LCMS World Mission Blog

“‘Now Thank We All Our God!’ Although Thanksgiving is now over we still rejoice in the many blessings God has given. Pastors David Punjugu and Daniel Diabaté are co-workers in the Gospel working in Bamako (the capital city of the country north of us) who came last week for the evangelism program that I asked you to pray for in the previous newsletter. In our context, where it is often very difficult to get a hearing for the Gospel, it is even more difficult to speak openly about Christ. However, we want large numbers of people to hear the message. As Paul writes ‘How can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?’ (Rom. 10:14b). We gathered a large group by showing the ‘Jesus’ film on a big screen and also shared an evangelistic message. In fact, there were actually supposed to have been four pastors coming from Mali to help us with the program. Unfortunately, the two others had serious illnesses in their immediate families and could not make it. There were many obstacles to this trip; we had to scramble to find the equipment at the last moment because of a misunderstanding, and we had to borrow a generator since the one they were using broke. We sincerely thank and praise God that in spite of these obstacles, God’s Word went out. We showed the film in two villages, one that is small and far from Siguiri and the other, which is only a few kilometers away from our new church site.

“In both places, everything went off without one single glitch. Considering the technical difficulties with the equipment, the fact that the team was not complete, and that in the past we have been asked to leave villages when we’ve done open-air evangelism, we can only stand in awe of our Almighty God and thank and praise Him. In the first village, no one made any statement about wanting to know more about Jesus, or receiving His forgiveness and salvation, but the chief (who was cured of leprosy by Catholics as a young man) told us, ‘Don’t be discouraged if right away people don’t become Christians, in some places it took about 25 years before people really understood.’ Even to have this type of conversation in the open is a major step forward. In the second village, which was considerably larger, we had crowds of more than 200 each night. It was difficult to estimate the exact number because of the darkness and children blending in, but there may have been as many as 400 on each of the first two nights. Two people from that village said they want to receive life and salvation in Jesus.

“Even if it was only for those two people that the pastors came, their trip was well worth the effort and time, as God’s Word reminds us (Luke. 15:10). However one of the greatest benefits of the trip was the time they were able to spend with our new believers and the encouragement, learning, and fortification in faith our new believers received through this trip. One of them is enduring heavy trials as a result of his faith, but we pray that he will be able to withstand them and be even more firmly rooted as a result of the time he spent with our visitors in the Word of God and prayer. Before this trip, one of our new believers also shared a testimony of his faith in Christ. Many people around here make sacrifices to spirits for protection, especially in connection with farming. They seek protection from would-be thieves, but also that they would have an abundant harvest. In the past a new believer participated in these rituals, this year as a result of faith in Christ, he did not. His harvest was better this year than any other. People asked him ‘What did you do to get such a good harvest?’ He answered, ‘I only prayed to God in the name of Jesus.’ We thank God for giving this young man such faith, and we pray that he will be a further witness to the goodness and mercy of our loving Father.”

• Pray for the Norton family in Guinea
• Learn about other LCMS missionaries in Guinea