LISTEN: Rev Paul Bailie's last-ever segment on 'Thought for the Day' as missionary dead at 54

Rev Paul Bailie died on Tuesday. He was 54.

Among the many tributes to him was one recalling how he faced privation and banditry during his missionary work.

He was ordained as a minister at Greenwell Street Presbyterian Church, Newtownards, in 1995, and served as assistant there until leaving for Kenya in 1998.

He taught at the Presbyterian College of East Africa (now called the Presbyterian University) on the western outskirts of the capital Nairobi.

He returned in 2005, and served as chief executive of the east Belfast-based charity Mission Africa.

The charity’s work includes founding two hospitals in Nigeria to “combine medical care with a wider Christian witness”, and an AIDS clinic in the village of Ogugu.

It works in Burkina Faso and Chad too, and Rev Bailie often travelled as part of his job as CEO.

Rev James Burnett from Belfast Bible College said his enthusiasm was “undiminished by illnesses, bandit raids in Kenya (and scars) and other challenges”.

He recalled speaking with him only last week, “as we reminisced about our long friendship and that crazy three-night journey down lake Nyasa, Malawi with only street sellers’ oranges and warmish bottles of Coca Cola to live on, and that dodgy fish soup in Nigeria which incapacitated both of us for several days in the sweltering heat”.

While at the time of his death he had no official ministry, he preached routinely at Newtownards Second Presbyterian Church.

Rev John Flaherty, clerk of Ards Presbytery, said he was a “jovial” character, quite traditional in church outlook, and ever “gracious”.

"In the old-fashioned sense he was a real gentleman, a really good friend, and really extremely motivated by his faith,” he said.

"He worked hard at everything he did.”

The media file here is the last available contribution he made to BBC Radio Ulster’s Thought for the Day.

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