A typical conversation I conversation find
mysef in is why I am not married. While
in this conversation with a Ghanian
official at the border, he flat out asked, « What are you waiting
for ? » You just have to laugh and nicely proclaim that God is in
control and I am not worried about what will happen.
While
pondering on this subject, I tried to think of it in a different context. For example, we are in the midde of the
holiday of Ramadan where the muslims fast during the day and party at
night. People every day are worshipping
the wrong God and what are we doing about it ? What are we waiting for before we start to
boldly proclaim the name of Jesus ?
At
the end of June, a nurse from the hospital came to give his testimony to our
students. He grew up as muslim unti hecame bold enough to enter the
church. At church, he realized that
Allah had always been this distant uncertain god but the one and only God
wanted a persoal relatioship with Him.
After accepting Christ, his sister kicked him out of her home and was
left to defend for his own. Being the
youngest, he was always spoiled by his mother but after his
conversion, his mother would not even speak to him. He
said that his whole family abandoned him but he knew God would never
abadon him. Through his suffering, he
has grown closer to Christ. All eyes
were fixed on this man as his commitment to Christ was a testimony to us
all. Our muslim students were very
intrigued and we are praying they will decide to make Christ their personal
Savior despite fear from their parents.
In fact, our prayers for one of our students
came true ! For the past 4 weeks we
have had soccer camp for the community kids and our middle school kids. At the end of each session, bible stories were
presented starting with creation and continuing to with the gospel. At the end
of the second week, a Togolese soccer player asked the kids if they were ready
to accept Christ. Many came forward but
it was hard to tell if they were sincere or were hoping to get a piece of
candy. We split the kids into three
groups and took the time to thoroughly explain the gospel. I was excited that one of our students sat
down in my group as I have been prayinng for him during the past two
years. He comes from a muslim family
although he understands the truth . He
has been afraid to personally accept Christ due to the fear of his father. That all changed on that Friday when he said
he wanted to accept Christ and explained that Christ died on the cross for his
sins and He is the only way to Heaven. I
wanted to jump up and down with joy in hearing this news and knew tbere was
rejoicing in Heaven. I then prayed for
the children and spoke personally with my one student. He is still afraid to go to church but will
start being discipled by a togolese
christian. With muslims, students are
afraid to accept Christ so some think they can wait until they become of age
but the problem with this thinking is that not everyone makes it to their 18th
birthday or Christ might come before that.
Again, it is the time to ask, « what are you waiting
for ? » Yes, converting from
an Islamic background is scary but we it
can’t be put off and we must continue to encourage people in this situation and
we must continue to share the truth. The Togolese young mn who shared Christ
with these kids cotinued his work the next week. By Thursday, he went around to each player
and asked them if they had a relationship with Christ. If they weren’t able to resond, they were
sent to talk to another young man who was explaining the gospel and would pray
with the students. This is a serious
matter and we can’t wait to share this.
Recently, I am realizing how
urgent it is to share the gospel and how open I can be. One night I was taking a tax[CS1] i and we started on a conversation about what I do. He told me that he went to church but when I
presented the gospel, it seemed like he had never heard it before. He was very open to what I had to say and said
he understood the gospel in a new way. I
couldn’t believe that in 10 minutes, had
conversation with my moto driver who was very interested in the Good News. I am so thankful to the Lord who uses us even
when we aren’t expecting to share the truth.
God keeps telling us also, « What are you waiting
for ? Don’t be afraid, just continue to share. »
Now sometimes sharing the Gospel and being His
light is not always straight forward.
For example, for the fourth of July, Anne and I had the girls over to make
cookies and eat watermelon while finishing the third Narnia movies. Sometimes it means helping buy dinner for a
student whose parents are in Lome with their sick newborn. On other days, it means visiting students and
watching the horrible movie Anaconda while they find a Togolese Christian film
to watch. Yes, random but such is
life.
As I am learning, I can’t wait for anything to
tell people that they are loved by Christ and that he died on the cross for
their sins. The time is now.
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