A.S. is in his thirties from one of the West African nations. He was born and raised in a prominent Muslim family where his father was the fourth most powerful leader in their religion in his country. A.S. never heard about “Christians” until he was about 15 years of age. In fact, the first time he heard the word “Christian”, he thought it was a car.
Soon after he realized Christians are people with a different faith, he asked his father who these Christians were. His father told him, “Christians believe in Jesus, the son of Mary and they are honest people. Christians don’t pray like us 5 times a day, but they are faithful people. If you give them your money, they will return it to you exactly as you gave them.” Later he heard his father telling someone in their community, “I am okay if my extended family becomes Christians. I don’t want my wife and children to become Christians.” In fact, one time his father invited evangelists to evangelize his community and the first family who believed in Jesus were his dad’s brother, his two wives, and their children. A.S. remembers his father telling his brother, who just gave his life to Jesus, “You chose well”.
One day Jesus revealed Himself and touched A.S. At the time he was not feeling well and experienced immediate healing. Then Jesus told him that he chose him before his birth, and he will serve him all his days. With this revelation, A.S. looked for Christians to learn the way of the Lord. He went to two different churches in his community but both churches refused to accept him, knowing the status of his father in the community. A.S. met a missionary from Ivory Coast who helped him to understand his newly found faith in Jesus and provided him with a Bible. Though he received a Bible, he didn’t know how to read French. He never went to school. But God gave him the gift not only to read but to understand and communicate in French! After this, he joyfully started to read the Bible to discover Jesus and His teachings. One day his mother discovered his Bible and told him to keep the Bible in his friend’s home; fearing if his father found out he might cause him bodily harm.
A.S. started to go to church out of town so that no one would see him attending a church and at the same time, church leaders wouldn’t recognize him and be afraid of him. But someone saw him going into the church and told his parents. His father was furious and chained him for 2 days without food and water and beat him badly. His father told him he would break his legs so that he couldn’t go to church. The only reason he was freed from the chains was because his mother said, “Unless my son is free from this chain I will commit suicide.” He still bears the scars on his legs where he was chained for 2 days, where his bones were exposed and separated from his flesh.
As the chains were removed from his legs, his father threatened him one more time, “I know what to do and will show you who I am.” That night A.S. went to bed seeing normally and when he woke up from sleep, he was blind. He remained blind for 22 days, until the church prayed for his sight and God answered their prayers. When his father saw that he gained his sight, he decided to kill him. He shot him with his gun multiple times in his abdominal area and called an ambulance, when he was sure he was dead, to take his body.
A.S. learned he was in a morgue for three days. As people claimed the bodies of their relatives from the morgue to bury them, no one was claiming his body. Someone, who is a Christian, saw his body and recognized him as “the new believer” in town and took the body to bury it. After washing the body and covering it with burial clothes, they lowered the body into the casket to bury it. At that moment A.S. was miraculously raised and sat up, to the great delight of the believers.
God used this miracle to encourage believers and to bring many people to faith in Christ including A.S.’s mother and father.
Life has never been easy then nor now for A.S. but he continues to follow Jesus and serve him. Now that he has received the training to make disciples and plant churches, he is very excited to serve Jesus with you and I as partners in the Gospel.
Thank you for your prayers and financial support. Because you gave generously, we can go farther and stay longer until all hear the Gospel.