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August 06, 2008

Your Sons and Daughters Will Prophesy

We were sitting on mats and rickety stick chairs under the stars. Rosalie was stirring the millet, cooking over an open fire, and Pastor John’s children were singing songs about Jesus.

John used to pastor a church of over 300 people. But he chose to leave, with his wife and children, to move to Tasmakat where there are no Christians, and where he has no support, because he believes God wants to use him to reach the Fulani here. His wife is completely supportive. His children, who have no toys or comforts, love Jesus, and are fun, respectful, and hard working. We commented on it, and John, who was obviously really pleased, told us the following story:

“We had been in Tasmakat several months. One day my children said ‘Papa, it is a long time since we had rice. Can we have some please?’ I told them I didn’t have any money to buy rice.

The next day I was going to Gorom-Gorom to see Pastor Daniel. Before I left, one of my children came and said ‘I had a dream last night, and I saw someone give you money to buy rice. But the money he gave you was more than the cost of a sack of rice.’ Another of my children came to me and said ‘I had a dream last night and saw you coming back home with a sheep.’

I told them. ‘You pray. I need to go to Gorom.’ We Africans don’t give much respect to children, and I just didn’t want to discourage them. But when I arrived at Gorom, Pastor Daniel handed me an envelope. He said it was from the national church’s internal mission programme, and they had just phoned him to tell him to give it to me. I opened the envelope, and there was 50,000cfa (£50) inside!

I bought a sack of rice, two sheep, some cooking oil, and some beans.

When I got home, my children were so happy, they spent the night laughing and singing.

And, in my heart, I too was laughing.”

Posted by Keith at August 6, 2008 10:32 AM