Gowans. Listen to this mother's passion. I love it!!

"My son feels particularly called to the Sudan, a great expanse of land south of the Sahara Desert and bounded on the west by the Niger River and on the east by the Nile. In this belt of land stretching some 2500 miles across Africa live 90 million people. And do you know what, Mr. Bingham?... There is not one missionary in all of the Sudan and neither is there one Christian." (pg 44)

Now "Sudan" at that time is not the "Sudan" or "South Sudan" of today. In the early 1900s "Sudan" encompassed the area including countries like Nigeria, Niger, Chad, CAR, Sudan, Ethiopia.

Then Mrs. Gowans continued...

"What about you, Mr. Bingham? Are you prepared to join my son in his mission if God calls you to do so?"

What questions eh? Talk about challenging and mobilizing people for missions! God I pray, raise up more people like Mrs. Gowans today.

That night Rowland lay in bed, he could not get the words of Walter's mothers words out of his mind. There was plenty of work to be done in Canada and what would Reverend Salmon do without an assistant? (pg 45)

Classic questions! What about the need in Canada? What about the things were already involved with here? God I pray, call people to passionately serve you in Canada and call others to go to the nations.

In 1893 Rowland and Tom left on a boat from New York to England. When the boat finally dock in Liverpool, England, a letter from Walter Gowans was waiting for Rowland. The lines that stood out to me from this letter were...

But in London also I found nothing but indifference, halfheartedness and opposition, oh! My brother it is the same everywhere, sleeping societies, sleeping Christians, sleeping church! Yes, a dead church but blessed be God we have a LIVING Christ! My brother, one staggers to think of the immensity of our undertaking: 90 million without Christ, the great Sudan untouched. One might well stagger and ask, 'Who is sufficient for these things'? But our sufficiency is of God. He is able and He can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us and we will. (pg 48-49)

As I mentioned before the book describes Walter's mother as a very admirable woman. Listen to this...

Without a mission board behind them, the men had no one but Mrs. Gowans to keep churches updated on their news and prayer requests. Rowland smiled to himself. If we have to have a one-woman missionary board, there is no woman I would rather have behind me than Mrs. Gowans, he thought. She has enough enthusiasm and vision to do the work of ten others. (pg 52)

In 1894, when both Walter and Thomas had died from sicknesses obtained in the Sudan interior, Rowland was left as the lone surviving member of SIM. Unsure what to do, thinking that it may be true that the African interior is the white-man's graveyard, he heard the following from Mrs. Gowans.

"I would rather have had Walter go out to the Sudan and die there all alone than have him home today disobeying the Lord. I pray every day that God will raise up a Christian witness in Girku where Walter laid down his life for the gospel." (pg 72)

Pretty awesome!

Now the task of leading SIM was squarely on Rowland's shoulders. Would SIM be a Baptist mission or a non-denominational one?

It doesn't seem right, he thought, that today a Presbyterian woman gave all the money she possessed to enable me to start a Baptist mission work in the Sudan. Yet, whil I might take her last dollar, if she herself were to apply to serve in the mission she would not be accepted because she is a Presbyterian. Rowland wrestled with the problem and by dawn he made up his mind: SIM would be open to accept missionaries from all denominations, not just Baptists. He wondered what his friend who had promised him $100 a year if he kept the mission under the Baptist umbrella? ... Surprisingly, as Rowland explained his decision, his friend chuckled and said, "God has challenged me on the same issue. Instead of $100 a year for the first 3 years, I will make it $1000 a year for that period." (pg 80)

Around 1915 Rowland Bingham wrote the following in an open letter:

"Merely to mark time in missionary work during the war is a fatal blunder. We must go forward. Let the call of Christ be heard and heeded through the din of the world's conflict, and let the Church rise to a worthy endeavor to accomplish speedily the work entrusted to her." (pg 115)

I echo that prayer! Let the Church rise to accomplish speedily the work entrusted to her!

If you're not impressed yet by Rowland Bingham's faith and boldness, check this out. At a meeting to discuss northern Nigeria he stood up and stated:

"Friends, we have talked endlessly about how to open up the Muslim areas to the north, but we have been unable to come up with any plans to do so. Unless something very definite is decided upon here, I am going to go to Kano City as soon as this meeting is over. There I will stand in the marketplace and preach the gospel to the people. I know this may seem an extreme action to take, especially since I will probably be imprisoned, but something needs to be done to draw attention to the fact that there is no religious liberty in that area." (pg 137)

At another meeting to discuss the same issue he stated:

"There are many millions of people who live in these regions who have no opportunity to hear the gospel preached. Something must be done about it!" (pg 150)

As the beginning World War 2 approached, on October 3, 1935, Rowland listened to the grim news on the radio that Mussolini had ordered his Italian troops to invade Ethiopia.

Soon reports came from Tom (an SIM missionary in Ethiopia) that all foreign consulates had been closed and diplomats were leaving. In addition, the US and British governments had ordered all their citizens to evacuate immediately. Tom wanted to know what to tell the 80 SIM workers in the country. Rowland was well aware that if the SIM doctors and nurses left the country, there would be no more than a dozen doctors and up to twenty nurses in all of Ethiopia. Ethiopia needed missionaries as never before, yet these men and women would be in great danger if they stayed. After much prayer, Rowland sent a telegraph to Tom that read, "You are under higher orders than those of the King of England or the President of the United States. Get your instructions from Him and we are right with you." (pg 158)

I love that line. "You are under higher orders than those of the King of England or the President of the United States. Get your instructions from Him!"

When I got to the last chapter and read the following I was stunned.

The funeral service for Rowland Victor Bingham was held on December 10, 1942 at Cooke's Presbyterian Church in Toronto. The church was selected because it had the largest church auditorium in the city. The minister who conducted the service was Dr. P. W. Philpott, whom Rowland first meet in 1889 when attending the Salvation Army in Halifax soon after his arrival in Canada. Like so many hundreds of other people, Dr. Philpott had become a lifelong friend and supporter of Rowland's many Christian endeavors. (pg 181)

What a small world it is that the first pastor of the church I attend would officiate Rowland Bingham's funeral.

God, thank you for men like Rowland Bingham! I humbly ask that you will use me, as you used him, for the sake of Your name. If that's in Africa, so be it. If that's here in Canada, so be it. Be exalted oh God.