Sam Staniford: BTC Regular, Africa Missionary

Sam Staniford was one of Oswald Chambers’ students at the Bible Training College.

His life as a missionary afterwards was extremely difficult.

But what would you expect of a man who went to Africa with the famous missionary C.T. Studd?

The son of a florist in Buckinghamshire, Sam was born in 1893.

At the Bible Training College (BTC)

Sam Staniford never forgot the effect of Oswald Chambers’ teaching.

“What a privilege, yet what a responsibility, too, we had in having such a man as Oswald Chambers for our teacher. In every class he took we felt that he came to us straight from the presence of Almighty God.”

He was forever grateful for the lessons he learned there.

Sam’s favorite class was the “spiritual surgery,” that came from the small group that met on Wednesday afternoons.

Oswald asked them personal questions about their faith and challenged them with the quality of their spiritual lives.

“I thank God for Oswald Chambers, for both by his daily walk as well as by his teaching, he pointed out the path of ‘My Utmost for His Highest,’ and he was not content until he made us walk that path. “

Staniford attended London University after the BTC.

He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War I, as a private.

On to the Belgium Congo

Following the end of World War I, Sam joined World Evangelical Crusade and set off for the Belgium Congo.

Studd assigned him to the Wamba area in the northeast corner of what is now The Democratic Republic of the Congo. (About 700 kms from the Uganda border).

Sam Staniford went by his African name, pronounced “Star,” and worked in the area, which had many churches.

Studd set a high bar for missionary devotion. He once explained, “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, there is no sacrifice too great that I can make for him.”

At some point, Staniford began to lose the sight in both eyes and his wife took him back to England for cataract surgery.

Many thought it the end of his missionary career.

The operation, however, restored some of his sight. According to Earthen Vessels blogger Don Biro, they got a word from the Lord:

“Did you not tell me when I called you for Africa that you would give your life for Africa? Why have you gone back on your word?”

Congo today (Wikimedia Commons)

“Because of my eyes, Lord.”

“But you said you would give your life. It is not a question of your eyes.”

So, they returned to the Ivory Coast.

Great Sacrifices

Their missionary authority sent them to a new West African field among the Gouros–who in those years had a reputation for poisoning outsiders.

Government officials didn’t want them to go but reluctantly agreed.

Within a short period of time Mrs. Staniford came down with yellow fever and died.

Shortly thereafter, one of Sam’s repaired eyes no longer worked and then he was in a terrible auto accident.

Left with the hearing gone in one ear and only half the sight in the remaining eye, missionary authorities suggested Sam Staniford return home.

His response?

“Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone.

But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

My dear wife has done the dying; I am remaining here to gather the fruit.”

Sam Staniford saw people become Christians, made friends and began translation work.

The work succeeded in Gouros. Sam married a missionary on the field, Frances, who was a translator.

He continued to take interesting risks as a result of his faith in God. He taught, preached and managed the mission finances.

The effects of his auto accident took their toll, however, and he eventually suffered a stroke.

Sam Staniford died in Surrey, England in 1961.

BTC influences

Some of Sam’s surprising risks for the sake of the Gospel may have come from the example set by Oswald Chambers.

Sam recounted several stories about Oswald in 1934’s Oswald Chambers: His Life and Work:

“He had a practical faith in God resulting from his closeness of walk with Him that sent home his talks to our hearts, for he lived out what he taught.

“His life as well as his words was a witness to the presence of God, and in bringing every thought into subjection to the will of God he became our example as well as our teacher.”

Sam remembered a pleasant evening sitting around the fire at the BTC with a group of students. The discussion turned to giving to anyone who asks.

Oswald asked the them if they had seen his guest from earlier in the day. An acquaintance from Edinburgh, the man asked Oswald for money.

“He went on—“I said to Mrs. Chambers, ‘I’ve given away our last half-crown, what shall we do about it?’

She replied that ‘we must trust the Lord for another.’ ”

Later, another friend had a gift for Oswald, greatly exceeding the half-crown Oswald earlier gave away.

“Such things taught us more surely than mere precept.”

Sam Staniford lived his life the same way.

Tweetables

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