We will never come to expect the times when God chooses to stretch and
mold our faith. Recently I realized, again, how much room there is to grow
daily in my faith. Well, I know you are all dying to hear the stories of
our new brothers and sisters in Christ so I'll get on with it.
Each week I spend time in three villages, my town and a fulani
neighborhood within the town visiting, building relationships and sharing
Bible stories when appropriate. It is rewarding because of the
relationships but I was not seeing much interest in Jesus at all. God is
faithful to encourage me and I know that results are not the reason I am
here, but rather to plant seeds that will grow in the future.
Well, this week my teammate asked me to record a Bible story that goes
from Creation to the Cross to help her better prepare to tell it herself.
I had told it maybe four times previously, each time significantly
struggling to get my thoughts across. I did not feel like it would do much
good, but consented. I told the story to two women whom we have close
relationships and they assured me they understood but did not feel led to
make any decision. That reaction was typical but still disappointing.
Later in a village I took my recorder and played the recording for others.
I stopped at various places to clear up understanding and rephrase my
words. In one home it led to a great conversation about the Fulani's
concept of God and sin. Later, I was visiting when a woman came by with a
crying baby. It was not her baby but she was holding it and it would not
stop crying. I reached for it and cradled it for a while, and it calmed
down and fell asleep. They were delighted and we went back to a hut to lay
the baby down. They got out some milk for me to drink and then we sat and
talked. I took the opportunity of few distractions to tell the the
"Creation to the Cross" story. I did not have my recorder with me, but was
able to tell it sufficiently for them to understand. Near the end I told
them if they believed what I had said and wanted to accept Jesus' blood as
sacrifice for their sin they could do that. They said they wanted to.
"What?!?" That had never happened before and I was not sure I had heard
correctly. I tried to talk to them about it telling them about persecution
and the difficulties of following Jesus but they still said they wanted to
talk to God and ask Him for His forgiveness. Wow! I asked if they could
retell the story and when they could not really remember the sequence I
retold the story again. I promised that the following morning I would come
and retell it and we would practice it together. I left their home really
excited but still questioning if they really meant what they said. Two of
the girls were teenagers so I questioned whether or not their prayer was
real. I decided to tell people that one person, maybe two had accepted. My
faith is still so small.
The next morning I went to the house to find no one home. I went to the
well looking for my friend and ended up visiting with some others,
eventually coming back to the house around 1 pm. I did find my friend and
one other girl was there as well. She excitedly came to me to tell me that
she had prayed to God that morning thanking Him for the sun (as I had in
my prayer the previous day!) That was confirmation that even though she is
young she knew what she meant and had chosen for herself not for anyone
else. Praise God!!
I wanted to visit with the one woman but she was pounding. Her Father in
law was there resting after coming in from the fields and he asked to hear
my story. I took out my recorder and started it. His friend, another man
whom I had seen often but not really knew well, came up and sat with us
too. We went through the whole story and they had questions which made it
fun to tell. I told them that my work was to share this story with the
Fulani in the villages around. At the end of the story before I asked if
they believed what I was telling them he commented excitedly, "how are
they going to choose Jesus if somebody does not go and share this story
with each home?" It was exactly what I was thinking and I told him how we
wanted to gather people to hear stories and praise God and how he could
tell the story to his friends and family. We talked some more about the
difficulties of gathering people because of the work that they do and then
they asked me., "How can we choose Jesus?" I finished the rest of the
story and led them to pray to God for forgiveness of sins and to lead them
in the "Jesus Way." I looked back at the women behind me and they were
smiling as they watched it all play out.
Then I talked about how they were better ones to tell the story to their
peers. I promised to tell the story again when I came back and practice
it. They were glad and promised to meet with me when I got back.
I am going back to the village today, Sunday, and then again on Wednesday!
Please pray for these four new believers in their new faith. Pray that
they would have a hunger to learn about God and what this decision means
for the rest of their lives.
Please pray that I would have wisdom to share God's word with them.
