LCMS World Mission Blog

“God and His ways continue to amaze me. My friend Evie has often mentioned she’d like me to go with her to greet her family in another town, but I don’t often travel there. Another thing she and her husband both mention frequently is that I don’t lie; I do what I say I’m going to do. Sadly, that is very uncommon here, which is why they noticed the difference almost immediately. Not long after, they started asking me basic questions about my religion. They said they knew I was a Christian even before I told them because I didn’t lie. Their observations continued over several months.

“The day arrived in November when I had planned to travel to Evie’s family’s town, so we planned to go together. What I thought was going to be a simple trip to a nearby town to greet my friend’s family and meet her long-lost daughter turned into something of
potentially eternal significance. I had already thought through whether or not to try to tell a Bible story on the way, but had decided against it, since driving here requires 100 percent concentration and at least one set of eyes. However, about 10 minutes into the hour-and-a-half trip, Evie said, ‘My husband wants to know what your religion is all about. So tell me everything. I’ll go home and tell him what you said, and if he likes it, we’re in.’

“I almost had to pinch myself. I kept thinking, ‘THIS is how it’s going to happen?’ At the moment, it seemed so abrupt. Despite my surprise and unpreparedness to explain all these details (in Maninka), I tried to cover all the foundational things about our faith that would be important to know for someone considering a complete change of life and worldview. These are the times when all I can do is pray for God to provide the words, and that it would be correctly understood by my friend. So we started with God creating the world and the fall into sin, God’s plan to send Jesus to save us, His life, death and resurrection so that we could be forgiven and go to be with God forever in heaven. I was talking about our sinfulness, and how when we believe in Jesus, He stands in our place so God doesn’t see our sinfulness, only Jesus’ holiness. At the end of an hour or so of trying to explain things, her response was, ‘So Jesus is the Way?’

“Again, I was dumbfounded. First, at her comprehension of my words, but even more so by her profound understanding of the concepts I was trying to express. It was so exciting to see the Holy Spirit at work so clearly. Evie went home, explained things to her husband, and asked me to come and get them the next Sunday, because they wanted to come to church! Not only is it extremely rare for someone in Guinea to make a public appearance at a Christian worship service so quickly, but the fact that the husband and wife came together to worship was a first in this area. It’s exactly what we hope and pray for—that families would come to worship God together, so it was a very exciting day. Please pray for this family, that the Holy Spirit would be working in their hearts and that their interest in Jesus is genuine. Out of sheer amazement that this all happened so quickly, I couldn’t help but ask Evie some questions. I found out that previously, in another country, they had lived in an apartment building where Christians gathered for worship, and they knew the pastor of that fellowship, which had positively impacted them.

“So much of their information about Christianity did not come from asking about our doctrine or theology—rather, they based the rightness/righteousness of our faith entirely upon the actions of those who claimed to be believers.”

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