David was born into poverty in 1813, the middle of seven children raised in purely industrial areas. His father, a British tea salesman, served as a Sunday school teacher and inspired his middle child to serve the church.
Hell-bent on bringing heaven to earth, Livingstone dedicated himself to expanding the Kingdom of Heaven to areas of the world with the least exposure to the word of God. During his time in seminary, he pondered in which of the four corners of the world he would serve. At first he focused his attention on ministering in China, but due to the First Opium War, those plans fell through. He shifted to India, only to be turned away as a result of India being in good supply of missionaries and doctors. Finally he focused his attention to the Dark continent, which at the time, was damn near unknown. By 1839, he was granted passage to South Africa via the London Missionary Society.
Arriving in Cape Town, South Africa in 1841, Livingstone wasted no time in setting out for the badlands. His first posting was 1000 miles north to Kuruman, and it didn’t take long for him to request funding to explore drastically untouched areas deep within the continent. With every request sent to the London Missionary Society, money and prayers were sent back.
In the bush, his biblical knowledge only would get him so far. He learned the required skills to survive. Hunting, trapping, building, rucking, and mastery of the rifle were all needed unless he was scheduling his appointment with God early.
Within a decade, he had established himself not just as a missionary willing to bear the weight of several crosses, but as an adventurer who was slowly but surely traversing more square footage of uncharted territory than anyone else. By this point, the Royal Geographic Society had already used his information in the mapping of southern Africa, including major and minor waterways, lakes, inlets and tribal information.