by Esther Schaeffer, a U.S. Alliance worker serving in West Africa
At the start of each year at the Alliance Bible school in our town, I ask my students to share their stories of how they came to know Jesus.
One of the students, Paul (the name he took when he was baptized), told us that until his teen years he didn’t know of any faith except that of his family’s—a mixture of superstitions and fetishes along with prayers repeated in a language he didn’t understand.
One day while Paul was working in his father’s fields, his uncle began to talk to him about Jesus. Although the uncle wasn’t a Christian, he had heard something about this Jesus—the Savior of the world.
“I Want To Be a Jesus Follower”
That conversation started Paul thinking about how little he understood of his own religion. Maybe there’s another road, a better road I should be traveling, he thought.
Shortly after, the teen saw his friend from school, Mark*, reading a brochure, and was surprised that it was all about Jesus. Both read the material carefully. “Something in my heart told me ‘this is true,’” Paul recalled.
Sometime later, Mark told Paul that he’d heard there were people in the nearby town who gathered to worship this Jesus. The two decided to go check it out.
In his culture, Paul couldn’t do anything without his father’s permission. So, one Sunday morning the teen got up, bathed, put on his best clothes, and went to his father to explain that he wanted to become a Jesus follower.
Surprisingly, Paul’s father accepted his son’s wishes and told him, “Whatever road you choose is fine with me.”
So, Paul and his friend set off. But when they arrived in the town, they weren’t sure of the church’s location. They did see what looked like a church building with people inside, “but something told me not to go in there,” Paul said.
Old Superstitions
As they continued walking, they heard singing coming from a building on a nearby hillside, next to a large outcropping of trees. Paul started to get nervous as they drew closer. Old superstitions crept in.
Seeing the trees, he wondered if the group was luring people to the woods to kill them.
But before they could turn around, a young man walked up beside them and asked if they were going to the church. When Paul hesitated to answer, the young man said, “Wait here. I’m going to ask one of the men in the church to come meet you both.”
A few minutes later, the Alliance pastor greeted them warmly. He told them that they could learn all about Jesus in this place and that they were free to come and go as they pleased.
Several years later, Paul was baptized. He is now training to take the gospel to his village and others like it in the region—an area that for years has been resistant to the gospel but is now experiencing a spiritual awakening.
*Name changed
Did You Know?
Some 15,000 students are training for Christian service in 130 Alliance theological schools worldwide.