Patrice

Patrice was a Congolese boy whose life became closely tied to missionary doctor William Leslie. When bullying soldiers threatened him at a train station, Leslie defended him and promised to teach him to read the "words of life" in his gold-lettered Bible. Leslie later nursed Patrice through smallpox, risking his own health to save the boy. Patrice learned from the doctor and received a faith that endured after Leslie's work seemed to fail. Decades later, Patrice's grandson possessed Leslie's Bible in Vanga Village, where eight churches showed how far the original teaching had spread. Patrice stood at the beginning of that quiet legacy. The frightened child Leslie protected became the link through which one missionary's service reached generations he never lived to see.