The Long Walk

By Esther Schaeffer, serving in Burkina Faso

Living the call alone. At least that is what it seems like to me. When Sali was a young girl, her father, though not a Christian, encouraged her to go to church. Something in the music, something in the message—she was hooked. No one else in her family would accept Christ, and in the end she was given in marriage to a man from another religion. They moved to a small village about five kilometers from the closest group of believers. This group met on Sundays, occasionally with a visiting pastor. Her husband made fun of her and beat her, sometimes threatening her, but still she would set out alone to church each Sunday.

When I started a Bible study in a village a few kilometers from hers, Sali waited on the road for us so she could take advantage of being with Christian women and learning from God’s Word. She has five children, none of whom have chosen to follow Christ. But still she persists.

Amazed at this long walk she made on Sundays, I asked, “You walk this long way by yourself?”

“Jesus has done so much for me, how could I not honor Him in this way?”

She walks that long way to a small church that doesn’t have a pastor and has only about six other believers. Recently, the leading Christian woman in the church decided to turn back to her former religion. But still Sali is there. Jesus says that His sheep will hear His voice and follow. That is what Sali is doing.

Pray for the hundreds of women that we are discipling each week. Some of them are living their faith very much alone. Some we only see a few times each year. Some are being influenced by false prophets. Some are persecuted because they are following Christ. Pray that we can be an encouragement to these women and that we would teach faithfully the Word of God.

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Read this and other articles in the July 2013 online edition of alife magazine.

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