Eternal Purpose

Praise the LORD! God is not restricted by our weaknesses or limited time. God uses what seems like little moments to us to have impacts on others that we might never see. The past two weeks have been an amazing time in one of my favorite villages doing ministry. It is the village Canaan Baptist Church has been sending people to and serving for over 13 years to share the gospel along with others before that. Thank you to everyone who has prayed for the work that is happening here in West Africa. When you pray it makes you a part of the work God is doing here. You might not be here, but God hears your prayers and there is more power behind them than we know.

Village ministry is one of my favorite forms of serving. The whole focus of it is relationships with the people. It’s not fast paced, working on getting things done, but it’s working on making lifelong connections showing the love of Jesus with others. Our days would start in the late morning going to whoever’s house we would spend the day at. After greeting, we would begin helping the women cook. We would do things like chopping the vegetables or pounding the seasonings as they fried the fish and began cooking the rice. After hours of cooking, we would enjoy a meal together in the same bowl. After this, we would have the traditional tea. I’ve enjoyed learning how to make this. When we make tea, it is my favorite time of day. We are full from delicious rice and many of the people gather and we begin visiting with each other. This is the time that God often opens the door for great gospel conversations to be had. Over these past two weeks my goal and hope was that every house we spent the day at we would have the opportunity to share the whole gospel story clearly. God provided those opportunities and I’m excited to share with you more about the deep gospel conversations that we had.

It has been a great blessing serving with Lucy over the past four weeks. Her love for the people is deep and her willingness to help wherever it is needed is truly a blessing. I have gotten to watch her share her testimony and the gospel multiple times throughout the past two weeks. She is always eager to spend time with the girls in the village, whether it be making bracelets, helping wash laundry by hand, cooking, going to a mango grove, and braid hair. There were many people in tears having to say goodbye to Lucy when we left the village yesterday. It has been wonderful to see Lucy used by God and the Holy Spirit speak through her when sharing with the women.

To some it might seem that I am all alone in Africa doing ministry and only occasionally joined by a team from the states. Although this is technically true to a degree, I work extensively with the West African partners and team of believers here. None of what I do would be possible, nor would my living here ever be something that would’ve happened, if it were not for our team in West Africa. One of the members of that team I have grown very close to through many months of living together and over a year of working together. She is no longer my translator, or even my friend. She is my twin, or at least that is what she calls me and I call her. Jainaba is always ready to serve and translate the Gospel for us. Through her translating, Lucy and I have been able to share the Gospel along with many Bible stories with multiple different families throughout the village over the past two weeks. None of the ministry work would be possible if we did not have partners like Jainaba. God continues to grow the ministry in West Africa, and it is wonderful to work with so many different people that God has called to himself and called to serve him. Jainaba is just one of so many people I love working with here in West Africa.

We had been praying for Gospel conversations with the people in the village, and that we could share the Gospel at every house we spent the day at. God made all this happen! At one of the homes, Lucy shared her testimony and I shared about the trinity. At the home of the chief of the village, we got to share the Gospel with the chief’s wife. Another day I had the opportunity to share my testimony and the Gospel with my namesake. (Your namesake is the person you are named after from the village. Everyone that comes to the village is given a namesake. It is a beautiful form of welcoming and accepting people into the village.) God opened many doors for deep conversations to be had and I know the Holy Spirit spoke through us, and the Gospel was shared with many.

1 Corinthians 3:6-7

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.”

There was one Gospel conversation that really resonated with me. I had been praying that day for the opportunity to share with one of the women from the village that is very dear to me. Often things can get very busy and they’ll be many people coming in and out and it’s hard to have a private conversation and be able to go in depth. God worked it out that it was just her and her husband, and we were able to have a conversation about the Gospel and what the Scriptures say about Jesus and the Trinity for over half an hour. During that conversation, I know God was speaking to them through us. While we were having that conversation, I felt the Holy Spirit say to me ‘This is why I’ve called you here for this moment for this conversation.’ That moment had eternal purpose and significance. None of the conversations ended with someone professing to us that they wanted to follow Christ, but that’s not why we were called to come. Though it sometimes can get confusing and we think that it is, we are called to share the Gospel. We are called to plant the seeds and to water those seeds that have been planted by those before. It is God that makes it grow. It is God that changes the heart of someone and calls them to salvation. We might never see the fruit of the labor that we have planted for the kingdom of God in this life, but every little bit was all worth it. Every big decision and every little one that led me here that allowed us to have these conversations and opportunities. It was all worth it!

I wish I could share with you all the pictures of the wonderful people from the village but for their protection I will not share. They could face great persecution. Please pray for them. Also I have been asked by the chief of the village to send his greetings to all those that have come before.

God wants to use you for things that have eternal purpose. He has called all of us to go out and share the Gospel. For some it means going across the world for others it means calling up a family member or a friend and having what will feel like an awkward conversation about Jesus, but you have no idea what God’s gonna do with that conversation. Give God your YES. For anything he wants to do with you, be willing to be used by God, even if it means a difficult conversation, challenging moments, or years in another country. If God has called you to it, it will be worth everything and it will have an eternal purpose.

Thank you to those that read my blogs and keeping up with the work God has been doing here. I love getting to share with you little stories of things that God is doing. Your prayers connect you to the work here. They are very much appreciated and I ask that you continue to pray for the work going on. Please pray for the West African team. Pray for provision for their families, for health, protection, and that they might be able to continue the work of sharing the Gospel and reaching their families, friends and neighbors for the gospel. Please pray for the Youth Camp that is going to happen later in July bringing people from all over West Africa together to worship God, learn and grow in his Word, and have great fellowship. Thank you for your prayers. Grace and peace to you in our LORD.