Nairobi Forest Road cemetery Constance Mary Maxwell 8 Apr 1892-28 Dec 1942. Inscription: in / loving memory of / Constance Mary / Maxwell / who passed to her rest / Dec 28 1942 / in full assurance of / the advent hope / aged 50 years

Red 22 has Rev. S.G. Maxwell, Vunia, Usambara

Gazette 6 Dec 1938 Rift Valley Voters List
https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=AFS3 Spencer Maxwell was a pioneer missionary to East, Central, and Southern Africa. As soon as he arrived in Africa, Spencer Maxwell displayed unusual eagerness to carry out mission work. He established the work in many unentered areas, pioneered many mission stations, fields and conferences, travelled great distances, and braved grave dangers in what would be a four-decade missionary sojourn in Africa. There are millions of Adventists in Africa today who owe their faith to the missionary work of Maxwell. He was 26 when he arrived, and was 68 when he left, giving 42 of his best years in unbroken service to Africa. Nearly half of that time was served in Kenya.
Early Life: Spencer George Crowder Maxwell was born on November 22, 1893, in Norbury, Upper Tooting, London. He was the eldest child of Alice Maud and George Thomas Maxwell. His younger brother, the renowned author Arthur Stanley Maxwell better known as “Uncle Arthur,” was born on January 14, 1896, also in London. Soon after the birth of Arthur, the family moved to Hove, a seaside town near Brighton, south of London. After their father died in 1910, their mother became a Seventh-day Adventist though the work of evangelist John D. Gillatt. She led her boys to the faith, Spencer readily accepting it, but Arthur was reluctant, refusing to be convinced for a further three years. Alice moved the family to Watford so that her sons could attend the Stanborough Park Missionary College (now Newbold College). Spencer Maxwell became an ardent literature evangelist and spent two years in various parts of England and Scotland to finance his education. He completed his ministerial studies in 1915 and became a pastor in Leicester city, later moving to Derby, and then to Northampton where he ministered to a small company.
On June 13, 1916, he married Constance Mary Thicke in Watford. Constance Mary was born to British parents on April 8, 1892, in Oporto, Portugal. She accepted the Adventist message in Hove, Sussex, in 1911 and moved to Stanborough Park Missionary College as a student. In 1913, she worked as literature evangelist in Scotland for the summer, and after graduating, she was granted a Missionary License by the South England Conference where she was working as a Bible Instructor in Southampton.
Spencer and Constance were married at a local Baptist church at Watford that was borrowed by the Adventists for this purpose. The service was conducted by Pr. S.G. Haughey, who at that time was the president of the South England Conference. The new couple left for Leicester that same day where Maxwell was based. They adopted their first child, Myrtle,  who had been born shortly before they left England for Africa in 1920. They would eventually have four children Myrtle, Ruth, Stanley and Enid. 
Going to Africa: On June 5, 1920, the missionary party bound for British East Africa set out from Watford Railway Station in England. In the party was William Bartlett, Spencer Maxwell, Walter Armstrong, T. G. Belton, H. Matthews and Eric A. Beavon. They travelled to Liverpool Street Station in London and changed trains for Tilbury Docks. At Tilbury they boarded the steamship ‘Nevasa’ which was bound for Mombasa, in what was to be a twenty-day journey. The previous evening a dedication service had been held at the Stanborough College chapel led by British Union Conference President Malcolm Campbell together with Pastor F.M. Wilcox, then editor of Review & Herald. At the time this was the largest team of missionaries to have left England for the Mission fields.
The leader of the team, William T. Bartlett, was to take over from Pr. Arthur Carscallen the pioneer missionary in British East Africa. After a brief stop at Port Said in Egypt, the steamship arrived in Mombasa on June 25, 1920. After they disembarked, they took the train for Kisumu. Two days later, they arrived at Kisumu and were met by Pastor and Mrs. Carscallen. The party then took the brief boat-ride to Gendia where they were to begin their ministry. All the men came with their wives, apart from E. A. Beavon, who was not married, and Bartlett, whose wife and daughter were to follow. The Matthews came with their son, Roy. Mrs. Bartlett and their daughter left England on January 14, 1921, and their safe arrival in Gendia after a long journey was reported later.
Missionary Work in Kenya: As soon as they arrived, Bartlett commenced the distribution of the missionaries to their various stations. He sent the Maxwells to Kamagambo, the Armstrongs to Kanyadoto, the Beltons to Wire Hill, Beavon to Nyanchwa, while the Matthews went to Karungu and he himself remained at Gendia.
The Maxwells got to work at Kamagambo Mission, which was a beautiful place where the mission station had been founded by Carscallen in 1913 after first being seen by German missionary, L. R. Conradi and Carscallen in 1908. Kamagambo had sweeping views of the surrounding country and the climate was quite pleasant with plenty of water and good soils. Conradi and Carscallen made plans to secure it for a mission station, but it was not until 1913 that Carscallen broke ground for the mission station. Kamagambo stood on the border between the often-warring Luo and Kisii tribes. Maxwell quickly learned to speak both languages.
Prior to coming to Africa, the Maxwells had taken a course in tropical medicine. They began seeing patients of all kinds and treating as many as 80 people daily. At Kamagambo, Maxwell found a congregation of about 100 persons, but no church building existed. He began the construction of a church and a home for themselves, the old buildings having been destroyed during the war. He also laid out plans to expand the school at Kamagambo. Maxwell was amused at how different Africa had turned out to be, compared to the grim picture created in their minds and the dire admonitions they had received prior to departure. He was even surprised that here was not a mosquito in sight at his station. He wrote of Kamagambo, “The mosquito net is unnecessary as the dreaded mosquitoes which we expected to swarm around us like flies and suck our blood, are rarely seen or heard here.”
Besides taking three sessions of school in a day, they divided their time between treating patients, travelling to the villages on outreach, and attending to other duties. By October 1920, they had treated over 2,000 patients, mostly dressing wounds. Bartlett soon realized that Maxwell was stretched, and he arranged for relief. In July 1921, E. Roy Warland arrived from England and Bartlett had intended to send him to assist Maxwell, but he was temporarily assigned to Kanyadoto to relieve a sick W. W. Armstrong. Eventually Warland did go to Kamagambo and would be most noted for the education work there.
Into Tanganyika: Maxwell remained at Kamagambo until August 1921, when he was called to serve in the South Pare Mission at Kihurio in southern Tanganyika. He handed over to Warland before leaving. Communication between Kenya and Tanganyika had improved after the construction of the Voi-Moshi railway line and despite the heavy duties they had to pay at the border, all went well. They arrived at Buiko on August 30, 1921. Bartlett travelled with them together with Pare evangelist Ezekiel Kibwana. Together with fellow evangelist Paulo Saburi Kilonzo, Kibwana had travelled to Gendia to make the Macedonian call that the Pare missions badly needed attention. They met Bartlett who then decided that Maxwell should go to Tanganyika. While Kibwana returned with the missionaries, Saburi went to the Mwanza missions to supervise other workers in the abandoned missions. The war had devastated the mission work in Tanganyika.
Maxwell took with him his motorbike, which had a sidecar, but there were practically no roads suitable for motor vehicles, and he often had to leave it behind at Kihurio and walk the distances instead. The Maxwell took charge of several regional stations, including Kihurio, Friedenstal, Vuasu, and Vunta. They also served Momba and Suji. Maxwell quickly learned the Chasu language (Kipare) and Kiswahili in addition to the Dholuo and the Ekegusii he had picked up while at Kamagambo. Together with Pare evangelist Petero Risase, they began to translate the Bible into Kipare. Risase, an expert typist, put together the passages in typescript, Maxwell coming in to supervise.
In March 1922, Arthur F. Bull was sent to assist the Maxwells at Kihurio. The Maxwells did not just serve Pare but, in actuality, the rest of Tanganyika, travelling vast distances, touring the missions that had been decimated during the course of World War I, staying in each of them for up to a year to reestablish their work.
Into Uganda: In April 1927, Maxwell moved to Uganda to open the mission work there. He took with him two Pare evangelists--Petero Risase and Andrea Mweta. They arrived in Nchwanga in the Mubende district of western Uganda where they established the first Adventist mission station. In 1926, the East African Union superintendent, W. T. Bartlett, and Maxwell had organized for the purchase of an old 600-acre coffee estate in the Mubendi district on the border between the Baganda and Banyoro some 120 miles west of capital  Kampala. Unlike Kenya, where land belonged to the Crown and land grants were easy to obtain, in Uganda, land was held directly by Africans and difficult to obtain and quite expensive. With a limited budget (£600 sent in by the General Conference), the Adventists could not find any property for that price near Kampala. They eventually settled for an abandoned coffee estate previously owned by European settlers far from Kampala. Maxwell purchased a car – the 1923 Willys-Overland box-body (a forerunner of Jeep), which he bought new in Nairobi. He learned to drive it the same day he bought it. The vehicle, registered E 325, had its fair share of troubles, but generally made it easier to travel the distances in Uganda.
Maxwell went to Uganda with builder missionary Elder F. Salway, who repaired the old estate house and constructed the first Mission buildings and school. But prejudices from other denominations made the work of the Adventists particularly difficult. Maxwell decried the orchestrated campaign of disinformation targeted at the Adventists. Realizing the work was not moving as fast as he would have wanted, Maxwell turned to literature evangelism, owing to the high number of literate Ugandans. He brought in literature evangelists from Kenya and Tanganyika who distributed books and tracts in Luganda from the Adventist press in Gendia. Some of these evangelists were Paulo Nyema, Abraham Musangi, Ibrahim Maradufu from Tanganyika, and Samson Nyainda, Hezekiel Rewe, and Yeremia Osoro from Kenya. In due course, Paulo Saburi Kilonzo joined the team at Nchwanga. Maxwell also decided to establish medical work and made plans for it. In 1929, Dr. Rye Andersen, formerly of Skodsborg Sanitarium in Denmark, came to Nchwanga and, in a short while, was seeing about 1,000 patients monthly. With more teachers, the school was soon thriving. These methods rapidly impacted the Adventist mission work.
While on his way back from Kampala, Maxwell stopped at Mityana some 70 km west of Kampala. He quickly realized the potential of the area. Again, as before, nobody would sell the Adventists any land. Maxwell visited the Kabaka of Buganda and Sir Daudi Chwa, and then obtained his direct permission to establish an Adventist mission. Here, he sent his trusted evangelist Risase who worked and brought to the faith the first believers. Yobu Walabyike of Mityana became the first Ugandan to accept the Adventist faith. But it was a blind man named Joshua Kidawalime, who was the first Ugandan baptized into the Adventist church.
A Visit to Rwanda-Urundi: In April 1928, while in Uganda, Maxwell crossed over to Ruanda-Urundi, at that time under Belgian rule, to see the Adventist work there. Henri Monnier, an Adventist missionary, rode his motorbike to Nchwanga to guide Maxwell to Rwanda-Urundi. The roads in Uganda were much better than anywhere in East Africa, so it was easier to get further west. But the road ended before they crossed the border, and Maxwell’s car had to be pulled through ledges by rope and lowered into roadless ridges. While crossing a swift-moving river, the pontoons gave way, and the rear of the car fell into the water. A large team that pulled the car out saved it only by quick action.
Maxwell eventually reached Kigali and achieved the record as the first person to drive from Uganda to Rwanda. An excited crowd came out to meet him at the market to celebrate the grand achievement. He was then invited to meet the Rwandan king, Mwami Yuhi Musinga (Yuhi V of Rwanda r. 1896-1931), and was also introduced to his wives. Leaving the royal court of the Mwami, Maxwell reached the Gitwe Mission (which is now in Rwanda) where he met both D. E. Delhove and Alfred Matter and spent a week with them. Due to extensive damage to his car and the rainy season approach, he was unable to reach Rwankeri where Matter was based, but he managed to reach the Buganda Mission (now in northern Burundi) where D.E. Delhove was based. Both Delhove and Matter were former missionaries in Kenya.
Return to Kenya: Maxwell left Uganda in 1928, returning to Kenya to take over from W. T. Bartlett as superintendent of the East Africa Union (EAU). G. A. Ellingworth took over the work at Nchwanga. Bartlett was leaving for England on permanent return.
Maxwell began by ensuring that the mission stations were running smoothly. With his equally indefatigable Secretary-Treasurer F. H. Thomas, who had been the Press manager at Gendia, they began to scale up the work. In 1928, Maxwell had Kamagambo offering teacher training with the approval of the government of Kenya. In July 1929, Maxwell moved the East Africa Union Mission Office to Nakuru, where he had secured a five-acre campus for the offices and homes of some of the mission workers. He commissioned Pr. William Cuthbert to begin evangelistic work among the Europeans in Kenya. In November 1929, he presided over the Third Annual African Synod, bringing delegates from various churches across the South Kavirondo area to discuss and find solutions for the church's issues. The first synod had been organized by his predecessor W. T. Bartlett before he took over in 1928.
Earlier in 1929, Maxwell had presented a number of talks to students at the Kamagambo Training school on the work of the evangelist. Soon, the Kamagambo teachers who had obtained government teaching certificates, were deployed to church schools across the entered areas, greatly improving the quality of education offered in Adventist schools. The trained ministers also did their part. Each of the churches planted was encouraged to establish a school and the teachers from Kamagambo were on hand to teach. Maxwell used the trained teachers as part of the incentive to apply for schools in unentered areas, particularly in areas where there was resistance to Adventism. The desire for an education quickly superseded prejudices against Adventists.
In 1930, Maxwell was on furlough in England with his family. Much of that time, he kept raising funds for mission work in Africa, and at the South England Conference Session, he presented the Missions’ Appeal requesting £40 be given. The result was that £44 15s 3d was received. He attended the North England Conference Session, and the Missions’ Appeal raised £28. Maxwell visited a number of churches and attended the Scottish Mission Annual held in Glasgow, and another £7 was raised for the Missions’ cause. Maxwell attended the Winter Council of the Northern European Division before returning to East Africa with the money that had been raised to fund the expanding mission work. On November 21, 1931, Maxwell along with W. W. Armstrong, who was superintendent of the Kenya Mission, presided at the ordination of Paul Mboya who was the first African to be ordained as a pastor in Kenya. 
Maxwell personally oversaw the opening of numerous unentered areas in Kenya. He oversaw the entry into Nakuru and the Highlands in 1929, into Kalenjin country in 1930, into Kikuyu country and Nairobi in 1933, into Kamba country and lower Eastern Kenya in 1933, into Kenya’s coast in 1934, into Luhya country in 1935, and into Mount Elgon and Kitale in 1937. 
He organized countless evangelistic campaigns, sent literature evangelists into the population areas of Kenya, and got the Advent Press at Gendia to produce literature in various local dialects, not just for Kenya, but also for Uganda, Tanganyika, and Rwanda. In February1932, Maxwell and the EAU committee authorized the establishment of Junior Missionary Volunteer (JMV) and Missionary Volunteer (MV) programs in all the churches across Kenya. The JMVs and MVs did tremendous evangelistic work, bringing in thousands to the Adventist faith in the subsequent years. The MVs distributed literature, carried out personal evangelism, conducted Bible studies, held public rallies and meetings, helped the sick and infirm, composed music, and sang in choirs. 
The statistical report of 1935 showed that 544 baptisms had been reported in East Africa, 17 percent of all those baptized in the Northern European Division (European Unions and the African Missions), the highest number of baptisms from one territory in the Division. In February 1937, Maxwell moved the East Africa Union offices from Nakuru to Nairobi and presided over the first committee meeting at Karura in March 1937. 
Working in Kenya was not without challenges. Getting quality schools for their young children was a problem for the missionaries. Part of the move of their headquarters to Nairobi was motivated by the presence of the large and impressive Nairobi European School (now Nairobi Primary). Maxwell got his children admitted there and accessed a hostel along Crauford Road, and it was within walking distance from the school for the children of the missionaries working in distant lands to attend the same school. This small beginning was the foundation of what would become the Maxwell Adventist Academy, and their old campus is now part of Nairobi Central Church. Crauford Road was renamed Milimani Road and lately Jakaya Kikwete Road. 
The Death of Constance Maxwell: Mission work was not without its personal cost. Maxwell’s wife Constance died in Nairobi on December 28, 1942. Earlier, in 1941, she had fell ill and had undergone an operation. In June 1942, she became ill again, and another operation went badly, and she lost her life on the morning of December 28. Later that day, she was laid to rest at the Forest Road Cemetery in Nairobi. At the time of her death, apart from Ruth, the children were not in Kenya. Stanley and Enid were in school at Helderberg, South Africa, while Myrtle, now Mrs. Stone, was in England. Ruth was about to be married. The funeral was conducted by Pr. C. T. Bannister, and a tribute was written by W. T. Bartlett, who was serving as the field secretary of the Northern European Division and was visiting in Kenya at the time. Constance had been in Kenya for a total of 15 years and a missionary to Africa for 22 years.
Nyasaland (Malawi) Years: On January 12, 1943, just two weeks after the death of his wife, Maxwell moved to Blantyre in Nyasaland (now Malawi) to become the president of the South East Africa Union (SEAU). The SEAU incorporated the Nyasaland and Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique). Maxwell and his daughter, Ruth, took turns driving the 1,600 miles (2500 km) from Nairobi to Blantyre on mostly bad road in wet weather. They travelled through Arusha, Mbeya, Tunduma, Northern Rhodesia, and finally into Nyasaland from the north to Blantyre in the south. On the way, they visited a number of mission stations and on Sabbath stopped at Mbeya. W. Marais, who was the director of the Mbeya Mission, was their host. They arrived in Nyasaland a few days later and took over from C. W. Curtis.
Adventism had first come to Nyasaland in 1902, just four years before arriving in British East Africa. The Adventist church first began at Malamulo, some 40 miles south of Blantyre. Even then, five of the nine Mission stations in Nyasaland in 1943 were under African leadership while the other four were under Europeans. The tenth mission Munguluni, across the border in Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique), was under a European leader. Compared to Kenya, Nyasaland was ahead in the Africanization program, owing largely to the education that was offered in Adventist institutions such as Malamulo and Solusi. 
Maxwell took with him the idea of African Advisory Councils and Church Synods, and he oversaw the appointment of African departmental leaders to replace the Europeans. Maxwell became concerned that the numbers on the church registers did not reflect those that actually attended services regularly. He organized a cleanup of local church registers to find out who was still in membership. By this time, there were about 10,000 members in the registers, but not that many regularly attended church. Maxwell emphasized the need to reclaim the lost members. It soon became apparent that many had joined the army during the ongoing war, others had crossed over to South Africa to work the gold mines, while still others had grown cold or given up the faith. At the close of the exercise, some 3,000 names were dropped from the registers. Just after the war, many European workers with delayed furloughs suddenly left, creating a void. Malamulo, in particular, was deeply affected by the departures. Maxwell recruited more European workers, expanding the numbers from the 26 he found in 1943 to 46 by 1951. 
Within the first few days of arrival in Nyasaland, Maxwell inspected the printing press at Malamulo to check its capacity. He realized that it lacked vital equipment including a typecaster and a stitcher, and it needed a larger press. It was important for him to improve its capacity as he intended to develop the colporteur ministry as part of the evangelistic program. Maxwell secured new equipment, and by 1950, the output from the press reached 5,000 lbs. up from the 1,000 lbs. of literature in 1944. Maxwell founded and edited the magazine Mlengezi in the Nyanja language, which he had quickly mastered, and he started the production of the Sabbath School lesson quarterly in that language. Maxwell, with the Publishing and Sabbath School Secretary Elder T. Crowder, got the colporteur ministry up and running. Maxwell called Spurgeon Napangana, who was attached to the Chileka Mission as a teacher, to take charge of the colporteur work. Napangana recruited and trained dozens of literature evangelists and deployed them.
Visiting southern Nyasaland in December 1945, Division Sabbath School secretary Albert W. Staples met him. Maxwell was conducting an intensive training program for district pastors, evangelists, teachers, elders, deacons, Sabbath School officials, and teachers in southern Nyasaland. Staples was positively impressed at Maxwell’s dedication to the work. Maxwell had also done the same training in various mission stations across Nyasaland. In 1951, Maxwell inaugurated the Voice of Prophecy Bible School at the SEAU office. He appointed Pr. I. T. Crowder to be in charge with Ce Moffat Chona as his assistant. Maxwell’s Family Life in Nyasaland: In 1944 while at Blantyre, Maxwell met and married Laura Hands, who had a son, Arthur L. Hands, who now became Maxwell’s stepson. Laura was born in St. Helena, the far-off island on the Atlantic Ocean famous for being Napoleon’s final prison. She became an Adventist in South Africa and had three sisters in Nyasaland whom she occasionally visited. One day when she came visiting, she met Maxwell and they immediately felt a connection. They were married at the church in Malamulo. Laura was an evangelist in her own right. In September 1945, she was at Mitawa, 15 miles from Blantyre, to conduct an evangelistic campaign. Maxwell was also present to offer support, but his wife took the lead. Laura was happy to report that Chief Mitawa and two of his headmen were led to Christ and became Adventists. She was a gifted artist and often made illustrations that were used together with picture rolls. 
Meanwhile, the Maxwell children were growing up. Myrtle had married Robert Stone and lived in England, and Ruth had married John Staples and lived in South Africa. After their mother’s passing and a three-week momentous trip with several other missionary children due to World War II conditions at the time, Stanley and Enid were studying at Helderberg College in South Africa. Stanley, in particular, was making good grades at Helderberg College and was honored various times in the Southern Africa Division Outlook.
In 1945, Maxwell secured a new plot of land at Blantyre to construct modern offices for the SEAU and homes for the staff. By September 1946, he had moved to a comfortable new home overlooking the plains in the direction of Lake Nyasa (now Lake Malawi). Meanwhile, Maxwell’s son, Stanley, continued to do well at Helderberg College and graduated top of his class in October 1947. He shared the top honors with Elza Marais, the daughter of Willie Marais who had hosted his family at Mbeya on their journey from Kenya. 
In April 1948, Maxwell returned to England on furlough with his wife, where she met the rest of the family. They returned early in 1949. Enid was appointed a missionary to Nyasaland in 1950 by the Southern Africa Division and worked with her father at the SEAU office. Earlier in 1947, the Division had appointed Stanley Maxwell as a missionary while based at Helderberg College. There, he taught Shorthand at the School of Business Administration and Secretarial Science. Stanley, who had been born at Kendu Mission Hospital, later married Joan Raitt, the daughter of Kenyan missionary Pr. A. J. Raitt. Ruth married John Staples, and Myrtle had married Robert Stone in England.
In January 1952, Enid Maxwell married Arthur L. Hands at the Malamulo Church. Hands, who was son of Laura, was Enid’s stepbrother. He was working as a missionary in Rwanda, and they returned there after the wedding. Hands helped translate the Bible into Kinyarwanda and published a grammar book on the language.
Mozambique (Portuguese East Africa): In October 1944, Maxwell went into Mozambique (known then Portuguese East Africa) to conduct a Campmeeting. At that time, there was only one mission station – Mulunguni under M. M. Webster. Munguluni, founded by Webster in 1933, was situated at Munhamade district (now Lugela) some 200 miles across the border from Blantyre. During his visit, Elder O. I. Fields accompanied Maxwell and SEAU Secretary-Treasurer E. B. Jewell. Maxwell, who was impressed at the work going on, commended the Websters for the great effort they had put in the work in Mozambique. Maxwell saw the school at Munguluni, which had just received equipment for industrial training and a couple – Mr. and Mrs. Freire – had arrived from Portugal to work as teachers there. Later that year, O. I. Fields took over from Webster, but only briefly. Tragedy struck the Freires in May 1945 when their five-year-old daughter Angelina died of blackwater at the hospital in Mocuba. 
In 1946, after Webster completed the construction of a 700-seat church at Munguluni, Maxwell was on hand to dedicate the church in October that year after holding a well-attended campmeeting. Webster remained until 1947 when Ernest P. Mansell replaced him. He had served for nearly 14 years at Munguluni. 
In 1950, Maxwell rearranged the work of the SEAU. Mozambique, which was given the name Portuguese East African Mission (PEAM), moved from the Southern Africa Division to be a part of the South European Division. In 1953, the PEAM was re-organized as a detached mission in the Southern European Division and, in 1955, joined to the Angola Union to form the Portuguese African Union Mission under the Southern European Division. 
Mission to Muslims: Maxwell was deeply interested in reaching out to Muslims. In Nyasaland, Islam was practiced mainly among the Yao people who had settled east of the Shire River. He deployed two pastors, Albert Kambuwa and Dessert Nkholokosa, both of them Yao, a move which resulted in planting a church and school despite stiff resistance from local Muslim leaders. The outcome was that great testimonies of the work among the Muslims were reported in subsequent years. Former Muslims were among youth who attended a large Missionary Volunteer congress at Malamulo organized by Maxwell in September 1949. In September 1951, he held a large evangelistic campaign among the Muslims of Kalembo in Yao country. About 200 Muslims were in attendance, and 14 gave their lives to Christ, one of them the brother of an Adventist pastor. 
In 1960, The General Conference voted to appoint Maxwell as a member of the Division Committee to promote the work among the Muslims of Southern Africa. Evangelism to Muslims was his forte and had proved its effectiveness when he worked among the Yao. In August 1961, he was in Nairobi hosting an Islamic Conference with General Conference Field Secretary R.S. Watts. He did not need to drive up since flights to Nairobi were now common, and one could travel the distance of a week’s journey within the hour. Maxwell conducted intense training that led the delegates to understand the challenge before them. They resolved to step up evangelism efforts to Muslims. Former Muslims testified at the conference. 
In the Rhodesias: In December 1952, Maxwell was appointed the president of the Zambesi Union, which incorporated Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) as well as Bechuanaland (now Botswana) and Barotseland (now part of Zambia). He took over from V. R. Vail. In his valedictory statement, Maxwell waxed lyrical about the achievements of the Adventist mission work in the SEAU. “…from one lone missionary entering a strange country, facing an unlearned language and trying to convert people barely removed from fear of slave raids to 48 white missionaries and their wives, 369 African pastors, evangelists and teachers, ministering to 68 churches, having 19050 adult adherents and 154 schools having 12,000 pupils. Twelve mission stations, five maned by Africans, fairly well cover the country. Yes, God has wrought wonderfully for Nyasaland during these fifty years.” Malamulo was celebrating its Jubilee (1902-1952). He did not say that he had nearly tripled the numbers in the 10 years he had been in charge. 
Towards the end of April 1953, Maxwell arrived at Bulawayo after a brief furlough at Natal. His new union had 90 churches and 19,441 members. The new territory was quite different from what he had been through. The Zambesi Union was vast. It was much bigger than the East Africa Union in which he had served. It also had a different socio-political environment, with more Europeans (over 200,000 at that time) and with Rhodesia being a settler colony, social restrictions between the races applied nearly everywhere. 
On March 26, 1954, Maxwell and his wife sailed from Cape Town to the United States to attend the General Conference session held that year in San Francisco, California. On returning, he set out to tour the Caprivi Strip, the portion then under the South African mandate (now Namibia). To access it, he first went into Francistown, Botswana by road then by plane to Maun where he toured the Adventist mission. He conducted a series of meetings, and then after a few days, moved to Katima Mulilo on the Caprivi Strip along the Zambesi River. Here American missionary Sam Konigmacher had established a vibrant Adventist mission station. Maxwell also had time to tour Barotseland, the kingdom of Lewanika that was first entered by Adventist missionary W. H. Anderson in 1905.
Maxwell served as president of the Zambesi Union until December 1955 when he was elected to the Southern Africa Division. 
South Africa: In November 1955, Maxwell took part in the Southern Africa Division 10^th Quadrennial session held in Cape Town, where he made important presentations on mission policy and administrative issues around the running of Mission stations. The delegates voted to grant Maxwell and others ministerial credentials under the Division. Laura was also granted missionary credentials under the division. During this session, he was appointed as Ministerial Association Secretary for the Southern Africa Division and was also in charge of Voice of Prophecy (VOP) and Radio department. F. G. Reid replaced him. He now took charge of the overall VOP program across the entire Division and produced two publications, Exchange and Over to You. The Division appointment meant that he now moved to South Africa and was based i 
In April 1956, the Maxwells left Beira to proceed to England for their overseas furlough. On their return in December, they were based at the Division offices at Grove Avenue, Cape Town.
Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia: The Maxwells did not stay in South Africa long. In April 1957, the Division moved its offices to 4 Park Street, Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe). Meanwhile, Maxwell was sending thousands of VOP lessons to eager Bible students in the entire Division. He was also getting Adventist sermons and music on radio, sometimes on dedicated frequencies or on timeslots on local carriers.
In Kenya, the East Africa Union had some 12,144 students enrolled for VOP and 1,654 completed the courses in 1957. Forty students were baptized that year, with dozens more being prepared for baptism the following year. The EAU even employed five full-time VOP follow-up workers in the Central Kenya field and had VOP secretaries in each Mission station. Writing in the Outlook in 1959, Maxwell described the VOP saying, “The Voice of Prophecy is the handmaiden of evangelism.”
Not one to sit in the office, Maxwell along with E. Duncan Eva, crossed into South African in March 1958 to attend the Mission sessions of the North and South Bantu Missions. Later in June, General Conference secretary for North American Regional department, F. L. Peterson, joined him in Salisbury for a road trip to various campmeetings across various countries. They started at Inyazura, southern Rhodesia, then went to northern Rhodesia, the Congo Union, and finally to the East African Union.¹²¹ While in Kenya, Maxwell travelled all the way to Rusinga Island on Lake Victoria where he was the guest speaker during the 1958 camp meeting. Pr. Elisha Arunga hosted him. 
In July 1959, he was back in East Africa training ministers in various places and holding a VOP council in Nairobi. Later that year, he was in South Africa, then on to several places in both Rhodesias. Maxwell was now on the road most of the time. In July 1960, he commissioned W. C. S. Raitt to prepare several VOP radio programs for Radio Lusaka in both Shona and Ndebele. Together with recordings of the Solusi choir, these were broadcast by the Federal Broadcasting Company. He also managed to secure a slot in Radio Zomba in Nyasaland for a 25-minute church service in Nyanja language every fifth Sunday. In all some two hours of programs were devoted to African recordings and 15 minutes to European recording each week. 
In August 1960, Maxwell was in Uganda visiting the old mission ground he had broken three decades earlier. He held a ministerial institute at Bugema for Uganda's numerous workers and ministers. It was his first time in Bugema, and by that time, the work in Uganda had grown to 23 churches and nearly 4,000 members. The end of that year saw him back in South Africa to conduct another VOP training dubbed the “VOP Holiday Camp” at the Emmanuel Mission in Basutoland (now Lesotho). The Camp was quite successful, bringing in hundreds of people including nine pastors from other denominations who had taken the courses and were eager to find out more and ask questions.
After Uganda, it was time to visit Pare. Maxwell and Laura made their way to the Pare missions as the special guests of their 1961 camp meetings. It was the second time in 40 years that he was returning. He met old faces that he had known now grey with age. One of them, Abraham Sengoka, was the first Tanganyika Adventist who had been baptized in Friedenstal (now known as Mamba Giti) back in 1909 by Pr. E. Kotz. The people there were so delighted to see them they gave them with lots of gifts in appreciation. 
One of Maxwell’s final acts in Africa was presiding over the first graduation at Solusi. There were three Theology graduates, the institution's first four-year post-secondary training cohort that had been founded in 1894. This diploma was equivalent to a four-year degree and was recognized by Andrews University for admission into graduate study. The three graduands were Joshua (Yoswe) Gwalamubisi from Uganda, Joseph Ngila Kyale from Kenya, and Thomas Lisso from Tanganyika. They represented countries Maxwell had worked in, seeing the new generation of trained ministers ready to move the work ahead. And what a fitting end of Maxwell’s missionary sojourn in Africa. It was now time to go “home.”
Retirement Years: Maxwell formally retired in November 1961, ending 46 years of missionary service with 42 of them in Africa. He moved back to England with his wife and settled in the coastal town of Weymouth, Dorset. He found a tiny company at Weymouth and, being the man that he was, he refused to sit back. He began an intense evangelistic work that culminated in the organization of a church in Weymouth in February 1965. During that year, he celebrated his ministerial jubilee. His four children travelled to Weymouth for the occasion. He continued with VOP, working throughout Dorset and neighboring Somerset, making follow-ups with Bible study. He also continued ministering and teaching. In 1975, he produced a memoir of his time in Africa – aptly titled I Loved Africa and which summed up intimate details of his love affair with the continent. 
He died on July 24, 1982, in Guildford at the age of eighty-eight. His funeral service was held at Stanborough Park Church and was attended by many who had walked his missionary journey with him, and a prayer was said in Kiswahili. There is a small notice in the Southern Africa Division Outlook magazine on September 15, 1947: “On the afternoon of August 2, at the Henga camp-meeting, Elder S. G. Maxwell baptized six candidates in the crocodile-infested Rukuru River.” It was as if the hymnist George Duffield had Maxwell in mind when he wrote the famous words “…where duty calls, or danger, be never wanting there…” That sums up the character of the missionary life of Spencer George Maxwell. There was no danger too deep and no distance too far, no situation too dire, if it was for the advancement of the Kingdom, Maxwell was never found wanting.
Maxwell’s Legacy: The East-Central Africa Division (ECD), as well as the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division (SID), which incorporated the regions he primarily worked in Africa, have a combined membership of 8,851,464 as reported for 2021. In Kenya, several schools and churches are named in his honor--Maxwell Adventist Academy in Kajiado, Maxwell Adventist Preparatory School in Nairobi, and the Nairobi Central Seventh-day Adventist Church, which is informally known as “Maxwell Church.” In The Advent Survey in March 1930, Maxwell expressed his desire to see “…the day when there will be an Adventist Cape-to-Cairo route, a chain of missions stretching the length of Africa.” Kenyan historian Prof. Ali Mazrui famously described Cecil Rhodes as an ‘imperial Pan-Africanist’ because of his dream of British dominance from Cape-to-Cairo. In the same way, because of his desire to see Adventist Missions from Cape to Cairo, Maxwell can be described as an Adventist Pan-Africanist.