Samuel Morris was born around 1873 on the continent of Africa near what is today the country of Liberia.1 He was from the Kru people and his original name wasn't Samuel, it was Kaboo. His father was the leader of his people and young Kaboo was a favored son and a prince.
Kaboo nearly lost his life when he was beaten by a drunken and murderous band from a rival village while his parents and the other villagers were killed. He was then beaten, tortured and left to die. As he was only a boy at the time and there would have been no hope for him because his people's enemies had determined to end his life forever.
God however was Kaboo/Samuel's hope because God had another plan. Even though Samuel Morris was not saved and had never even heard about the Lord Jesus Christ or the Holy Ghost, God knew the boy's heart and He intervened in his life. The Lord acted upon His plan when He sent a blinding light to Kaboo's murderous enemies and spoke saying, "Rise up Kaboo! Rise up and run away!"2 The boy was astounded by the strange and unseen power interceding in his life, but he did not hesitate, as the ropes that bound him, "fell from his hands", and he fled through the forest and to eventual freedom.3 After a difficult trek to freedom, he eventually found his way to a farm run by missionaries. On the farm the boy Kaboo began to heal as he was fed, housed employed and clothed and subsequently he recognized the power that had intervened in his life. He later accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and began his journey.
As a Christian, Kaboo developed a love and a hunger in his heart to know all that he could about the Almighty and His Son. He also desired to find out all he could about the Holy Ghost, but his teacher and mentor could not help. As his desire to know more about the Holy Ghost deepened, Kaboo's struggles continued until he made up his mind to travel to America to seek someone who could teach him about the Holy Ghost.
Kaboo became a Holy Ghost traveller as his desire for the Holy Spirit caused him to embark upon a journey of thousands of miles to an unfamiliar land to seek that precious Spirit. When he arrived in America, his name was changed Samuel Morris when he found what he was looking for. And Samuel Morris remembered today not only for his remarkable journey but also for the spiritual impact that he made upon the lives of a multitude of people and for the evidence of the Holy Ghost in his life.4
1 p19, W. Terry Morris, Samuel Morris, The Apostle Of Simple Faith. Barbour Publishing, Inc., Uhrichsville, Ohio, 1996.
2 Ibid, pp 38 - 39 W.
3 Ibid, p 43.
4 Ibid, p173.
