Axis2 v1.0: AxisSOAPServlet null pointer exception

[D P <de...@gmail.com>]

Hello all:
Axis 2, v1.0
I plan to only use SOAP for my web services ( as opposed to REST) and was
going to use the AxisSOAPServlet class in my web.xml file like so:

    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>AxisServlet</servlet-name>
        <display-name>Apache-Axis Servlet</display-name>
        <servlet-class>
            org.apache.axis2.transport.http.AxisSOAPServlet</servlet-class>
            <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>


But I'm now getting a null pointer exception on line 292 of AxisServlet,
which appears to be as a result of the axis config not being initialized
properly.  All of this is leading me to the conclusion that I'm going about
this the wrong way.  So my question is, am I trying to use the
AxisSOAPServlet for a purpose other than what it was designed for?

TIA.
DP.