Africa Inland Church

   The Africa inland Church is a conservative Evangelical church whose membership extends across Central Africa. it dates to the 1890s and the creation of an independent missionary agency by Peter Cameron Scott (1867-96), an American then residing in Kenya. He aimed to found a set of missionary stations extending from Mombasa, Kenya, to Lake Chad, as a barrier to the spread of islam. To actualize his goal, in 1895 he founded the Africa inland mission. After his death, his task was picked up by Charles E. Hurlburt (1860-1936). During the next 30 years under Hurlburt's leadership the mission pushed westward to the Central African Republic, south to Uganda, and north to Sudan. Schools were built and an indigenous leadership created. The self-governing Africa Inland Church superseded the missions in 1943. Since that time, the mission (now AIM International) has served a largely supporting role.

   The African Inland Church has more than a million members in Kenya, where it is second in size only to the Roman Catholic Church. It also has significant support in Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and the Central African Republic. AIM now has some 300 support personnel in Kenya.

   Further reading:

   ■ Dick Anderson, We Felt Like Grasshoppers: The Story of the Africa Inland Mission (Nottingham, U.K.: Crossway Books, 1994); Kenneth Richardson, Garden of Miracles: History of the Africa Inland Mission (London: Victory Press, 1968).