Many Streams, One River
Our History
We are grateful to God for sustaining the work of our Mission for well over 140 years. We come from a long line of courageous and passionate saints who have risked much to bring the truth and light of Christ to those who had not yet heard. Praise the Lord, there are millions in previously unreached places who now serve him because of the the Spirit's work through the men and women of our Mission.
Algeria
Our earliest roots go back to North Africa, to a British couple named George and Jane Pearse. In 1876, the Pearses travelled to Algeria with the aim of reaching out to French soldiers there. However, seeing the effects of famine on the local Kabyle people, they were convicted by the need to bring the gospel to North Africans. Returning to London, their friend and influential preacher and mission pioneer, Henry Grattan Guinness, urged them to begin a new ministry and made the first donation to them.
In 1881, the Pearses (pictured here) founded the Mission to the Kabyles, shortly to be renamed the North Africa Mission (NAM). They travelled to Algeria and founded a mission station there. It was a multicultural group, including a Swiss teacher and a Syrian from a Druze background. Also in the party was Edward Glenny, who would go on to lead the mission for decades. As far as was known, at the time they were the only Protestants sharing the gospel with local people across nearly all of North Africa.
Lilias Trotter, a talented artist, was at a NAM mission meeting when she felt the call to North Africa. She applied to the ministry but they were cautious about her health. As a result they did not accept her application, but agreed to work alongside her if she could make her own way to North Africa. And so, in 1888, Lilias and her friends went to Algeria to begin what would become the Algiers Mission Band (AMB). This group of ladies were pioneering in their ministry approaches and in their use of literature which spoke to the local culture. In 1964, after many decades of working closely together, AMB merged with NAM.
Morocco
A Scottish ship merchant called John Anderson met Edward Glenny in Tangiers, who encouraged him to begin a new ministry in Morocco. He founded the Southern Morocco Mission, a primarily medical agency which would merge with NAM in 1961.
Another person with a heart for Morocco was Kaye Richmond. She founded the Dades Valley Fellowship (DVF) in 1963, also working in the south of Morocco. This agency was focused on midwifery and medical work. After staff numbers declined, DVF merged with NAM in 1983.
With work outside of North Africa growing, especially in the Middle East, NAM was renamed Arab World Ministries (AWM) in 1987.
The Sahel
Henry Grattan Guinness and his daughter Lucy were on a tour of Egypt in 1900, guided by North Africa Mission missionary Karl Kumm. Sharing a deep passion for bringing the gospel to the unreached peoples of North Africa, Karl and Lucy (pictured below) married in 1901 and in 1904 founded Sudan United Mission. Seeing a need beyond North Africa, the Kumms worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the need for the gospel in the Sahel – the region stretching from the Nile River in the east to the Niger River in the west.
By late 1904, four men, including Karl Kumm, had arrived in Nigeria and established the first mission station at Wase Rock. For the next eight decades, men and women with hearts aflame for Christ gave their lives to bringing the light of Christ to frontier lands of the Sahel. From the beginning, the ministry of SUM combined meeting practical needs with sowing the seeds of the gospel among those who had no way of hearing. They prioritised education, medical work, agriculture, and any number of other ministries - including establishing a home for freed slaves, running a school for the blind and serving the peoples of Lake Chad from a boat converted into a floating medical centre!
Their work carries on to this day in the mission efforts of the church they founded, the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN), with whom the Mission continues in close partnership and fellowship.
In 1989, with a sense of leading to expand the scope of the work, the Mission changed its name to Action Partners and began to branch out into other parts of Africa. In 2007, Action Partners joined the global Pioneers movement, further expanding our scope to include mission to the whole world.
Pioneering ministry
Ted Fletcher was working as the National Sales Manager at the Wall Street Journal when he felt the call of God into cross-cultural mission, inspired by Psalm 2:8: ‘Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.’ He and his wife Peggy (pictured below) would spend a few years applying to different mission agencies, being rejected for not being 'typical' missionaries.
Undeterred, and challenged by the need Ted saw on a trip to Nigeria, the Fletchers began a new ministry in 1979: World Evangelical Outreach. Within a few years it would be renamed Pioneers to reflect a desire to bring the gospel to the least reached peoples and places.
In 2007, Action Partners joined the global Pioneers movement, becoming Pioneers UK. Arab World Ministries joined Pioneers in 2011, and was renamed Arab World Ministry of Pioneers.
In 2024, following a long period of seeking the Lord together, the two organisations merged into one team and expanded our sending remit to cover Ireland. We are now Pioneers UK and Ireland, sending mission workers from those two nations to the whole world.
We highlight our ongoing commitment to the Arab world through our Pioneers Arab World brand and Arab World Training Hub.
From Algeria, Morocco, Sudan, and Nigeria, to the ongoing heartbeat of our mission to the rest of the world, we are building on everything that has gone before and the faithful missionaries who have served so sacrificially in years gone by. As we continue to grow, one thing remains constant – the Father’s heart for the least-reached peoples. We will continue sharing that heart until all have heard.
Want to learn more about our founders? Have a look at our Shoulders of Giants series.
Books of Note
We have been blessed with founders and other mission workers throughout our history who sensed God's leading to put pen to paper and record their stories for future generations. What follows is a selection of our favourite books about our history, many by the people who lived it. We hope that you find them just as inspirational as we do.
North Africa Mission (NAM)
The Gospel in North Africa
by John Rutherford
and Edward Glenny
The Gospel in North Africa is a fascinating insight into life in North Africa in the late 1800s and the first two decades of North Africa Mission.
Not in Vain
by Francis R Steele
Filled with stories of God's faithfulness and insights on the joys and challenges of life and mission in North Africa, Not in Vain tells the story of North Africa Mission's first century, from 1881 to 1981.
The Desert is Alive
by David Lundy,
Gary Corwin,
and Gail Martin
The Desert is Alive resumes the story of North Africa Mission and Arab World Ministries, bringing the story up to recent times.
I, Lilias Trotter
by Blanche Piggott
Lilias Trotter was a prolific writer and diarist in addition to being a renowned artist. In I, Lilias Trotter, her close friend Blanche Pigott compiles highlights to bring us an intimate look at her life and ministry.
Parables of the Cross
by Lilias Trotter
Founder of Algeria Mission Band, Lilias Trotter passionately pursued Christ in his mission to Algeria. Written during a time of ill health in England in 1895, Parables of the Cross is a devotional work that continues to inspire, challenge, and entertain. It is presented in this edition alongside Lilias' own paintings.
Sudan United Mission (SUM)
Half a Century of Grace
by J Lowry Maxwell
The official history of the first fifty years of Sudan United Mission, Half a Century of Grace is both a personal and a historically rigorous recounting of the Mission's work in the Sahel region. It tells of the work of the British Branch in Nigeria as well as the other national Branches stretching across the Sahel.
Karl Kumm: Last of the Livingstones
by Peter Spartalis
The last in a long line of missionary explorers, Karl Kumm's exploration of the Sahel paved the way for mission work across that region. In Karl Kumm: Last of the Livingstones, historian and SUM missionary Peter Spartalis takes a critical look at Kumm's life and work and answers criticisms of Kumm's methods.
From Hausaland to Egypt
by Karl Kumm
In 1909, Karl Kumm undertook an epic trek from the Niger River in Nigeria to the Nile River in Egypt to determine where and how to establish a line of mission stations to halt the southern movement of Islam. From Hausaland to Egypt is the story of that trek.
Lucy Guinness Kumm: Her Life Story
by Henry Grattan Guinness
Lucy Guinness Kumm was a bright flame for the Gospel, snuffed out too soon. Known for her passionate writing, which fanned the fire of mission zeal in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Lucy's legacy lives on. Lucy Guinness Kumm: Her Life Story was written by her father, Henry Grattan Guinness.
Facing the Challenge
Written by SUM missionaries for the Mission's centenary in 2004 and updated in 2012, Facing the Challenge is a detailed historical account of the missionaries' faithfulness and the Lord's blessing during the first century of the Mission's life. Free copies available by contacting the Pioneers office.
SUM Australia & New Zealand Branch
Samwiil of Sudan
by Roy Conwell
When expatriate missionaries were expelled from Sudan in 1962, Pastor Samwiil Jangul Angollo was left to shepherd the fledgling Sudanese Church of Christ on his own. SUM missionary Roy Conwell tells the story of this faithful servant, who was used of God to do mighty things in Sudan.
Sudanese Church of Christ: A Very Brief History
by Keith Black
SUM missionary and Patriarch of the Sudanese Church of Christ Keith Black shares a brief history of God's faithfulness to His mission in Sudan.
Saints and Patriarchs
by Keith Black
Recounting God's guidance and provision over a lifetime of mission, Keith Black shares his story of family, mission and, above all, the faithfulness and glory of Christ in all things.
To the Nile and Beyond
by Peter Spartalis
Missionary historian Peter Spartalis tells the story of the Australia/New Zealand Branch of SUM - their pioneering ministry in South Sudan and the Nuba Mountains, and the trials of mission in a place of unrest.
Further Reading
Other books about SUM and NAM missions and related topics, many of which were written by our missionaries.
Sudan United Mission
- History of the Church of Christ in Nations (1904-2013) edited by Mrs Nanwul Gutip
- The Guinness Legend by Michele Guinness
- The Road to Freedom by Mollie Tett
- Mountains and Molehills by Bill and Mollie Tett
- Crescendo of The Cross by H. G. Farrant
- A Stranger Came by Jean Hamilton
- From South Africa to Nigeria by Gordon and Lesley Russell
- In Rebel Hands – the story of Joel Doba
- God's Will for the Mountains by Ellen Crocker
- Tales of the Sudan by D.N. MacDiarmid
- The Lonely Lake by Jean Hamilton
North Africa Mission
- New Every Morning by Muriel Butcher
- Trekking among Moroccan Tribes by James Haldane
- The Man Who Was “Q”: The Life of Charles Fraser Smith by David Porter
- Pioneer and Martyr in Southern Morocco: Cuthbert Nairn by The Southern Morocco Mission
- Missionary Romance in Morocco by James Haldane
- Patricia St. John Tells Her Own Story by Patricia St. John
- No Frontiers by Jessie C. Stalley
- “Great is Thy Faithfulness” by Mary A. Hollinshead
- Morocco in Mufti by James Haldane
- How Wide is my Valley by Abe Wiebe
- A Biographical Sketch Relative to the Missionary Labors of Emma Herman in The Empire of Morocco by Albert A. Isaacs