Last November I went to Senegal—one trip in a series by which our church is trying to take the gospel to an Unengaged, Unreached People Group. While living among our people group, we stay in tents that we pitch in the Community Center. This building houses the offices of the rural community’s President, Vice-President, and Secretary. A “rural community” in Senegal is something like a township in some US states, and they elect officers. God has blessed us with a good relationship with the President and the Vice-President of the rural community. The President is a believer, and on that very trip we had the opportunity to give a Bible to the Vice-President and to share the gospel with him.
One afternoon during that trip we were standing in front of the Community Center next to the highway preparing to walk off into the interior of the forest to share the gospel in the villages of our people group. As we stood there, a young man on a bicycle careened off of the highway into our midst and came to an abrupt stop. As it turned out, he knew Alioune, one of our translators, and had made a last-second decision to stop and greet his friend.
The two knew one another—this young man and Alioune—because they both were born-again believers in Jesus Christ. The young courier (for that was his business on the bicycle that day) no longer lived among his tribe, having moved to the city for work. In the city he found the job for which he was searching but also found something else he had not known that he needed: the gospel of Jesus Christ. In his own village there is no evangelical witness for Christ.
Alioune lives many miles away from our people group, so the young man naturally asked Alioune what he was doing with these white people in this village far away from his home. He explained to the young man who we were, what we were doing, and how he was helping us.
At that point, the young man shifted his attention away from Alioune and directly to me. Passionately he posed this question to me: “When will someone come to my tribe to tell my family about the gospel and plant churches there? I have tried to do so myself, but we need someone to come and help us.”
I was moved by the young man’s plea, but we came to our UUPG after a lengthy season of prayer and seeking the Lord. We are confident that we are working where God has sent us to work, and so I explained to this young man that we had taken our assignment from the Lord for our people group and that he should pray that God will send someone to his tribe just as God sent us where we were working.
He bade his farewells to Alioune, we prayed right there in front of the Community Center, he mounted his bike, and he was off. Shortly thereafter, we ourselves departed for our afternoon of evangelistic work.
The trip concluded and we came safely home. Another team returned in January of this year. As they reported about their trip, they shared with me that the Vice-President (whose name is Bertrand) wanted to ask me some questions about the Bible. He refused to allow anyone else to answer his questions, so determined was he to get answers from me.
I returned in May. It was the season of local elections in Senegal, and there had been a shift in party politics in the preceding presidential election. As is often the case in the USA, the state of national politics can have a significant influence upon local elections. The officers of the rural community expected that they would all be voted out of office. For this reason, we weren’t seeing much of them at the Community Center; they were out looking for jobs in order to safeguard their post-election futures. On our last day in the villages, however, I finally happened upon Bertrand.
“You had some questions for me, the last team said?”
“Yes, thank you for asking. …[proceeds to share his questions, which I proceed to answer]”
“Well, I’m glad that I could help you out. Do you have any other questions?”
“Oh, those questions weren’t for me?”
“Huh? They weren’t? Then why were you asking them?”
“Those are questions that have come up in my Bible study. I thought I had answered them correctly, but I wanted to be certain.”
“Whoa! Wait a minute! WHAT Bible study!?”
“Well, you gave me this Bible last November, and so I’ve been having my family and my neighbors into my house every week to study the Bible.”
“You have!? Bertrand, that’s WONDERFUL! But why didn’t we already know about this? Which village do you live in?”
“I live in [a village several miles up the highway].”
“Wait a minute. That village isn’t a part of this tribe; it’s up the road. Why do you live there?”
“Oh, I’m not [a member of our people group].”
“You’re not!?”
“No! I’m [a member of the courier’s people group].”
And so, as things turned out, in that very trip last November, God answered that courier’s prayer by working things out so that we launched a Bible study in that young man’s people group. God did this without bothering to inform us at all about what we were doing. I was left awestruck, dumbfounded, praising a sovereign, omnipotent God.
This January I am returning with a pastor of another church. His church is considering whether they will take on the responsibility for the Bible study that Bertrand has launched and for the task of carrying the gospel to this second UUPG. I’ll let that pastor out himself if he wishes.
I kid you not, folks: My missionary strategy is pretty much no more than showing up clueless and seeing what God will do.
This story can tell you everything you need to know about my opinion regarding miracles:
- I believe that God works miracles today.
- Although some of those miracles are inexplicable, I think that most of the miraculous actions of God are things like this story that are in no way impossible according to the laws of physics or anything like that but are instead the occurrence of sequences of events that defy the odds of probability and reveal the guiding hand of Providence.
- Where God works miracles, I think He generally does so to accomplish things like this that matter for His Kingdom, rather than putting on a charismatic sideshow for the entertainment of the masses. I’m not convinced that God flexes his muscles to accomplish the pointless.
- Correspondingly, if you want to see the miraculous hand of God at work, get busy about His work. That’s where you’ll find it, if God so wills.
- I cannot define the relationship between prayer and the miraculous, but neither can I deny it. I’m entirely comfortable with that state of affairs.
I welcome your prayers for us this January.
I can’t wait to go, Bart. I think some of my people are as excited as I am about it.
And showing up clueless is a missionary strategy that I should be very effective at!
Awesome story. Love seeing God do things like this.
Thanks. God is amazing and powerful!
Hey Bart–completely off topic, but do you have time for a quick round of “ask a Christian historian?” 🙂 I need a sidebar for a lesson I’m writing on Romans 12 related to a person or event from Baptist history. I’m looking for a story relating to living at peace with those around us or blessing our enemies, etc. I’ve been flipping through my trusty copy of McBeth, but nothing’s popping for me. Anything come to mind? Thanks.
I love it!
I’ll just deal you the top card off of the deck. If that one doesn’t suit you, let me know.
How about Roger Williams? A quick Google produced this by John Barry http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/john-m-barry-on-roger-williams-and-the-indians-9322792/?no-ist
Williams, of course, is the first known Baptist in the American Colonies.
That is perfect–and I haven’t written about Williams before, which is a plus. Thank you!
Bart, I love that story, and what an exciting time with those people groups! God’s gifts in the church are alive and well.
The theme of my sermon today covered the Spiritual Gifts of the church and how distinct they are from the fruit of the Spirit. Our congregation spent a good bit of time asking questions about the gift of evangelism and teaching, as well as the gift of miracles and tongues. It is a wonderful thing to see that God has clearly outlined the gifts given to members of the church, and then see Him working it out in front of us…. wow, miracles are plenty active!
It sounds like you and Dave may be going to the same spot… Should be interesting!
Bart was looking for someone who could act in line with his missionary strategy – show up clueless and see what God does. I seemed to fit that well.
Nice… I like the strategy! You guys will have a great time….exciting stuff!
If I can find the support funds, I think I’ll go along next. I can be clueless if I try hard enough.
“Interesting” ain’t the least of it! Dave will be a Landmarker by the time he makes it back! 🙂
Bart,
Thanks for loving Jesus, His Word, His People, & His Kingdom. What an encouragement to those of us who are contemplating missions trips in the relative near future.
Thanks, Dwight. Where are you headed?
Bart,
We will be hosting the SBTC Black pastors fellowship and I am inviting all of the Galilee Griggs Baptist Association pastors to an Ecuadorian Summit Feb. 21 to hear Tony Matthews and Barry Calhoun challenge us to prepare to go to Ecuador to reach a people group who came their as slaves but escaped early on and remained unreached until recently. The GGBA is looking at planning a trip to Haiti perhaps in 2016 to undergird some existing mission relationships there. Senegal seemed exciting as I read your post. I have to confess that I am a little bit jealous of you and Dave-:).
That’s great! I hope that many of you will take up the challenge.
Yes, folks. Dave Miller is the other pastor in the story. He and I are going to spend a week together in Senegal. Southern Baptist blogging may never be the same!
The jury is still out on whether the changes will be for the good or for the ill.
If this is what you mean by a posteriori semi-cessationism, then we really aren’t that far apart at all in this. Thanks for sharing, Bart. Great story. This is the stuff missions is made of.
There you go again…speaking in tongues! wow!
I don’t think we’re that far apart, David. You’re MOSTLY right. 🙂
Best story I’ve read in many moons! Thanks for your obedience!
If it encouraged or inspired you, then I’m happy about that.
In fact, I’ll confess a little something to you: Sometimes I really get into a negative funk about blogging. I see the damage it does—sometime the damage that I MYSELF have done by it. I see people whose lives have been changed for the worse by it. Dave Miller can tell you that I’ve gone through some soul-searching about it all.
But (a) the fact that he and I are going on this trip as a result of our blogging relationship and (b) the fact that I can put up a post like this one and have people be helped by it…those are the things that give me some hope about the medium.
Of course, you have to keep the blog going with the “Calvinism is THE gospel” and the “Calvinism is Satanic” posts to keep people on the site to read these posts when they come out, but hey, that’s just a part of the cost of doing business. 🙂
Here, in my town, we had a young man, who was addicted to alcohol and drugs. He had gotten into all kinds of trouble; the kind of trouble that goes along with alcohol and drugs. And, everyone around town knew all about him. But, God began to do a work in the heart of this young man. And, my wife and I went to his house, one night, and we led him to Jesus. He got saved, right there, in his living room. He came to our Church, and was baptized.
Months later, he shared his testimony with our Church, on a Sunday night. It was straightforward, true, and powerful. Many of his friends and family came to hear him. It was really, really good. In fact, people are asking for copies of the DVD, all the time.
Well, a few months ago, we all learned that his wife was expecting their third baby. But, good news turned to sad news, when we learned that the baby’s stomach was growing outside of the baby’s body. And, it was going to take a lot of surgeries to fix the problem.
Well, we all began to pray. And, when this young couple went back to the Doctor for a checkup, he said that the problem was gone. And, he just couldn’t understand it. And, this young man, who was a drunkard and a drug addict, who never wanted to attend Church, or talk about God, looked at that Dr. and told him that God had answered the prayers of His people. God had healed his baby.
That folks, is a miracle….
David
Amen!
God is so good
Another miracle:
The power of encouragement. A little girl walked up to me, last Sunday night. And, she looked up at me and said, “Bro. David, you are a really good preacher.”
Well, my heart melted. I was humbled. And yet, I also felt 10 feet tall. That little bitty girl picked up a 6’1″ 366 lb man, last Sunday night.
Words can lift up, or tear down. Words can encourage, or discourage. Words can bless, or curse.