Even 80 years after his death, the first Louisiana-born Southern Baptist missionary
still calls Christians to be on the cutting edge of gospel ministries.
Missionary David Wilson’s life is chronicled in Joe T. Poe’s book “Missions
for a New Century: Lessons from the Life and Ministry of David A. Wilson.”
Even 80 years after his death, the first Louisiana-born Southern Baptist missionary
still calls Christians to be on the cutting edge of gospel ministries.
Missionary David Wilson’s life is chronicled in Joe T. Poe’s book “Missions
for a New Century: Lessons from the Life and Ministry of David A. Wilson.”
“I finished the book with a chapter calling him authentic, genuine and dedicated,”
Poe tells the Baptist Message. “Those characteristics gave me another hero.
His example in missionary service is worthy of being known.”
Poe says he wrote the book because of Wilson’s connection with the Baptist
Spanish Publishing House in El Paso, Texas, where Poe worked for 42 years.
Wilson started “El Expositor Biblico” Spanish Sunday School magazine, which
became a publication of the Publishing House when the company began 15 years
after the periodical was published in 1890.
Another reason he says he wrote the book is because Poe attended First Baptist
Church of Cisco, Texas, at one time, a church where Wilson served as pastor
during the 1880s.
In researching the book, Poe contacted Wilson’s grandchildren in Louisiana,
who provided him with letters and family heirlooms. In fact, grandchild Katherine
Wilson Holeman says she did not learn her grandfather was the first Louisiana-born
Southern Baptist missionary until the early 1980s, when she attended a foreign
missions commissioning service in Alexandria.
“It was exciting that he went,” Holeman says. “Not because he was the first
Louisiana-born missionary but because he and his wife were willing to go.
“He gave of himself to the Lord and did what was needed,” Holeman adds.
Born on Aug. 9, 1858, in Ouachita Parish near Monroe, Wilson grew up in a Christian
home. His brother, George Henry Monroe, already had surrendered to the Christian
ministry.
Poe says his brother’s influence may have led to Wilson’s ordination to the
gospel ministry on Sept. 15, 1878, at Union Hill Baptist Church in Grimes, Texas.
One year after his ordination, Wilson enrolled in Baylor University in Waco,
Texas, where he garnered the 1880 Gold Medal as the institution’s best junior
speaker. The award was a precursor to a bright future for a lifetime of preaching,
Poe notes.
Poe says family responsibilities greatly influenced Wilson’s decision not to
complete his undergraduate degree at Baylor. Nevertheless, Wilson continued
to preach in rural Texas churches not far from the Baptist university.
Wilson became pastor at First Baptist Church of Cisco, in 1884, two years before
he married Lizzie Gooch. But when the church voted to re-elect Wilson as pastor
for another year, he declined because he said he felt God calling him to foreign
missions service in Mexico.
The Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board (now the International Mission Board)
appointed Wilson in May 1886 to Guadalajara, Mexico, although Wilson and his
wife, Lizzie, and son, Theodore, lived in Patos, Mexico, a few months earlier.
Though the Wilsons had no Baptist colleagues in Guadalajara, they befriended
missionaries of other denominations. Poe notes that Wilson organized First Baptist
Church of Guadalajara, on Sept. 9, 1888, with 10 original members.
The church still operates today.
Wilson desired for First Baptist Church of Guadalajara, to have similar material
published in Spanish that the Southern Baptist Convention publishing board produced
in English. Thus, with some assistance from other pastors and missionaries,
El Expositor Biblico’s first issue was published in October 1890.
Even with his contribution in the city, Poe says Wilson questioned whether
formal seminary training would strengthen the success of El Expositor Biblico.
After much deliberation with his wife, he enrolled at Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary in Louisville, Ky., in 1891.
However, the following year, Wilson re-entered Southern Baptist missionary
service, this time traveling to Silao, Mexico. He established churches in Silao
and in nearby Leon, Mexico.
Wilson resumed the pastorate at First Baptist Church of Guadalajara, in 1894,
and continued serving in that capacity until his departure from Mexico to serve
in Cuba in May 1901.
“The next ten years were undoubtedly some of the most fruitful and enjoyable
years of the Wilsons’ long missionary career,” Poe says. “From such humble beginnings,
they, as pioneers in a new land, saw the work flourish.”
Wilson organized a church in Camaguey, Cuba, and work was established in nearby
towns. He also launched El Mensajero, a Baptist periodical, and served as an
officer in the newly-formed Cuban Convention of Baptists.
His children returned to the United States to attend Baptist colleges in Mississippi
during those years. Two of the children later returned to Cuba as teachers.
The oldest child, Theodore, later earned a degree from the Tulane University
School of Dentistry in New Orleans.
“Thus, the family made its full circle back to Louisiana,” Poe says.
Feeling led to minister in New Mexico, Wilson left Cuba in the summer of 1916.
However, the family’s stay in the area was relatively short, since “the optimistic
vision of what could happen in New Mexico did not pan out,” Poe says.
Thus, the family returned 12 months later to Cuba, but they served in the country
for less than a year. Conditions on the island were “trying,” said Wilson, who
noted that World War I and an attempted revolution occurred.
While Wilson served in Cuba, Baptist mission work in Nicaragua had begun but
was off to a shaky beginning. Wilson accepted the call to Nicaragua in 1918.
His work in the country flourished, Poe reports. Wilson formed a night school
that offered weekly Bible and music courses. He also started the La Antorcha
denominational periodical.
“And he did it all in less than five years before the Lord called him home
in February of 1923,” Poe says.
“After an impressive funeral, with the participation of representatives of
the two evangelical churches in Managua (Nicaragua), the funeral procession
followed on foot his casket to the cemetery where his body was laid to rest.”
Lizzie Wilson returned to the United States shortly afterwards, where she lived
with family members until her death on Jan. 2, 1925.
“Their lives had been spent in Christ’s service,” Poe concludes. “Their real
treasure was laid up in heaven.”
(To order a copy of “Missions for a New Century: Lessons from the Life &
Ministry of David A. Wilson,” contact the Baptist Spanish Publishing House at
7000 Alabama Street, El Paso, TX 79904 or 915-566-8717).