The Louis S. Bauman Memorial Lectureship was established by action of the 1952 National Fellowship of Brethren Churches; and provided that the areas of these annual lectures be chosen "e;within the range of Dr. Bauman's ministry, particularly in the fields of foreign missions, Biblical prophecy, denominational history, and theological education."e; For the Third Annual Series the field of foreign missions was chosen; and since in the good providence of God Dr. Orville D. Jobson was to be in this country on furlough, he was requested by Grace Theological Seminary, acting jointly with the foreign-missions board of the Brethren Church, to prepare a short history of our Africa Mission. For this important task no living person could have been better fitted than the author. For among the seventy-six missionaries sent out by the Foreign Missionary Society to French Equatorial Africa during the years 1918 to 1956, Dr. and Mrs. Jobson are now the senior members, having served continuously in that field since 1921, a period of thirty-six years. Both were intimately associated with James S. and Florence Newberry Gribble, founders of the Mission. And Dr. Jobson served as field superintendent of the Mission from 1938 until his last furlough, from which he has recently returned to Africa to resume that position. In May 1947 his long and valued contribution to the cause of foreign missions was recognized by the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity conferred at Grace Theological Seminary. His eventful years of missionary experience, his mastery of both French and native languages, his wide and diplomatic contacts with government officials, his acquaintance with the literature pertinent to this particular mission field, his close observation of native ways and cultures, his firm belief in the unlimited power of the Living Word to change lives and mores of primitive men, and above all his devotion to the Lord of the churches-these are the chief credentials for the task to which the author set his hand.