Probably one of the most famous meetings with a missionary occurred when Henry Stanley, a British journalist who was well known for his exploration of Africa, found Scottish missionary and explorer Dr. David Livingstone in what is now present day Tanzania. Livingstone was known to be in Africa, but had not been heard from in over 3 years. Stanley was hired by the New York Herald to try and find Dr. Livingstone. After a treacherous 700 mile trek through tropical forest, Mr. Stanley found Dr. Livingston near Lake Tanganyika. As they approached one another Mr. Stanley uttered the now famous words, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume.”
There was another significant meeting with a missionary that occurred in March of 1948. While not as famous as the Stanley/Livingstone meeting, its significance cannot be overstated. Pioneering missionary to Southeast Asia, J. Russell Morse, was visiting in the home of preacher John Chase of the Golden West Christian Church in the Los Angeles area. Morse declared the need for missionaries to be able to come together for mutual edification, encouragement and networking. Together they planned a pre-conference meeting just for the purpose at the next North American Christian Convention (NACC). In 1950, that meeting became its own conference separate from the NACC and was to be known for the next 61 years as the National Missionary Convention. In 2011, the name of the meeting was changed to the International Conference on Missions (ICOM). Today, thousands of attendees flock to ICOM every year to be encouraged, equipped, and some even enlisted in God’s kingdom work around the world.
This July, another significant meeting will happen in California as ICOM goes back to where it all started. With a bit of nostalgia, ICOM is planning a pre-conference meeting before the North American Christian Convention which is being held in Anaheim, California. The event will be Monday night and Tuesday morning, July 11th & 12th. It will feature numerous missionaries and mission organizations sharing about what God is doing around the world. It will not only be informative, but also practical as you will walk challenged and more prepared to be a tool God can use in His kingdom work. So plan to come a day early for the NACC and enjoy what is sure to be another “significant meeting” in California!
You can register for this event by clicking this link: https://theicom.org/anaheim/
