Jeanie Gilchrist – Pioneer Missionary to the Women of Central Africa

Jeanie Gilchrist [c.1860-1903] was a missionary to what is now the country of Zambia. This book begins with the story of the dramatic conversion of her father during the 1859 Revival and ends with her death in Africa in 1903. My thanks to Redcliffe College for providing me with a copy of the title to scan. This work is in the Public Domain.

John Ritchie [1853-1930], Jeanie Gilchrist. Pioneer Missionary to the Women of Central Africa. Kilmarnock: John Ritchie, [1927]. Hbk. pp.79. [Download complete book in PDF]

Contents

Prefatory Note

1. Parentage and Early Years
2. Conversion and Emancipation
3. Called to Service in Africa
4. First Experiences in Africa
5. Peeps at Daily Life in Africa
6. A Year at Kuenjelula
7. On the Journey Inland
8. Service in Kavangu
9. Working for Africa
10. To Africa a Second Time
11. Converts and Workers
12. Service in Many Lands
13. A Visit to America
14. To Africa and Heaven

Prefatory Note

When the sad tidings reached our shores, that our beloved and devoted sister in Christ, Miss Jeanie Gilchrist, had been called from service in Africa,, to which she had for the third time gone forth, with the message of salvation, to rest in heaven with Christ, there was a very fully expressed desire amongst those who knew her best, that some brief Record of her bright Christian life and earnest service for the Lord should be prepared, as an encouragement and incentive of others, especially Christian young women, in their decision for and devotion to the One whom they confess as Saviour and Lord. Her Diaries to relatives, with a large number of letters to personal friends and fellow-workers in the Lord, having been handed over with the request that I should edit and thread them together, the unpretentious little volume which you have before you is the result.

A personal acquaintance with Miss Gilchrist, extending over twenty years, gave opportunity for seeing “the grace of God” in her, especially marked in her decided and unflinching testimony for the Lord, her hearty obedience to His Word, and her unswerving devotion to His work, everywhere and always.

”Women’s Work” is, as it ever has been, a subject on which earnest Christians have divergent opinions, but happily there is no contention regarding the sphere to which this handmaid of the Lord gave herself, and in which she was, through grace, enabled to continue, serving the Lord, first amongst, and next on behalf of the down-trodden and benighted women of Central Africa. [Continue reading]