Can you imagine what it was like serving as a missionary in inner Africa in the 1950s, with people groups which were about one hundred years behind most of the rest of the world in technology, medical care, and education?  Darrell Champlin and his family certainly can. They served in the African jungle for many years, and Champlin has brought their experiences to readers in an exciting book which (although the stories are all true) reads like an adventure novel. Venturing with God in Congo is his family’s account of missionary life the African jungle. It is available in hardback book format from Conjurske Publications for $14.99.

Darrell Champlin and Louise Grings grew up with a strong commitment missions in their family backgrounds. Louise was actually raised in Belgian Congo of Africa by her own missionary parents, and Darrell’s family attended a church in which young people were often called to the mission field as early as the age of ten. They married in 1951 and by 1954, with their baby son David and another son (Jonathan) on the way, the couple headed to Africa, to the Belgian Congo, with Louise’s brother Mark. A daughter, Deborah, would be born to the family in Congo, and generations of both children and grandchildren would follow Darrell and Louise into missions service.

Venturing with God in Congo is comprised of two hundred and ninety pages of adventure, danger, faithful service, tropical diseases, faith, and the gospel of Jesus Christ moving into the villages and hearts of the Congo people. The family later on relocated to Suriname (interestingly enough, to a people group in South America which had African tribal roots but were brought to Suriname as slaves). The Champlins’ Africa destination in the Congo was a village called NkoleNkema, on the Kasai River. The villagers wore woven leaf skirts in jungles teeming with wildlife, including leopards, elephants, enormous snakes, myriad types of birds, Cape buffalo, monkeys, and more. (Not to mention the ever-present termites and their voracious appetites.) Their Congolese villagers’ worldview was based on the present and didn’t include, when the Champlins arrived, an idea of eternity past or present. The villagers, who spoke the Lingala tongue, were shaped and directed by witch doctors and their fear of evil spirits and the dead. Their medical care was extremely limited, and they suffered with everything from malaria, to blindness caused by eye infections, to parasites and hepatitis. Their education was limited to the here-and-now; gardening, hunting, tribal rituals, and stories of the evil unseen world. 

The Champlins and Grings (and others like them) brought education (so that the Congolese could read their own Bibles and sing from their own hymnals), improved health care (and provided doctors) and introduced the life-changing gospel. Chapter after chapter in this fascinating book shares remarkable accounts of salvation (like the most murderous man in the area becoming one of the first to believe in Christ; or that same man’s nephew becoming a preacher to his own people) and rescue from darkness. God’s provision and hand of protection in many cases are illustrated in events that some people might say were coincidences. To the Champlins and to Christian readers, they were examples of answered prayer and the kindness of God to His people.

In addition to amazing stories of faith arising in the Congolese, the Champlins experienced extraordinary wildlife experiences with the villagers. Although they gardened and ate cassava root (after it had been soaked for three weeks to remove its naturally-occurring prussic acid), the villagers also hunted in packs for meat in various forms (elephant, leopard, monkey, Cape buffalo). Due to the fact that their village was in the jungle, Darrell Champlin always carried a gun with him when he traveled by foot or bicycle in the jungle. It saved his life more than once!

While the Champlins were in Belgian Congo, the country experienced its first election for a government run by its own native Congolese. However, this freely-elected black government was soon overthrown by a Communist revolution (the Simba Revolution of 1964). One of the aims of parts of this new government was to eradicate and kill all the native Christians and the missionaries. The Champlins were safely evacuated (although some other missionaries were murdered). They relocated to serve as missionaries in Suriname, but many years later were able to return to Congo to the areas where they had served. To their delight, they found that the churches they’d planted and the believers they had shepherded had been reborn from the destruction caused by the Simba Revolution. God’s Word never does return void!

My family and I love to read stories and autobiographies of missionaries. Anyone who’d like to learn about missions in Africa should read the Champlins’ incredible book, Venturing with God in Congo. It could work well as a family read-aloud for elementary or middle-school-aged children. High school students, as well as adults, would enjoy reading it on their own. It’s an incredible story of the faithfulness of God, and of a family who served with love in a culture not their own. Your faith will be encouraged by the lives and experiences of the Champlins!

-Product review by Melanie Reynolds, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, September, 2018