On our last trip to Africa, we ended up arriving an entire day late due to problems with the aircraft, already a great start for our journey, so we ended up already missing a day of ministry, something I wasn’t too happy about, but God’s plans are always higher than ours.
If you remember, earlier this year, we visited the chief of a village who subsequently came to faith as we preached the gospel. He died a month later, leaving the village without leadership. As providence would have it, the first of the only two places we were able to minister was the very village where this chief used to live.
When we arrived, it was strange being there knowing we wouldn’t see our friend there – I miss him. But we were encouraged that a sizeable crowd came out, among whom was a young man who had brought his Bible out. I figured that he was one of the church members, but after our Bible study and testimony time, he told us through a translator he was very happy in Islam and did not want to become a Christian.
Our translator also told me that he was the chief’s son. That probably explained why he stood out to me so much. Filled with compassion, we began speaking to him, but it wasn’t until the part where we mentioned Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin was death and the gift of God was eternal life that he opened the Bible to read that for himself.
He seemed moved by this word, and we told him about the faith and hope his father had that gave him eternal life, and from that point on he was riveted in the conversation. Near the end of our dialog, we asked him if a dead man could bring him back to life.
We told him that no matter their message or lifestyle, every founder of every other religion is currently dead and in the ground, but even Muslims believe that Jesus Christ lives to this day and is at the right hand of God. “Who then is able to save?” we asked him.
Our local ministers continued the conversation from there, and at the end the man announced that he was ready to come to Christ. Praise God for the hope he now shares with his father.
Afterward, we told him that things about his life would need to change, and deep in thought, he asked us if he should quit his job as a hunter now that he was a Christian. That’s a man who is considering the cost.
We told him, no, he didn’t need to quit his job, but that God has called him to live a holy life, even at work. We prayed for him and left encouraged - if God just sent us there for that one man, then the whole trip was worth it. What price can you put on a single human soul?
Like father, like son – two generations have come from darkness to light. But this hope is not limited to them. Jesus is not just another dead religious figure, He is our living hope. If I would trust anyone with my life, it would be the One who beat death.
According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
1 Peter 1:3
