stories from the field

November 4th

A New Church

It has been nearly three years since I started surveying the region. I remember sitting on a mountain looking over a village below and the whole region afar, praying that God would reveal where He would want me to start.

Just then I heard a motorbike coming over the mountain behind me and stop next to my bike. I introduced myself to the middle-aged man that approached me and asked him about the village below. He quickly informed me that it was his village, and that he was the new chief, soon to be coronated. I was then invited to his house, met his family, ate with them, and was invited to his coronation ceremony that was held the following week.

I started meeting with this family each week to teach them about God revealed in Christ. After the first three lessons it was clear that the chief and his family were both open and passionate about what they were hearing, and I was eager to continue with the studies after we returned from having our baby in Australia. When I returned three months later, I was shocked to find that the chief had died and I was no longer welcome in the village, as there were a number of witchdoctors that had independently referenced my presence in the village as a cause of his death.

A number of months later we got hopelessly lost looking for a shortcut through the mountains in the outskirts of the village. Two men found us and navigated us through the difficult terrain. I thanked the men and didn’t think any more of them until six months later when during a prayer meeting God brought the two men back to memory and very clearly impressed on my heart that these were the men that He was going to use to reach the village.

We were about to conclude weeks of meetings and lessons with these two brothers and their families when, after studying these words from 1 Corinthians 10: 20-22:

“No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he?”

Both brothers and their entire families decided to forsake their fetishes and follow Christ. With them that day were two other men who also gave their life to Christ, including a witchdoctor who had recently been crippled by sickness. As we talked with him he had explained that the brothers had shared with him everything that they had been learning and he could do nothing else but renounce his pacts that he had made with demons and follow Christ.

We rejoice in witnessing the beginning of God’s plan in this village, His victory over darkness, two families being born again, and the founding of a new church. A few weeks later the new believers were baptised and they’ve begun reaching their village for their new Lord and Saviour. Please be praying—His kingdom has broken in and now we are praying for its spread throughout the whole valley.

Gifts to Pioneers Strategic Priority Fund help us recruit, a train, and send more workers to bring the light of Christ to those in the most spiritually dark places. If you would like to give to this fund, you can call us at 866-268-8778, donate online at pioneers.ca/give, or simply mail the enclosed response form with your gift.