Gray Smith and his older brother Frank, two courageous pioneer ministers from Cape Town, set off for British East Africa to explore the possibilities of spreading the good news. They took a car, a De Soto that they had converted into a caravan (house car), loaded it on a ship along with 40 cartons of books, and sailed for Mombasa, the seaport of Kenya. A recently built railroad connected Mombasa with Uganda, crossing Kenya’s highlands. So, at Mombasa, the two pioneers sent their precious books by train to Nairobi, the mile-high [1.6 km] capital city that about 20 years earlier had been nothing but a few rickety railroad supply sheds.

The Smith brothers then tackled the 360-mile [580 km] road to Nairobi. Today’s travelers cover this distance in about seven hours on a modern, paved road, but in those days such a trip in a loaded caravan was sheer adventure. The report sent to Joseph F. Rutherford, then president of the Watch Tower Society, and published in the August 1, 1931, Watchtower, gives us a glimpse of their journey and the witnessing work in Nairobi:

“Beloved Brother Rutherford:

“Many times have my brother and I thanked you for the privilege of coming to do this virgin country from South Africa.

“We duly shipped our motor caravan from Cape Town to Mombasa per S.S. ‘Llamtepher’; and after a pleasant sea voyage we started on the most terrible nightmare of a motor trip I have ever undertaken. It took us four days, going all day, to do 360 miles, from Mombasa to Nairobi, sleeping in the bush with wild animals all around us.

“Mile after mile I had to get out with a shovel to level ridges, fill in holes, also cut elephant grass and trees to fill in swamp for the wheels to grip. We kept on day and part night, being anxious to get on with the witness.

“Eventually we got to Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, and near the equator and Central Africa; and the dear Lord blessed our efforts with results that make a world record. We both worked twenty-one days, including all Sundays and Saturdays, and in this short time distributed 600 booklets and 120 full sets of nine volumes [of books]. We were threatened with the police, called liars, insulted, ordered out of offices; but we went on, and our work is nearly finished. A torch has been lit that will burn through darkest Africa. Judging by things we hear, the work has turned religious Nairobi inside out.

“I am returning to Cape Town; but my brother is arranging to carry the message on through the Congo and North Rhodesia down to Cape Town, where we shall meet again ready for the next privilege.

Yours in the Master’s service,

F. W. Smith, Colporteur.”

Under colonial rule, contacts with African people were restricted, so the Smith brothers placed most of their literature with Catholic Goans, who had come from Goa on India’s west coast to build the railroad. But the Catholic priests, furious about the truths explained in this Bible literature, collected and burned all the books that they could get their hands on.

Later, the Smith brothers contracted malaria, a disease that had cut short the lives of many travelers. Gray recovered after four months in the hospital, but his brother Frank died before reaching Cape Town.

Olga Smith and her two children say good-bye to her husband, Gray, and to his brother Frank at the start of their sea voyage to East Africa

Frank Smith in Nairobi, near town center, in 1931

Gray Smith witnessing in Kenya in 1931