George Liele: The First Baptist Missionary America Forgot (Hebrews 6:10)

The true story of George Liele, born a slave in Virginia, ordained in 1775, and set free to preach, who sailed to Jamaica in 1782 and became the first Baptist missionary in history, ten years before William Carey (Hebrews 6:10). July 1782. The British army is evacuating Savannah, Georgia, and in the middle of that chaos stands a freed slave named George Liele, holding his freedom papers in one hand and his children with the other. He is about to sign himself into two more years of servitude to buy his passage to Jamaica. Within a few years his Kingston congregation numbered three hundred and fifty. Every three months he waded into the river and baptized new converts by the dozens. He never took a salary. He was tried for his life and acquitted. He sat in jail more than three years over the debt on his chapel building rather than take legal relief. By 1814, Jamaica held eight thousand Baptists, and William Carey, the man textbooks call the father of modern missions, did not sail for India until 1793. A five-minute reminder that God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love, and that quiet faithfulness is written down where the ink never fades.

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July of 1782. The British Army is evacuating Savannah, Georgia, and the harbor is chaos. Ships ride low in the water packed with soldiers and refugees. In the middle of that crowd stands a freed slave named George Lyle, holding his freedom papers in one hand and his children in the other. He's about 32 years old and he's just signed himself into two more years of servitude. Why would a free man do such a thing? Because the ship he is boarding sails for Jamaica, and George Lyle is about to become the first Baptist missionary in history. Stay with me. You're going to want to hear the rest of the story. Welcome to Lift Up Your Day, a five-minute devotional, short stories with a biblical heartbeat. I'm Rodney Coe, and today we meet the first Baptist missionary in history, a man most of us never heard of. George Lyle was born a slave in Virginia around 1750. His owner, a Baptist deacon named Henry Sharp, brought him south to Georgia, and there in 1773 George heard the gospel and believed. The church tested his gift for preaching and they liked what they heard. In 1775 they ordained him, making George Lyle the first ordained black Baptist preacher in America. Then Henry Sharp did something remarkable. He set George free so he could give himself to the ministry. But the Revolutionary War tore all of it apart. Sharp was killed in the fighting and his heirs tried to drag George back into slavery. He sat in a jail cell until his freedom papers were produced. After his release, a British colonel named Moses Kirkland befriended him, and when the British pulled out of Savannah in 1782, George borrowed $700 from Kirkland for passage to Kingston, Jamaica. He boarded with his wife Hannah and their four children, then worked off the dead as indentured servant for two years. Then the preaching started. He gathered a handful of listeners and a private house. Within a few years the congregation numbered about 350. Every three months, George waded into the river and baptized new converts by the dozens. He never took a salary. He fed his family by farming and by hauling freight with a wagon. The planters hated him. To them, any gathering of slaves looked like a revolt waiting to happen. George was charged with preaching sedition and chained in irons with his feet locked in the stocks. He was tried for his life, and the court acquitted him. Later he was jailed over the unpaid debt on his chapel building. He could have taken legal relief and walked out the door, but he refused, and he stayed behind bars more than three years until every last pound was paid in full. George Lyle sailed in 1782. William Carey, the man our textbooks call the father of modern missions, did not sail for India until 1793. By 1814 there were 8,000 Baptists in Jamaica, and the fire George lit never went out. Maybe you've served the Lord for years in a place nobody notices. No headlines, no history book. Hear the promise of Hebrews 6.10. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward his name. In that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. The world overlooked George Lyle for two hundred years, having watched every single baptism in that Jamaican river. Your quiet faithfulness is written down where the ink never fades, and one day the author will read it aloud. And that, friend, is how God lives up your day.