Wednesday, January 28, 2026

It is the 28th of January 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

As I listened back to yesterday’s show, before sending the raw audio to Gillespie, I shuddered at one line… I reckon maybe a dozen of you did the same. I quote: “It was the American explorer Henry Morton Stanley who made contact with Mateesa and suggested a role for Christian missionaries.”

Stanley, who met the famous explorer/missionary David Livingston, is famously painted as meeting the famous Scot in Africa under an American flag- Stanley was with an American contingent and paid by an American newspaper- AND, he would become a naturalized American citizen…

Henry Morton Stanley wasn’t born an American- I was delighted to find that he was born on this, the 28th of January in 1841, in Wales. He also wasn’t born “Henry Morton Stanley”- but we ironically continue our story of Christianity in Uganda with the anniversary of the birthdate of a mysterious journalist who would write two famous missives from Africa and become an unexpected missionary, of sorts, in the spread of Christianity on that continent.

He was born John Rowlands. Born on this day, in Wales, to an 18-year-old woman in distress, he never knew his father and was given up to live with his grandfather. His grandfather died when he was 5, and he was sent to an orphanage. Much of what we know of his early life comes from his own rough draft of a never-published autobiography and other writings about his lifestyle adventures. As a teenager, he made his way across the Atlantic and ended up in a port in New Orleans. It is here he tells, in various ways, his rags-to-riches story. He says he met a man called Henry Stanley, who became his benefactor and father figure. Stanley is said to have helped the young Rowlands make his way in the business world- Stanley is also said to have baptized the boy and given him his name. A fascinating story that modern biographers believe to be fabricated. There was another Henry Stanley- he may have known the new Henry Morton Stanley- but it’s a mystery. The new Henry Stanley has a story worthy of a 19th-century picaresque- he joins the Confederates during the Civil War, is captured, and defects to the Union only to abandon them.

He would make a name as a reporter and was sent to Africa by a New York tabloid in order to try to find the famous, now missing, explorer/missionary, David Livingstone. Their famous meeting took place 5 years after Livingston had disappeared and 2 years after Stanley went looking for him- Stanley, ushered by natives to meet the Scottish doctor, welcomed him with the famous “Dr. Livingstone, I Presume?”.  

The crux of the story for our purposes takes place after Stanley undertakes a mission with Livingstone- according to Stanley, he “went to Africa as prejudiced as the biggest atheist in London… But little by little, his sympathy for others became contagious; my sympathy was aroused; seeing his piety, his gentleness, his zeal,  his earnestness, and how he went about his business, I was converted by him.”  The story of Christianity in the 19th century in Africa isn’t easy- it does involve the erasure of culture and is complicit in the slave trade- until it isn’t, which is part of the complicated story of modern Africa and missionaries.

Stanley, who would become an explorer/hero in the mold of Livingston, would later make his way to the kingdom of Buganda- there, in the story we told yesterday, he would meet the king Mateesa, and it was from that interaction that Stanley would write the second of his famous articles. The first was his story of meeting Livingston, but this was the call for missionaries- the famous lines “But, O that some pious, practical missionary would come here! What a field and a harvest ripe for the sickle of the gospel!”

This would help bring missionaries to Uganda and continue the story of Christianity’s spread there in East Africa. And, ironically, another anniversary for the Ugandan church is this Friday- stay tuned as we tell more of that story then- today we remember the mysterious John Rowlands, turned Henry Morton Stanley, journalist, adventurer, and missionary, born on this day in 1841.

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and words about the Messiah from Luke and Zechariah’s song:

And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
    for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,

to give his people the knowledge of salvation

    through the forgiveness of their sins,

because of the tender mercy of our God,

    by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven

to shine on those living in darkness

    and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 28th of January 2026, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who doesn’t believe in Wales… he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who has to believe… they have a dragon on their flag! I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.