The story of Into-Africa as well as the Lighthouse Medical Mission Teams began in Arizona in 1988 in the heart of a young pastor named Alvin Smith. After serving 6 years in the United States Air Force from 1980-86 at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base located in Tucson, AZ, he received his Doctorate for Pastoral Care from the Minnesota Graduate School of Theology.

In 2007, sensing a call to minister to the people of Western Africa, Pastor Smith founded Into-Africa, Inc. He gained his inspiration years earlier when he pioneered the church along with his family in Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa. There he founded the Door Christian Fellowship (DCF) Church and over the next decade he built a large and vibrant congregation, preaching the simple gospel of Jesus Christ and calling on his congregants to share his vision of church planting. Despite the terror of war and the frustrations of endemic corruption, this vision took root.

Today, there are over 70 DCF Churches throughout Western and Central Africa, in countries including: Liberia, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Togo, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Cameroon, Benin, Guinea, Nigeria and the Gambia. These congregations are led by men and women who were mentored under Pastor Smith's leadership.