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Mission Society founder H.T. Maclin has an amazing story. From his salvation during World War II to his years as a missionary in Africa to founding The Mission Society, H.T. has lived life to the fullest. Read his story to get to know this great man of God and be inspired by what God can do with a life surrendered to Him.

H.T. Maclin accepted Christ as his Savior and Lord on December 22, 1944 while aboard the aircraft carrier USS Anzio in the Pacific Ocean. Typhoon Cobra had just come through and taken the lives of nearly 800 men.

H.T. was in the sick bay with mumps during the storm. He saw men afraid for their lives and praying for God to save them. Then H.T. saw John Alexander, a naval cook, with a look of complete calm on his face.

H.T. met John again several nights later. John explained that his peace came from the Lord and that H.T. could have the same peace in his own life. John prayed with H.T. on the aircraft carrier, and he accepted the Lord.

Just two months later, in the battle for Iwo Jima, H.T.’s  fleet was attacked by the Japanese. During that battle, the USS Bismarck Sea sank because of a direct hit from a Japanese kamikaze aircraft, and many of his fellow sailors died.

H.T. just missed being assigned to that ship.

He writes, “As I witnessed the Bismarck Sea slip beneath the cold waters of the north Pacific, I thought about how having mumps for the third time had placed me in a new company of sailors where all but four of us—four out of 150—had been assigned to that ship. Why was I spared? Especially when so many others went to a fiery and watery grave?

“Whatever it may be…the result of it overwhelmed me as I had never been so before. I firmly believed I was saved for a reason yet to be revealed to me by the Lord.”

After the war, H.T. attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and attended Dallas Theological Seminary and the Perkins School of Theology at SMU to complete his M.Th. 

H.T. married Alice Nystrom on August 30, 1947. She also graduated with a bachelor’s and master’s from Southern Methodist University.

H. T. and Alice were appointed as missionaries in 1952 by the Board of Missions of The Methodist Church for service in the Central Congo. There H.T. served as the director of the Teacher-Training Institute and later taught at the conference seminary. In 1962, the Maclins were the first United Methodists missionaries appointed to Kenya. There they founded an institution for the training of Christian broadcasters/scriptwriters and audio-visual specialists.

Alice taught for the International Press Institute, the first extensive program ever offered in Africa for journalists and broadcasters from more than 30 emerging countries to help governments with the internal media communications to their citizens. She has since published a textbook which was used worldwide by the U.S. State Department and developed an ESL program at Georgia Perimeter College.

Returning to the United States in 1971, H.T. joined the staff of the Southeastern Jurisdictional Council in Atlanta in 1972 where he was the director/producer of The United Methodist series on The Protestant Hour. In 1974, the General Board of Global Ministries called H.T. to serve as the field representative for mission development in this same jurisdiction. In that role, he promoted project and missionary support.

In early 1984, H.T. became the founding president of The Mission Society, appointed to this office by the bishop of the North Georgia Annual Conference. By the time he officially retired in 1991, H.T. had seen 75 Mission Society missionaries sent to serve in 18 countries. He now serves on The Mission Society’s board of directors and assists in the orientation of missionary candidates.