Arthur Asa Grandville Carscallen (1879–1964), was a

Seventh-day Adventist The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and ...

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

, administrator,

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

, and publisher.

Early years

Born in Canada, Carscallen grew up in North Dakota, where he was baptized at age 20, just prior to starting studies at

Union College Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia Co ...

from 1900 to 1901. He completed his Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) ministerial training in September 1906 at Duncombe Hall Training College in England. That same year, following his ordination, he embarked for

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

, to begin missionary service for the SDA as superintendent of the

British East Africa East Africa Protectorate (also known as British East Africa) was an area in the African Great Lakes occupying roughly the same terrain as present-day Kenya from the Indian Ocean inland to the border with Uganda in the west. Controlled by Bri ...

Mission, together with Peter Nyambo, an African Adventist worker from

Nyasaland Nyasaland () was a British protectorate located in Africa that was established in 1907 when the former British Central Africa Protectorate changed its name. Between 1953 and 1963, Nyasaland was part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasala ...

, now

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast ...

, who was a classmate of Carscallen at Duncombe Hall.Dictionary of African Christian Biography — Arthur Asa Grandville Carscallen
/ref>

Seventh-day Adventists in Kenya: Beginnings

The first SDA missionaries to work in Kenya were Arthur Carscallen and Nyasaland native Peter Nyambo. Leaving England, the two traveled to Hamburg, Germany, sailing from there on 1 October 1906 to East Africa. Describing the journey to Africa, Carscallen wrote. "After an exceedingly hot trip through the Red Sea, we arrived in Mombasa nearly three weeks later." By November 27, 1906, Carscallen and Nyambo were able to open the first British East Africa Mission station in Kenya at Gendia Hill near the eastern shore of Lake Victoria on

Kendu Bay Kendu Bay is a bay and town in Kenya. The area is the part of Rachuonyo North District in Homa Bay County. It is located on the shore of Lake Victoria along Katito-Homa-Bay road. It is the headquarters of the district. Kisumu, the largest urban ...

with the assistance of Abraham C. Enns, a German missionary and gardener stationed in

Tanganyika Tanganyika may refer to: Places * Tanganyika Territory (1916–1961), a former British territory which preceded the sovereign state * Tanganyika (1961–1964), a sovereign state, comprising the mainland part of present-day Tanzania * Tanzania Main ...

, today

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

. Enns had arrived in Tanganyika in 1903 and was working among the

Pare people The Pare (pronounced "Pahray") people are members of an ethnic group indigenous to the Pare Mountains of northern Tanzania, part of the Kilimanjaro Region. Historically, Pareland was also known as ''Vuasu'' (South Pare) and ''Vughweno'' (Nort ...

.Geoffrey Mbwana
"Like a Mustard Seed: Adventism in the East-Central Africa Division"
. ''The Adventist World'', 2014. Together, they chose a five‑acre plot, about three kilometers (two miles) inland from Kendu Bay for the mission site, which was situated among the

Luo people The Luo of Kenya and Tanzania are a Nilotic ethnic group native to western Kenya and the Mara Region of northern Tanzania in East Africa. The Luo are the fourth-largest ethnic group (10.65%) in Kenya, after the Kikuyu (17.13%), the Luhya ( ...

in what is now South Nyanza, about which Carscallen says, "...we chose the site at Gendia among the primitive African tribe who spoke a

Nilotic language The Nilotic languages are a group of related languages spoken across a wide area between South Sudan and Tanzania by the Nilotic peoples. Etymology The word Nilotic means of or relating to the Nile River or to the Nile region of Africa. Dem ...

." Carscallen and Nyambo worked quickly to construct the mission buildings. Nyambo remained at Gendia for about four years. Within 14 months Carscallen reported that he and Nyambo had erected the basic mission buildings and that he had learned the Luo language. As superintendent of the Mission, Carscallen and his staff established missionary stations along the eastern shore of Lake Victoria at Gendia Hill, Wire Hill,

Rusinga Island Rusinga Island, with an elongated shape approximately 10 miles (16 km) from end to end and 3 miles (5 km) at its widest point, lies in the eastern part of Lake Victoria at the mouth of the Winam Gulf. Part of Kenya, it is linked to Mbita ...

, Kanyadoto, Karung,

Kisii Kisii may refer to: * Kisii, Kenya, the inaugural capital city of Kenya * Kisii County, one of the 47 counties of Kenya * Gucha District, in Kenya, also known as ''South Kisii District'' * Nyamira District, in Kenya, also known as ''North Kisii Di ...

(Nyanchwa), and Kamagambo. The first 10 Jaluo Adventist adherents in Kenya were baptized on 21 May 1911.May 21 in Adventist History
/ref> Publishing was central to the mission of the early Adventist Church. Thus, in 1913, Carscallen acquired a small press for the Mission during a trip home to the United States and returned to set up ''African Herald Publishing'' at Gendia in order to publish books, papers, and a monthly journal. Carscallen was one of dozens of church leaders who helped expand their faith worldwide through publishing ministries. The

Dholuo language The Dholuo dialect (pronounced ) or ''Nilotic Kavirondo'', is a dialect of the Luo group of Nilotic languages, spoken by about 4.2 million Luo people of Kenya and Tanzania, who occupy parts of the eastern shore of Lake Victoria and areas to the ...

had never before been reduced to writing. To advance the literacy of the Jaluo people so that they could read the Bible, Carscallen produced a grammar textbook for the mission. Then, over the course of more than two years, Carscallen and the Mission staff translated portions of the New Testament from English to Luo, the first of which was the Gospel of Matthew, that was later published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1913. The grammar textbook he produced was widely used for many years. In addition to the grammar text, Carscallen produced an extensive, but unpublished, Kavirondo or Dholuo and English dictionary during his service in Kenya.Melvin K. Hendrix, An International Bibliography of African Lexicons. Scarecrow Press, 1982Peter Firstbrook, ''The Obamas: The Untold Story of an African Family''. Crown Publishers, 2011. Besides Bible study, the Adventists also offered medical care and promoted public health among the Luo. As Adventists, they stressed the importance of good diet and health and started a free clinic where they treated malaria, cholera, and other diseases. While the relationship between the Adventist missionaries and the Jaluo people was not without conflict, some of it resulted in economic development. When Carscallen was joined by his fiancée, Helen, who was an accomplished seamstress, she was troubled by the lack of clothing worn by the locals and was determined to change the situation. Thus, she began to grow

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...

to make fabric. Although the cotton production was successful, the missionaries had little success with convincing the Jaluo to adorn clothes. During World War I many of the missions were looted and damaged, and the workers, except Carscallen and one other, were kept from their stations for nearly two years, but he still managed to hold the staff together until the war's end. Among Carscallen's adherents was Onyango Obama, then age 9, but someday to be the grandfather of President Barack Obama of the United States. Onyango adopted the ways of the missionaries more fully than did most of the Luo people at the time. In an interview, Onyango Obama said that "the arrival of the white missionaries provided an exciting diversion from the monotony of village life." Said to be a curious child, he was drawn to the new religion and was among the first wave of Jaluo to join with the missionaries, soon attending an Adventist boarding school and adopting the male missionaries' dress style "of long trousers and a white shirt." In 1921, Carscallen's service in the SDA British East Africa Mission officially ended, and he returned to the United States with his family. Shortly thereafter, his wife, Helen, died that same year in Oregon.

Life's Work After Kenya

In 1924, Arthur Carscallen married Anita Johnson and, together, they performed pastoral work in the Dakotas. Afterward, he worked in

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first European to encounter Guiana was S ...

(known as

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

in the modern era) from 1931 to 1942, becoming president of the three united Guiana Adventists fields, and helped to construct a new church building in Georgetown, doing much of the carpentry work himself. Still a pioneer full of energy, he volunteered for work in the interior of British Guiana among the Davis Indians, and went to Waramadong, near Mount Roraima, at the end of 1936, where he opened a mission. Repeating the success he had in Kenya with the local languages, he produced a dictionary and grammar of the Gary Shearer, Adventist Studies Librarian, Pacific Union College Library
Bibliography of the Davis Indians of Guyana
2001. Upon retirement in the United States, he settled in La Sierra, California, and continued to visit churches and camp meetings.

Contributions

Arthur Carscallen's many contributions to his mission work can be appreciated almost a century later in the 2013 statistics reported by the Adventists for the

East-Central Africa Division The East-Central Africa Division (ECD) of Seventh-day Adventists is a sub-entity of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, which oversees the Church's work in portions of Africa, which includes the nations of Djibouti, Eritrea, Somalia ...

(ECD), the region for which he helped to lay a foundation, together with Peter Nyambo, Abraham Enns and Johannes Ehlers who worked in Tanganyika with Enns. The data reveals the lasting influence these early Adventists left in East Africa: a baptized membership of more than 2.5 million communicants, "worshipping in more than 12,000 organized churches, led by more than 2,000 ordained and licensed ministers at the ratio of one pastor serving an average of 1,260 baptized members..." and educating more than 500,000 students accessing Adventist education through its more than 2,000 schools, church-accredited and government-chartered universities, and providing medical assistance to the general public from its six hospitals and 130 rural clinics in the region.

References