Adapted from 'Tommie Titcombe and the Nigerian Witchdoctors' originally published on chrisfieldblog.com
Tommie Titcombe was small in stature physically, but spiritually he was a giant. He was born in Wiltshire, England, in 1881. It was at the age of 21 that he and some friends took shelter from a rainstorm by entering a Salvation Army hall. A meeting was in progress. Conviction of sin entered … and a few days later Tommie “was saved for time and eternity,” to use his own words.
Four years later – and now living in Canada – Tommie heard an S.I.M. missionary recently returned from Nigeria. He soon felt called of God to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who had never heard the good news of salvation. Twice he applied to the Sudan Interior Mission, and twice he was refused. He told the director, Rowland Bingham, that he was going to Africa anyway. Upon being asked what board he was going under, Tommie replied, “I don’t know, Mr. Bingham. It may be some old woman’s wash board, but I’m going to Africa!” Seeing Tommie’s determination, Mr. Bingham soon afterwards relented and accepted him into SIM. By 1908 he was in the ‘dark continent’, ‘the white man’s grave’ as it was then known, ready to preach the gospel. In those days most SIM missionaries either died early or returned as invalids from the field.
He became a pioneer missionary to the Yagba people of Nigeria, West Africa.… and the obstacles and blessings that came his way are recounted in Tread Upon the Lion, by S. de la Haye. Another volume, A Flame of Fire, by J. Hunter, tells of the birth of S.I.M. and the early men and women of God who ventured forth …
The story is told of Tommie Titcombe surrounded by “witch doctors gesticulating, posturing and gyrating, and the mob shrieking and roaring.” In his words, “I pushed my way to the centre of the ring,” wrote Tommie, “and saw to my utter astonishment a woman rigid in the air. Her feet were some two feet off the earth and as she came toward me gravitation had no power over her …All I said was: ‘Lord, Thou hast said in Thy Name we shall cast out demons. Lord, deliver this girl’. Immediately she dropped to the ground. I picked her up and carried her into the first hut …”
The witch doctors and sorcerers of the Yagba people threatened physical harm and death to Tommie Titcombe if he entered their villages. The villagers of Ponyan strung a rope of fresh human heads across the path to scare him away from their area. Tommie fasted and prayed and entered that village and many others.
One of his earliest converts and the first man to be baptised (in 1914), Malachi, son of a witchdoctor, lived to over 100 years and did much to build on the foundation which Tommy established.
Before his death he had the joy of seeing thousands of Yagba people in Nigeria turn to Christ.
Raymond J. Davis, S.I.M. General Director, tells of visiting Tommie just prior to his death. “He grasped my hand. ‘Ray,’ he said, ‘I’ve told you many times that long ago God gave me Psalm 91 as my special portion of Scripture. There are 33 promises in that Psalm and God has fulfilled every one of them for me, most of them many times’. He lay back on his pillow … opened his eyes a bit and said, ‘I’ll see you up there …’.”
Tommie Titcombe died in Toronto, Canada, on 29 May, 1968.
His story is a blood-stirring pioneer thriller. More than that, it is the record of how God used a very ordinary man to break into an animistic society and start a movement that produced a large and healthy church. Tommie Titcombe’s spiritual insights and personal courage have made his name a legend among the many Christians of Yagbaland. His story also provides us with an extremely relevant case history of sound missionary principles at work.
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