Week 4

African drum circle

Welcome to the newest edition of “What God is doing with two sinners in West Africa!” We are reminded daily how undeserving we are of this opportunity. It’s crazy to think that we have already been here a whole month, and it is absolutely amazing to see how God has been working in us and through us. Especially in us. We have both learned more in this one short month than we have in any other single month of our lives. We were talking last night about how hard it would be to answer the question, “did you have fun?” Well yes, we’ve had fun, but not the normal idea of “fun.” It’s been hard. Physically draining, emotionally difficult, and we are dealing with constant spiritual warfare. But we can both say that this has been one of the most spiritually fulfilling times of our lives. We are forced to have a complete dependence on God, and that is the best place to be. We know, and are reassured over and over again, that we are never going to “convince” anyone of the Gospel. The hearts of these people are so hard. They have been taught one thing their entire lives, why should they listen to us? This Gospel is foolishness to the world. We have hope because we know that God is in absolute control. We know the truth, and it is just our job to proclaim it as truth. His Word never returns void. This Gospel is the power of God to those who are being saved. We may plant, we may water, but it is God who grows. He is the one that changes hearts. This is the hope and comfort keeps us going every day. So yes, we’ve been having a blast, but it is because we have been witnessing the work of God.

This week was a week of great encouragement. God opened up many doors for us to share the Gospel, to disciple new believers, and for believers to encourage us. We went to the same Wolof church that we went to the first week. It lasted just as long (from 9am-2pm) and it was just as great. After church a couple invited us over to their house for lunch. The man was a Wolof Muslim, became a follower of Jesus, went to a Bible institute, and now his job is to reach every home in Senegal in the name of Christ. He has an incredible testimony, and it was so good to be able to fellowship with him and his wife. He also wrote a book about the difficulty of reaching the Wolof people, and we bought it from him, but it’s in French, so we might need some help reading it.

After lunch we went to a Missionary Center where the International World Changers team had been doing children’s camps all week long. They got to impact hundreds of kids by telling them the story of Jesus Christ. It was awesome to be able to be part of that ministry on Sunday. We also got to go walk a couple of neighborhoods with them on Monday. It was good to be able to spend some time with fellow Georgians. Especially Mrs. Shirley. She liked to feed all the stray cats.

Kids at Grand Yoff with IBC

Throughout the week we have continued to meet new people and share the good news in Sacre Coure 3. On Monday, we had a good discussion with 3 guys sitting on a park bench in the upper part of the neighborhood. It was good reasoning with them and pointing out truth in the Scriptures. That night was a very impactful night. We have a friend, Y, who has been a believer for several months, and who is a night guard that we hadn’t visited in a while. So, we visited him and were able to talk to one of his uncle’s from the Gambia. Here is D’s story (not word for word):

“I became a believer about a year ago after I came to Senegal looking for work. The missionary, R, had shared with me the news about Jesus Christ and I didn’t believe it. Then one night an angel appeared to me in a dream and told me that this was the way to get to God and that I had to believe in it. So, I believed and am now telling people about the good news! Ever since I told my Muslim family in the Gambia, they have rejected me and wanted nothing to do with me. I have 3 daughters and one of them got sick. She passed away 2 months ago because no one in my family would take care of her. My wife must live with her family because mine will not help her. Sometimes I think about these things and my mind wants to get angry, but my trust is in God.”

Friends

Pain, hardship, suffering. This man has both counted and experienced the cost that Jesus talks about. Would you give up? We would all be tempted to, but God is faithful. He gives us the faith that we need to stand up under these impossible burdens. For nothing is impossible with God! (Luke 1:37)  Please pray for D and his family.

On Tuesday, we shared with a group of guys and university students underneath a tree across from a local university. Many were listening and were interested in the life of Jesus and what He teaches. We even met a Wolof man that has lived for the past few years in Marietta, GA! Small world? We got his number and may be able to meet up with him later.  That night we were able to lead the new believer from our first week here, S, through some scriptures on the Gospel, evangelism, and suffering. This time of discipleship was incredibly encouraging. We can see God at work in his life. He is really getting it and we can see growth in him. Pray for this new believer- for his faith, witness, and that God would give him a genuine hunger for His Word.

Asan with a famous musician

On Wednesday, we spent the afternoon at a missionary couple’s house that has been here for many years. We got to share our stories and listen to theirs; we both left feeling extremely encouraged. One of the most impactful things they challenged us with is this question that they said they often ask themselves, “Are you more devoted to the cause or to Christ?”

That night, Luke went out with O to hang out with some friends that we have made since being here. We got to share with a young Wolof Muslim guy that we had met who plays guitar. He was very interested, and listened intently as we shared the Gospel with him. As he was leaving, we gave him some information, and he said that this was the first time that he ever heard a too-bob (white person) talk about God, and it made him very happy! We’ve seen him again since that day, and he is still very interested in what we believe. Please pray for M, and that God would draw M to Himself. We then shared with A, a man that previous teams have shared a lot with. We had a good discussion over Attaya (Senegalese tea). A left us to go to bed, and T, a young man who has been a believer for 10 years, joined us. We got into a deep spiritual conversation that was extremely edifying to all of us. God used this time immensely. We closed our discussion in prayer then started singing “Our God is an Awesome God” in Wolof (Yalla Aji Kawe Ji) with our arms around each other as we walked back home. Little did we know that this was God’s plan to set up a divine appointment. As we were walking and singing a man got up off a bench and approached us. I thought it was a homeless man that was going to ask for money, but he ended up being one of God’s children with an amazing story. To make a very, very, very long story short this man, R, was a pastor in Liberia before he was evacuated as a refugee to Gambia, after some troubles in Gambia he had been living on the streets for 2 months in Dakar away from his wife and 7 kids. We told him why we were here and we got to encourage him, and he got to encourage us. We prayed with him and told him that his story reminded us of the story of David in the Bible. What your enemy means for evil, God means for good.

Throughout the week we have continued to invite people to our Bible study on Thursday evenings. This Thursday we had 2 Wolof Muslims that came along with several other believers. Alex taught the story of Moses including Israel’s slavery in Egypt and God’s wrath in the plagues. We talked about how the 10^th plague reveals our need of a sacrifice and how it points straight to Jesus Christ and His work on the cross. After the story we had a very good discussion on the meaning of these things. R, the Liberian Pastor, shared that, “It is for this reason that God has kept me here. I will pray that God will continue to use this.  It is because of the music Yalla Aji Kawe Ji that I came!”

Best dancer of the night

Friday turned out to be a very interesting day. We met up with Hélène, a summer missions intern from Canada working with New Tribe Missions that we met at O’s church. We went to a huge university to share the good news with university students. God opened up so many doors to share that we were overwhelmed with it all. We reasoned with many people about who Jesus really is and what He came to do. That night we had dinner at a new believer’s house. This woman, F, became a believer a year ago and invited us over. We spent the majority of the night sharing the Gospel with her mother who is a Catholic. We shared with her that baptism cannot save us rather the blood of Jesus and His work on the cross. We pointed out how Romans 3 talks about justification and what it means to be declared righteous.  We reasoned until 1:30 in the morning about everything!  We were all very tired but overjoyed to see how God used us that day.

Prayer Requests:

-S (new believer)- Hunger for the word, understanding of the Gospel, boldness to share

-D (Gambian)- family in the Gambia, God’s provision, encouragement in this time of trial

-A- a Muslim who is very interested in Jesus

-Our strength and sensitivity to the Spirit

-R and S/G- missionaries here

-Wisdom and guidance for our Thursday night Bible study

-Learning Wolof

-For God to continue to change lives for the glory of His name

In Christ,

Assan ak Abdou
(Luke and Alex)

Making friends