I Sat Where They Sat
Arnold Bowler

6x9 - 304 Pages

There have been few missions books that will touch your heart as will this story of how a young Canadian couple responded to the call of God to go to Africa as missionaries and ended up spending over 50 years ministering to a people with whom they had fallen in love.

This book will take you deep into African daily life with all of its hardships but also into the beauty and joy that Africa has. It contains the stories and experiences that Arnold and Elsie lived through, including the hardships from poverty, sickness, witchcraft, wild animal attacks and even from corrupt governments like Idi Amin.
This is also an account about people’s lives being changed through Christ and how hundreds of churches were started and nations were changed forever by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The church in Africa is alive and strong today because people like Arnold and Elsie Bowler sacrificed and responded to the call of God to give their lives for others. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13 NASB). They gave their lives so they could sit where others sat!

Rev. Gary Nettleship
Senior Pastor, Trinity Pentecostal Church


Arn Bowler, with his wife Elsie, served as missionaries in Africa for 50 years. Their lives were never boring as they witnessed amazing moves of God in three countries, even living through a military coup or two. They experienced God’s faithfulness first-hand and know the crucial part prayer plays in missions work. They are now retired (sort of) and living in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada.