AIM's first missionaries set sail on August 17, 1895. The group was led

by AIM founder Peter Cameron Scott. (Front row, second from left)

Africa Inland Mission (AIM) had its beginning in the work of Peter Cameron Scott (1867-1896), a Scottish-American missionary who served two years in the Congo before returning to Britain in 1892 because of a near-fatal illness. While recuperating, he developed his idea of establishing a network of mission stations which would stretch from the southeast coast of the continent to the interior's Lake Chad. He was unable to interest any churches in the idea (including his own), but managed to captivate several  friends in Philadelphia. In 1895 they formed the Philadelphia Missionary Council.

Beginnings

More important than special training, acceptance was based on Christian commitment and moral standing. The Council was headed by Rev. Charles Hurlburt-- president of the Pennsylvania Bible Institute, which provided most of the mission's workers in its very early years.

First Missionaries

On August 17, 1895, AIM's first mission party set off. The group consisted of Scott, his sister Margaret, and six others. They arrived off the east African coast in October, and in little over a year His idea was to establish a network of mission stations which would stretch from the southeast coast of the continent to the interior's Lake Chad.     the mission had four stations--at Nzawi, Sakai, Kilungu, and Kangundo, all in Kenya. More workers came from Canada and the United States, and the small group expanded to fifteen.

Scott's Death

In December 1896, Peter Scott died of blackwater fever.  The mission almost dissolved the following year when most of the workers either died or resigned. The Council began to take more responsibility for the work and appointed Hurlburt director of the mission. He and his family moved to Africa and for th next two decades he provided strong, if not undisputed, leadership for the headquarters, established in 1903 at Kijabe, Kenya.

Ministry Expansion

From Kenya, the mission expanded its work to neighboring countries. In 1909, a station was set up in what was then German East Africa and later became Tanzania. In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt pulled some strings, persuading the ruthless Belgian government to permit a mission station in the Congo.

Theodore Roosevelt & Hurlburt

Work began in Uganda in 1918; in French Equatorial Africa (Central African Republic) in 1924; Sudan in 1949; and the Islands of the Indian Ocean in 1975. Besides evangelism, workers of the mission ran clinics, hospitals, schools, publishing operations, and radio programs. Rift Valley Academy was built at Kijabe for missionary children. Scott Theological College in Kenya helped train African Church leaders. The churches founded by the mission in each of its fields were eventually formed into branches of the independent Africa Inland Church which continues to work closely closely with the mission today.