July 21, 2014
By Sidiki, an Alliance believer in Mali, as told to Becky McCabe
“Sidiki knows everyone and everything about the city where our Alliance team* began ministry two years ago,” says Becky McCabe, who serves with Compassion and Mercy Associates (CAMA), the relief and development arm of The Alliance. “He’s worked closely with us and assisted in the purchase of property to begin a CAMA project for which he serves on the administrative board.”
My parents came to faith through the work of Alliance workers in San. But I decided to neither follow their faith nor our region’s predominant religion. I chose to live for myself.
I left home when I was a young man to seek employment in another city. I found work as a house servant for three years, earning $5 a month. But I wanted more.
For the Love of Money
After I prayed to my parents’ God, telling Him I would follow Him if He blessed me, I found favor in my boss’s eyes. He allowed me to work at his gas station, after which I became a taxi driver and eventually owned a successful business. I got married, bought land, and built a house.
God blessed me, but I ignored my promise to Him. Instead, I committed every evil because of my love of money.
Though I was married, I brought women into my home. I beat my wife and forced her to go hungry because I wanted her to leave me. But she refused to go.
“I Saw Jesus”
Everything began to change the night I had a dream. I saw Jesus standing in the distance. A wide body of water separated us, and many people were swimming toward Him. Wanting to join them, I walked to the shore, but my feet wouldn’t enter the water.
People I knew stood with me, unable to enter the water. They kept tugging on me, asking for help to swim to Him.
I awoke from that dream quite burdened. After meditating on it for six months, I finally shared my dream with a pastor I knew.
This wise man told me that my sin was keeping me from Jesus. I needed to repent. He also said that when I repented and belonged to Jesus, He would use me to influence my friends so they could find Him, too.
I laughed. To believe I could be forgiven for the evil I’d committed—that I would be used to bring my friends to Jesus? Impossible!
For two more years I continued in my selfish, sinful ways.
Two Dreams
But one night I had another dream. I was walking into the bush with a young woman from the church. (I occasionally went to church but only to pick up naïve choir girls I could seduce.) In the distance I saw a building. As we drew closer, I looked in a window and saw darkness, evil, pain, and suffering.
I awoke scared and disturbed. But, again, I chose to ignore Jesus, whom I knew was trying to get my attention.
A short time later I landed in jail. During my first night in prison, all I could do was weep; the second night I dreamt again of Jesus.
“Sidiki, I have great plans for you,” He said. “But you’ve chosen not to listen. What you saw in that building during your dream is the life you’ve chosen to live; it has led you to this.”
I immediately awoke and began praying and confessing my sins. In that moment, on my knees in jail, God began to change me.
“I Couldn’t Stop Crying”
After I left jail, it wasn’t easy. My reputation was widespread, and no one believed I’d changed. I had horrible habits that were difficult to leave, and my peers laughed and tormented me for choosing to follow Jesus.
My thoughts kept returning to the call God had given me in the first dream—to help others find Jesus. But I had a big problem: I could not overcome the shame of my past.
One day I got up early. As I knelt on my mat to pray, I began to cry and I couldn’t stop. Concerned, my family called our pastor. Unable to console me, he wept with me.
Peace
Finally, after three days of tears, fasting, and prayer, peace came over me. I knew deep in my soul that I was washed clean by the blood of the Lamb.
My journey with Jesus continues today. God provided me with a wife whose faith remained strong in spite of my sins. By the grace of God we are still together, and I remain faithful to her.
God has also opened many avenues to share the transforming power of the gospel. I preach every Sunday afternoon on a radio station that’s dedicated to our region’s majority faith.
Every evening in my courtyard, my family gathers to pray. My brothers and sisters, who follow the predominant religion, join us to ask for prayer in the name of Jesus. Recently, I opened a Christian bookstore.
God has answered my prayer to be able to provide my community with His Word.
*Becky serves on a team composed of Alliance and CAMA personnel whose work is supported through the Great Commission Fund (GCF) and the CAMA Advance Fund (CAF), respectively.
What You Can Do
Pray
The prayers of God’s people strengthen Alliance personnel to live and serve across the globe. Use the weekly Alliance Prayer Requests, joining our worldwide family in praying for them.
Give
Gifts to the GCF and the CAF ensure the good news of Jesus is shared—in word and deed—in some of the most spiritually oppressed places on earth.
Learn More
Check out CAMA.
Read Becky’s article, “I Will Build My Church”; find out how God is using an octogenarian and a four-year-old boy to extend His Kingdom in Mali.
* Photo courtesy of the author