Week 2
In only our second week here I think we have covered every form of public transportation that Africa has to offer. On Friday we traveled with our day guard by bush taxi to Mayi. It is about 40k away. It took us about two hours to get there and we were thankful when we arrived. I was not excited by any means at the next form of transportation that we would be taking. We were going to visit some Hausa believers there and to meet with some Fulani who had requested that someone would come and teach them about Jesus. Well the village was 12k in the bush and we were going to get there by riding on the back of motorcycles. Now I consider myself somewhat of a thrill seeker. I mean I love roller coaster rides, but I was scared to death on the back of this motorcycle. The whole trip was deep sand so it was quite fast and quite shaky. I began the trip by singing my life song "It is well with my soul". I quickly went from that to praying out loud that God would keep me safe. Halfway through the trip I realised how selfish this was and began praying for the man that was driving the motorcycle, realizing that he did not know Jesus, and that if I died I would be with Jesus, but if he died he would be in Hell. The rest of our trip I prayed for his salvation, and for our safety. Well we made it safely, only to find out that all of the believers were not there, because they did not know we were coming so we left a message telling them that we would return again the next Friday.
This meant we would have to get back on the motorcycles to head back to town. On this ride I really thought I was going to have a heart attack and pass out. I was way to tense, so I prayed that God would give me a peace, and help me to relax, and he did. The rest of the ride I was unafraid. We rode another bush taxi on the way back to Tessua, but this time it was one where you stood in the back of like a big dump truck.
We also returned to our village to share another story. This time about 30 men gathered, and even more were coming. Jessica told the story of Adam and Eve, and we told them about how Jesus is the ransom for all sin, and that he was the sun of God. I praise God for the openess that we have found in this village. I mean in all of our training they told us not to tell Muslims that Jesus was the son of God. When Jessica told them it, I was praying for openess in their hearts, and also that they would not stone us. There was not one single scoff. They wanted to hear more. She shared the whole gospel with them and they said, "you mean that's it, that's the whole story." And we said, Yes. I was amazed at how simple our Lord has made it for us. All we have to do is believe.
Since coming to Tessua God has given us so many oppurtunities to witness to people here, even though we do not have a hold on the language. The other night we watched the Jesus film with our night guard, and our Fulani neighbors. I don't know what this means, but our night guard said, that the film gave his heart chills. Pray for our night guard, and the people in our village. Pray that God would give them a longing for the truth. Pray that he would give them faith to believe in something that they don't fully understand. Pray that God would reveal himself in a way that the God of Muhammad could never reveal himself to them. Right now is harvest time here and rainy season. Pray that as the Lord of the harvest causes the seeds of their millet to grow, that he would rain down his spirit upon them and grow the seeds of the word that are being sown in their hearts.