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 approached the Calabar 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 at his Harley Missionary Training College in London, where he circulated it. One of the college's trainees, Samuel Bill (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.
Evangelicalism, also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that maintains the belief that the essence of the Gospel consists of the doctrine of salvation by grace alone, solely through faith in Jesus' atonement. Evangelicals believe in the centrality of the conversion or "born again" experience in receiving salvation, in the authority of the Bible as God's revelation to humanity, and in spreading the Christian message. The movement has long had a presence in the Anglosphere before spreading further afield in the 19th, 20th and early 21st centuries.
The International Lutheran Council (ILC) is a worldwide association of confessional Lutheran denominations. Member bodies of the ILC hold "an unconditional commitment to the Holy Scriptures as the inspired and infallible Word of God and to the Lutheran Confessions contained in the Book of Concord as the true and faithful exposition of the Word of God." The member church bodies are not required to be in church-fellowship with one another, though many of them are.
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The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British mission society working with the Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as mission partners during its 200-year history. The society has also given its name "CMS" to a number of daughter organisations around the world, including Australia and New Zealand, which have now become independent.
ECWA Evangel Hospital is a 150-bed general hospital located in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria. It was founded in 1959 by SIM, but Evangel is now managed under the auspices of the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA). Evangel is known locally in Jos as "Jankwano" meaning "Red Roof" in Hausa, as it was one of the first buildings in the area to have a corrugated iron roof.
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Samuel Alexander Bill MBE was an Irish Christian missionary, explorer and the founder of the Qua Iboe Mission . Bill was raised in Ballymacarrett Presbyterian Church, east Belfast, but was most notably associated with Island Street Belfast City Mission Hall. His interest in missionary work was sparked by a visit to Belfast by Dwight L. Moody and Ira D. Sankey in 1874. He attended the Harley Missionary Training College in London, then under the leadership of Henry Grattan Guinness; and travelled to Nigeria to commence a work amongst the Ibeno people in 1887. The mission base was founded on the banks of the Qua Iboe River, and this base gave the name to the independent interdenominational mission that Bill founded.
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The Evangelical Presbyterian Church is a Calvinist, Christian evangelical denomination that is found only in Northern Ireland, where it is the smallest of the Presbyterian churches. It was formed on 15 October 1927 by Rev. James Hunter (1863–1942), former minister of Knock Presbyterian Church (Belfast), and James (W.J.) Grier, a former student at the Assembly's College. They were joined by others who seceded from the Irish Presbyterian Church.
The United Evangelical Church is a Christian denomination in Nigeria. It has existed since 1887. It has more than 1,000 congregations and 2,000,000 members. The church was founded by an Irish missionary, Rev.Samuel Alexander Bill the first of many missionaries who served with The Qua Iboe Mission, now known as Mission Africa, which is based in Belfast. The Mission and Church were initially named after the place where the mission began its work, at Ibeno near the Qua Iboe River in the present day Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria. The church and mission have been entirely independent entities since 1984, but the two continue to work together closely.
Evangelical Baptist Convention is a Baptist Christian denomination in Manipur, India. Their main area of presence is in the southern part of Manipur. It currently has a total of 151 churches and is one of the biggest churches among the tribal groups in the northeastern part of India. Its headquarters, Dorcas Hall, is located at Hebron Veng, New Lamka.
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The Africa Evangelical Presbyterian Church (AEPC) is a growing conservative Presbyterian and Reformed Church which adheres to the Westminster Confession of Faith started in Kenya, later spread to the surrounding countries like Burundi, Tanzania, Congo and as far as Zimbabwe. The headquarters of the church is located in Nairobi, Kenya.
