“We will go to a new place in Africa to tell people about you,” Arthur and Edna Chilson and daughter, Rachel, prayed. “Show us where we should live and work for you, God.”

Contemporary missionaries from other countries and missionaries from our Friends past are not well known to us. Their cultures are unfamiliar and their languages strange to our ears. Nonetheless, they have a lot in common with each other and their lives can be an inspiration to us.

A Missionary Named Arturo
Recently, I encountered a young, single, Friends missionary called Arturo. He is an amazing person—good looking with a girlfriend back home he hopes to marry soon, diverse talents in teaching, preaching, linguistics, farming, carpentry, masonry, and mechanics in general. And, he knows how to build dams and roads too! He’s a veritable Quaker preacher-engineer.

Sharp observers believe Arturo is an unusual instrument in God’s hands, someone to watch carefully. He is a mover and a shaker. He has a singular vision to build the church, stunning physical stamina, and a humble attitude. No labor is beneath him. He is not a glory hound.

He has a deep concern for the unequal treatment of women, and his courage, persistence, and personal devotion to Christ attract many converts. Arturo believes deeply in prayer and knows how important it is to communicate well in the language of his people. He believes Jesus can transform people anywhere.

Arturo is not perfect. He doesn’t understand culture as well as I would wish. I’m fearful he may unconsciously try to make new Christians copy people back in his home country. And he may run the risk of holding control of the new churches too long before releasing them to local leaders. I wish he had training in building deep, reciprocal friendships so he could receive and not just give. I wish he had a more complete missionary education.

But I can’t be too hard on Arturo. I know many early American Friends missionaries made some of those mistakes, and yet the light of Jesus shone through some pretty broken, cracked pots and built networks of Friends churches anyway, enough so that there are far more Friends “out there” than “back here.”

The Rest Of The Story
Arturo is better known as Arthur Chilson, and I’ve gotten to know Arthur through his diaries. Arthur started pioneer work at age 30 in 1902. He began as a single man, returned, married Edna (not his original girlfriend) in Indiana, and went on to help establish two major Friends fields in Kenya and Burundi.

We can’t give Arthur Chilson all the credit, but the two regions where he labored, East Africa and Central Africa, now count between 200,000 and 250,000 Quakers. There are more Quakers in Kenya than any other country on earth. Growth in the neighboring lands of Burundi, Congo, and Rwanda is now adding greatly to the total.

Arthur and Edna raised two talented daughters—Rachel Chilson and Esther Chilson Choate—both of whom became missionaries with notable careers and focused drives similar to those of their parents.

In Arthur’s later years he was given an African nickname that meant “Protector.” It sounds paternalistic, and probably was, but it was also a term of endearment from people who saw compassion in an advocate for the oppressed.

Why The History?
Arthur died in early 1939 and Edna in 1945. Both are buried in Burundi. Why write about someone who has been dead for 65 years? I write because there are some American Friends still being called to pioneer work outside the West. I write because I hope non-Western Friends missionaries might learn from the successes and failures of people like Arthur and Edna Chilson. The Chilsons would want it that way. And they would stand utterly amazed at what has happened among Friends in Africa since 1939.

One hundred years from now someone may read about a new Arthur or Arturo or Annette who pioneered a work and made a major impact. That’s how God works, using weak and imperfect people, and even their flawed policies, to build the body of Christ.

God begins small and sends great blessings. He delights in our best efforts, but he does not turn away simply because we don’t do it all just right. He delights in the extension of the gospel to new people who come to love him, worship him, and allow their lives to be transformed by the Light.

-by Ron Stansell. He leads the Evangelical Friends International Council of Regional Directors from North America, Latin America, Asia, and Africa.