Mission Africa (formerly known as the Qua Iboe Mission and subsequently the Qua Iboe Fellowship) is an interdenominational,

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

mission Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

organisation. When founded in 1887, by the Irish independent missionary

Samuel Bill Samuel Alexander Bill MBE (10 December 1864 – 24 January 1942) was an Irish Christian missionary, explorer and the founder of the Qua Iboe Mission (later renamed Mission Africa). Bill was raised in Ballymacarrett Presbyterian Church, east ...

, the organisation ministered in

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

. Today, it primarily works in Nigeria,

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the ...

Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...

and

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

while maintaining headquarters in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. Its current Chief Executive is the Reverend Dr Paul Bailie.

History

The roots of Mission Africa stretch back to the mid-1880s, when a group of chiefs from the Ibeno region of the

Niger Delta The Niger Delta is the delta of the Niger River sitting directly on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean in Nigeria. It is located within nine coastal southern Nigerian states, which include: all six states from the South South geopolitical ...

approached the

Calabar Calabar (also referred to as Callabar, Calabari, Calbari and Kalabar) is the capital city of Cross River State, Nigeria. It was originally named Akwa Akpa, in the Efik language. The city is adjacent to the Calabar and Great Kwa rivers and cre ...

Mission of the Free Church of Scotland and asked for a missionary to work among them. The over-extended mission, unable to comply, passed on the request to

Henry Grattan Guinness Henry Grattan Guinness (11 August 1835 – 21 June 1910) was an Irish Protestant Christian preacher, evangelist and author. He was the great evangelist of the Third Evangelical awakening and preached during the Ulster Revival of 1859 which dre ...

at his Harley Missionary Training College in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, where he circulated it. One of the college's trainees,

(1864–1942) from Belfast, responded energetically. In 1887, he set sail, without financial backing. The Calabar Mission could not afford him, and he started work alone at the mouth of the Qua Iboe River in December 1887, designing and constructing for himself a house, and the church at Upenekang. Bill's lifelong friend, Archibald Bailie commenced initial efforts at establishing a support base in Belfast for the new mission, but soon left Belfast to join Bill in Nigeria. The Qua Iboe Mission Council was formed in 1891 by representatives of the leading Belfast churches, of various denominations, to support Samuel Bill's work. Missionaries were drawn from Presbyterian, Baptist, Quaker and other backgrounds. The Mission Council continues its oversight of the Mission up to the present day. The Qua Iboe Church (now the QIC-United Evangelical Church of Nigeria) had by 2000 founded three colleges of theology, including the Samuel Bill Theological College at Ikot Ekang, Abak (started in the 1940s), three post-primary teaching institutions including Etinan Institute (started 1915), two hospitals (at Ekpene Obom and Ochadamu, the latter known as Holley Memorial Hospital) and a printing press at Etinan, as well as numerous primary schools. Membership of the Church was at first confined to rural areas, only slowly penetrating the towns and cities. By the year 2000, the denomination had grown to over 1,000 congregations throughout Nigeria which vary in size from around 50 people to over 1,000. The Mission changed its name from Qua Iboe Mission to Qua Iboe Fellowship in 1986, and then became known as Mission Africa in mid-2002. The change of name was intended to convey the broader scope of the Mission, since it is no longer confined to one area of Nigeria. The official legal name of the mission is now Mission Africa (The Qua Iboe Fellowship). It is a registered company in Belfast (R611) and recognised by the British tax authorities (HMRC) as a charity, XN45493.

Administration

Mission Africa is governed by a Home Council, drawn from the Christian Community in Northern Ireland. Everyday running of the mission is entrusted to the Chief Executive. Mission Africa is a member of Global Connections, the UK wide missions alliance, and Northern Ireland's mission facilitation organisation, Mission Agencies Partnership.

Mission Africa Today

The organisation's missionary efforts today are focused on theological education, cross-cultural training, church planting, medical work, responding to HIV/Aids, literature evangelism, and youth ministry. Its work, in various spheres of mission, includes: *

: working alongside the Evangelical Church of Chad (EET) and like minded mission agencies, most notably The Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM). *

: A concentration on church planting and rural development. Partners in Burkina are Evangelical Protestant Church. (EPE).

WEC International WEC International is an interdenominational mission agency of evangelical tradition which focuses on evangelism, discipleship and church planting, through music and the arts, serving addicts and vulnerable children, through Christian education, ...

worked in Burkina Faso for many years and Mission Africa were pleased to partner with them. *

: Mission Africa is primarily partnered with the QIC-United Evangelical Church, formerly the Qua Iboe Church, and supplies theological lecturers to the denomination's colleges. The Mission also supplies some support staff to the UEC hospitals. *

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

: since 2011, Mission Africa has been partnered with the

Presbyterian Church of East Africa Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) is a Presbyterian denomination headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. In Kenya, 10% of the population is Presbyterian. It was started by missionaries from Scotland, most notable of whom was Dr John Arthur. I ...

. As of 2015 the partnership has been limited to Mission Africa sending small teams to Kenya. * Mission Africa also supply staff to the interdenominational Theological College of Northern Nigeria (TCNN) and the Jos ECWA Theological Seminary (JETS) which is the main seminary of the

Evangelical Church of West Africa The Evangelical Church Winning All, previously known as the Evangelical Church of West Africa, is one of the largest Christian denominations in Nigeria, with about ten million members. ECWA is a partner church of the international Christian missi ...

. * In 2006 Mission Africa and UEC commenced the Stillwaters Project, renamed Advance in 2012, which intends to establish 1500 HIV/Aids care and counselling centres throughout Nigeria. Mision Africa has also been involved in HIV/Aids alleviation work through

ECWA Evangel Hospital ECWA Evangel Hospital is a 150-bed general hospital located in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria. It was founded in 1959 by SIM (previously the ''Sudan Interior Mission'' and now known as ''Serving In Mission''), but Evangel is now managed under the ...

and The Faith Alive Foundation, both of which distribute

antiretroviral drugs The management of HIV/AIDS normally includes the use of multiple antiretroviral drugs as a strategy to control HIV infection. There are several classes of antiretroviral agents that act on different stages of the HIV life-cycle. The use of multipl ...

as part of the

PEPFAR The United States President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is a United States governmental initiative to address the global HIV/AIDS epidemic and help save the lives of those suffering from the disease. Launched by U.S. President Geor ...

programme. ADVANCE is also engaged in various forms of compassionate ministry, such as rescuing orphaned and vulnerable children; this work primarily takes place in Kogi State. *

Africa Christian Textbooks Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, the literature distribution service that Mission Africa largely founded, supplies Christian academic books to students and pastors in Nigeria and Kenya. ACTS hopes to increasingly produce books by Africans for Africans, and also to translate many books for the Christian communities in the

Francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...

countries.

References and Historical Studies

* Gerald H Anderson, ed., ''Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions'' (Simon and Schuster Macmillan, NY,1998). * J. S. Corbett, "''According to Plan''" (Belfast: QIF, 1986). * R. J. Graham ''The Qua Iboe Mission 1887 - 1945'' (PhD Thesis, University of Aberdeen) * E. B. Ikpe, ''Qua Iboe Church of Nigeria: the first hundred years: the next jubilee'' (Uyo; QIC, 1987). * W. Leach, "Century of Service in Nigeria" (Belfast: QIF, 1987). * Robert L. McKeown, ''Twenty-five years in Qua Iboe: the story of a missionary effort in Nigeria'' (London: Marshal Morgan and Scott, 1912). * D. O. Olayiwola "Origin, Growth and Impact of the Qua Iboe Church in Nigeria, 1887-1987" ''Neue Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaft '' 1997, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 61–68 SSN 0028-3495* Eva S. Watt, "The Quest for Souls in Qua Iboe" (London: Marshal Morgan and Scott, 1951). * Margaret Ussher, ''Fifty plus : flash-back into H. W. Dickson's fifty years of vital missionary experience in Nigeria'' (Belfast : Qua Iboe Mission, 1972). * Corbett, Jean S., ''All the days of my life : recollections of Herbert W. Dickson'' (Belfast : Qua Iboe Mission, 1981).

External links

Mission Africa websiteThe Qua Iboe Church (United Evangelical Church)JETS website Global Connections website Mission Agencies Partnership website
{{Protestant missions to Africa Christian missions in Africa Christianity in Nigeria Christian missionary societies