My Pilgrimage in Mission

Abstract

International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 37, No. 3 Norman E. Thomas is Professor Emeritus of World Christianity, United Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio. He served as a United Methodist missionary in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and Zambia (1961–76) and on the staff of the Africa Task Force of the UMC Board of Global Ministries (1976–78). He also taught missions at Boston University (1978–83). —nethomas2@gmail.com I was born in 1932 in Manchester, New Hampshire, into a strong Methodist family. Both my father and my paternal grandfather were Methodist pastors. Daily Bible reading and prayer were as regular in our home as eating and sleeping. We lived frugally and shared what we had with those in need. I remember that my mother invited those who asked for food to come in and sit at table with us. Later, as a teenager, I helped my father deliver Thanksgiving baskets of food to poor families. But I confess that I never asked the question “What will they eat the other weeks and months of the year?” Ours was charity for the poor without questioning the systemic causes of poverty. My Pilgrimage in Mission