Friday, April 17, 2026

It is the 17th of April 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Today’s story takes us to Africa- a remarkable story that I’m going to pencil in for a whole Weekend edition as it is too fascinating to leave alone after today- but consider this the intro to a future show on what Phillip Jenkins, in his the Next Christendom, calls one of the most heroic success stories in the history of the church!

 

It starts in 1893 with three men- Walter Gowans, Rowland Bingham, and Thomas Kent. They founded what was called the Sudan Interior Mission- there had been missions to much of the African West Coast, but the interior was without missionaries. IN imitation of Hudson Taylor’s China Inland Mission, it was non-denominational and based on the faith of those missionaries raising their own support. The mission, while called “Sudan,” was a reference to those inland and sub-Saharan.

 

Unfortunately, Gowans and Kent died in 1894. Bingham was sick and went home to Canada, but the mission was still flickering. By 1902, they established a base in Nigeria. And then came Dr. Thomas Lambie- a medical missionary who began with the Presbyterians but soon found his way into Ethiopia, where he helped fight an epidemic of the flu. After treating a local governor, he was introduced to Lij Tafari- also known as Ras Tafari- the future emperor Haile Selassie.

 

That’s its own story- but through Dr. Lambie and his connection to Selassie, the Sudan Interior Mission was invited in to work with Lambie on evangelization and translation. BY the 1920’s, SIM missionaries found their way to the southern highlands to a people then called the Wallamo. They had an animistic religion, which also included sacrificing animals and putting their blood on the entrances to their homes as a kind of divine protection.

For almost 10 years, about 100 missionaries came in and out amongst the Wallamo people, but still, they only had 48 baptisms. There were more missionaries from abroad than converts within.

 

It’s important to note that Ethiopia, along with Liberia, had been the only “non-conquered African countries. In fact, Ethiopia had proudly pushed back the Italians in 1896. Italian Fascist Benito Mussolini made it a personal goal to avenge that loss.

 

In 1936, Selassie was exiled, and Italian troops brutalized the locals- thousands upon thousands were killed in a story sometimes lost in the other horrors of the 20th century. Some nominal Ethiopian Orthodox and Catholic leaders turned on Protestants as a way to protect themselves. And so, it was on this, the 17th of April in 1937, that Italian troops rounded up all 26 SIM missionaries and expelled them. The 48 Wallamo converts held a final service, took communion, and then said goodbye. For the next 6 years, missionaries were banned, and the Wallamo were beaten and imprisoned- told to abandon the faith of the foreigners.

But it was their faith in action that is the story. The Christians took so much food to support their own families in prison that they were able to feed everyone. The Christians were beaten and offered clemency if they publicly abandoned their faith- they refused. The church began to grow.

 

When 1941 came, and the Italians were pushed back, the missionaries returned to see what was left of the small church of 48. The Wallamo saw those who evangelized them and assumed that’s what they were to do themselves. In those few years, the church grew from 48 to over 10,000 in 150 congregations. By 1950, there were an estimated 250,000 Christians who came to faith through those original 48. By 1990, the number was over 3 million. The SIM funneled into the Word of Life Church and the Ethiopian Evangelical Church- that’s the local Lutheran church with some 10 million members today- one of the fastest growing churches in the world. Their relationship with the Ethiopian Orthodox is a story for another time- today we remember the day the SIM missionaries were expelled on this day in 1937- and the indigenous explosion of that church under persecution, which has become one of the backbones of African Christianity, which has become one of the centers of global Christianity today.

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Isaiah 26:

In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

We have a strong city;
 God makes salvation
 its walls and ramparts.

Open the gates
 that the righteous nation may enter,
 the nation that keeps faith.

You will keep in perfect peace
 those whose minds are steadfast,
 because they trust in you.

Trust in the Lord forever,
 for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 17th of April 2026, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who has an Ethiopian Honey Processed Haro Wachu at coffeebygillespie that is calling your name- He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man glad to be reminded this Wrestlemania weekend that the Lord, not Dwayne Johnson, is the Rock eternal… 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.