Shipping Channel, Lagos, Nigeria, 1950

"past the ship channel which is dredged out of the shallow lagoon which surrounds the island of Lagos. If the dredgers ever stopped -" The shipping channel outside of Lagos, Nigeria. This photograph comes from an album that recounts Eldred Echols and Boyd Reese's visit to Nigeria in 1950. The Lawrence Avenue Church of Christ in Nashville, Texas asked the two missionaries to visit Nigeria and report on an emerging indigenous Christian movement whose leader participated in a Bible correspondence course run by the Tennessee congregation. Upon their arrival, the missionaries found several thousand Christians led by Coolidge Akpan Okon Essien, from the Efik tribe in Eastern Nigeria, whose doctrine and practice were similar to that of American Churches of Christ.