By Mark A. Kellner 

 

The entry in the Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia is, of necessity, concise:

 

“BABCOCK, DAVID CALDWELL (1854-1932). Conference administrator and missionary. He was educated at Battle Creek College and was president of the West Virginia Conference (1892-1895) and the Virginia Conference (1897-1899). He directed the British Guiana Mission (1900-1905) and the British West African Mission (1905-1914); he opened up Seventh-day Adventist work in Nigeria (1914-1917). In 1917, while en route to England seeking treatment for sleeping sickness, he was rescued [after] the ship was torpedoed. In 1919 he was sent to the Virgin Islands for ministerial work, and again to British Guiana as president of the conference (1925). Two years later ill health forced his return to America.”1

 

Barbara BabcockOf course, the 105 words don’t tell the whole story; probing further within the Encyclopedia’s depths, one finds this about Babcock’s pioneering work in Nigeria:

 

“Seventh-day Adventist missions in Nigeria began in 1914, when D. C. Babcock, who had worked in Sierra Leone since 1905, arrived in Lagos. He was accompanied by two Sierra Leone workers, R. P. Dauphin and S. Morgue. Leaving his family at Lagos, he made a tour northward as far as Jebba, on the Niger River about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from the coast. Babcock selected a mission site at Erunmu, 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Ibadan, capital of the Western Region. One of the young men who had come with Babcock from Sierra Leone learned the Yoruba language so quickly that within five months he opened a school near Lalupon. The missionaries’ language instructor, son of a local chief, soon began to keep the Sabbath. Before the end of 1914 three schools were in operation and seven converts were reported.

 

“In 1917 Babcock, stricken with ill health, was compelled to leave for England with his family. On the way they narrowly escaped death when their ship was torpedoed and sunk.”2

 

Leaving a Legacy 

But, still, not even this tells the complete story: Babcock’s legacy includes a son, also named David Caldwell Babcock, who as an infant survived that infamous boat trip, and also grew up to be a renowned organist and musician, a successful insurance executive, and a faithful Seventh-day Adventist throughout his life. One of the younger David Babcock’s daughters, Barbara, has served in children’s ministries for the North American Division, and today is the Pacific Union coordinator for Adventist Single Adult Ministries, reaching one of the church’s largest-growing membership segments.

 

Oh, and there’s the matter of this church-owned tertiary institution: Nigeria’s Babcock University, founded in 1959 as Adventist College of West Africa (ACWA), later dubbed the Adventist Seminary of West Africa. The school boasts some famous alumni: world church executive secretary Matthew Bediako is a graduate, and Jan Paulsen, the General Conference’s president, was a onetime principal there.

 

According to Barbara Babcock, Adventist Church leaders in Nigeria formed a committee to ponder the name for the newly recognized university.

 

Local leaders “formed a committee about 11 years ago when they were becoming a university,” Barbara Babcock, who lives in Loma Linda, California, said in an interview. “They all sat around, looked at each other, and said, ‘Why are we even discussing this?’ One person was pivotal, and that was David Caldwell Babcock.”

 

J. A. Kayode Makinde, current president and vice chancellor of Babcock University, confirms the family’s account.

 

“The church leaders were searching to capture a title, a name for the university which would actually personify the spirit of adventure, the spirit of self-sacrifice, the spirit of total commitment to mission, and almost unanimously everyone said, ‘Look here, David Caldwell Babcock was the missionary that came to West Africa in 1914,’” Makinde explained in an interview with Adventist World during a recent visit to Silver Spring, Maryland.

 

COMMUNITY LEADERS: Jan Paulsen, Adventist world president, stands with several chiefs of Ilishan-Renao, where Babcock University is located.According to Makinde, “1914 was very significant for Nigeria, because 1914 was the very year that the name Nigeria came into existence. There was no country called Nigeria before 1914. That is when the British brought two different territories that they ruled together and formed Nigeria, so we always tell the story that if you want to know what will happen to Nigeria, then comes Babcock. Because in 1914 David Babcock arrived, and Nigeria was born.”

 

Ironically, Barbara Babcock said, it’s not likely her grandfather would have welcomed the attention! Barbara never met him–her grandfather died when her late father was only 15 years old—but she and her older sister did talk with her grandmother, Babcock’s third wife (his previous wives had passed away in the mission field). And, from what she heard, the elder Babcock was not one who sought attention.

 

“He would not want to have his name associated with all these things, but he was just dedicated to making a difference for God,” Babcock said. “He did things like Christ did; he made a difference in people’s lives.” 

 

Making a Difference 

And, making a difference in the lives of people seems to be a hallmark for the namesake of David Caldwell Babcock; the 6,000-student school is having an impact in West Africa. (Babcock University is one of the larger Seventh-day Adventist campuses in the world, rivaling similar large enrollments at Sahmyook University in Korea, and Northern Caribbean University in Jamaica. The Central Adventist University of São Paulo, Brazil, has approximately 6,900 students in its college-level programs, and another 4,200 in elementary and academy schools, spread across three regional campuses; Babcock has an additional 1,000 students in precollege classrooms, Makinde said.)

 

“I don’t know how to describe it except to say this is God at work,” Makinde said. “The mission of Babcock University is really not just to set a standard; it is to be the standard. Someone else can [claim] the standard, but [we aim] to become the standard by which excellence is defined in every sphere of humankind development that we engage in. And that is not just an empty slogan. Right now, in every area in which the country has given up in failure, Babcock has established a record.”

 

Makinde added: “At the last graduation, which was the tenth of the university itself, we had Pastor Paulsen in attendance and we had to invite the president of the country, the past president of the country, our own chairman of the federal reserve, the central bank governor was there, and the immediate past president of the central bank, and minister of health was there, and we had our [General Conference] president visit with the presidency in Nigeria.” (To read about Paulsen’s visit, see “NIGERIA: Paulsen Returns to Former Appointment, Observes School Growth,”Adventist World, August 2009.)

 

The university president noted: “Even the past president of Nigeria had his son come to Babcock. That’s the level: the rich, the poor, the powerful, the peasants—everybody meets at Babcock. It’s actually a melting pot. We try as much as possible to prevent it from being a boiling pot.”

 

Along with national recognition, Babcock University is drawing thousands of non-Adventist students, some of whom leave the school with more than a degree. In this way, Babcock is in sync with a similar outreach program at church-owned Sahmyook University in Seoul, Republic of Korea, where non-Adventist students are also ministered to and many are evangelized (see “Fishing for Souls,” Adventist World, March 2009).

 

GRADUATION EXERCISES: 
Pastor Jan Paulsen speaks at the 2009 
baccalaureate service at Babcock University. University administrators and their guests process to commencement exercises.“We don’t require you to be a Seventh-day Adventist to be admitted into Babcock University, but when you come in you need to be comfortable with the environment on campus, with the standards and policies and qualities and everything that is in there,” Makinde explained. “You need to show that you will benefit from what we have to offer.”

 

Makinde added: “At the end of this [past] school year we baptized about 1,000 students … our strategy goal is to come in with 30 percent enrolled Adventists and 70 percent non-Adventists and to graduate 70 percent Adventists as opposed to 30 percent.”

 

Such evangelism strategies–recently, Adventist televangelist Mark Finley conducted a campaign on the Babcock campus–might lead to issues with the non-Adventist parents of students who are newly minted church members. Do problems arise from these baptisms?

 

“Yes,” Makinde replied. “The major issue that it creates is that most of the time the parents notice a transformation in the behavior of their children—their character and everything. Parents come calling, ‘What have you done to my child? How did you get him to do this? I have tried and tried. There isn’t anything I haven’t tried. It just never worked. How did you do it?’”

 

He continued: “Some of the parents are coming in to be baptized. So does it create issues? Yes, it creates issues, but not negative issues. We have never had a single instance of a parent coming to the campus to protest. Not one.” 

 

But the business of Babcock remains education; its impact, like that of its missionary namesake, is being felt throughout Nigeria.

 

Jan Paulsen, a onetime principal, took note of the school’s accomplishments during an August 15, 2009, forum with educators at church-owned Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan.

 

“Babcock University has gone through a phenomenal growth over the last 10 years, from a few hundred to … 6,000-plus, and it’s become, if you have not been on the campus in the last year or two, it’s almost a city by itself,” Paulsen noted.

 

This, in turn, has led to expectations from the national government, the community, and area Adventists that the school will grow and expand its programs.

 

“They built a new hospital on campus with about 100 beds, and that is to be expanded because they have approached both the government and the General Conference about setting up a new school of health sciences on the campus, the centerpiece of which will be a new school of medicine to train doctors,” Paulsen said. “Both the government and the General Conference have said yes, OK, that is a worthy objective.” The proposal is expected to undergo the regular review process of the world church’s International Board of Education and the Adventist Accrediting Association before those objectives are realized.

 

According to Makinde, Babcock “is going to take off with three schools: a school of medicine, a school of nursing, and a school of public and allied health. And then as we are developing more we will add a pharmacy and dentistry. We last year launched a $250 million [capital] campaign and we are doing very well. We have already gotten more than 25 percent. In terms of grants and donations and commitments and over a four-year period, which is to really fund this project and create an endowment for us, that will make this project sustainable.”

 

He added: “Jesus went teaching, preaching, and healing, and if ever there is a continent, Africa is a continent that needs a lot of healing. The gospel commission is not effective unless it comes with the healing balm from Gilead, here for the church.”

 

In a way, Makinde’s comments bring the story of David Caldwell Babcock full circle: a man who came to help, serve, and, yes, heal those in need. Though his time in Africa was short, Pastor Babcock’s work made an impression that resonated more than 80 years later when the university was named in his honor. From one family’s determination to serve, a nation—and an entire region—is being reached.