June 14, 1886

June 14, 1886 – Thomas James Comber (T.J.), who was called “Vianga-Vianga” – the man who hurries about – was again attacked by severe fever, and taken to Boma on the coast of the Congo to board a ship for home. However, he would never see the shores of his native Great Britain again, for he died at sea on a German steamer off the coast of West Africa at the young age of thirty-four. T.J. Comber was born in Camberwell, England, in 1852. His mother died while he was but a youth, but he took an unusual interest in missions and enrolled in evening classes at Spurgeon’s College. At 16 he was baptized and soon began to teach Sunday school and went on door to door visitation. In 1875 he applied to the Baptist Missionary Society to serve in the Cameroons and sailed for Africa in Nov. of 1876. After his arrival he began work with Alfred Saker, the hero of Cameroon missions, until two years later when he and Geo. Grenfel opened the Congo.  Later a party of five joined them, including Miss Minnie Rickards, who married T.J. Mrs. Comber contracted meningitis and died within four months. John Hartland died, along with two engineers, who had been sent to assist with a boat. New recruits continued to come including T.J.s brother Percy and his sister Carrie. Soon Carrie was gone. Also two other recruits would die within hours of each other. But T.J. Comber did not die in vain. He, with a multitude of other British and American missionaries are truly the “Greater Generation.” In 1995 it was estimated that there are 6,171 Baptist churches in 14 Nations that comprise West Africa with a membership in excess of over a million believers