4 believers, the longer story!!!

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.†