The night of May 2 was a night to remember. A night where dreams come true. A night of miracles. I want to thank those of you who prayed for us and our trip to the village of Yin-toaka.
Pastor Salif lives in a small town called Pissila which is about 2 and half hours from us. We arrived at his house about 2pm and quickly headed to the village(Yin-toaka). It was about 20 kilometers or 12 miles from Salif’s house. There was no real road except where bikes or donkey carts have created paths. We showed up and there were lots of people expecting us. We were greeted and given a special drink (this is the African way to say you are welcome to their village).
The other pastors went around to the different huts inviting people to come in a few hours to hear the Word of God. I stayed at the place where we were going to show the film and preach that night because about 15 men plus children had already gathered around. I gave them the Gospel explaining that all are sinners and that Jesus is the Saviour of world.
After sharing some things from the Word, I began learning about their life. Yin-toaka is somewhat a new village. A few families got together a few years back and decided to look for better land to farm and raise their livestock on. We discovered that they didn’t have any good water sources close. They have to travel over 6 miles to get water. Pictured below are some women going to fill up their jugs of water.
Then they showed me their drinking water. (pictured below) I didn’t believe them.
I thought that had to be a drink they make from millet which has about the same color. When we put a cup in and scraped the bottom of the pan, we realized, in fact, that dirt had discolored the water. They are in great need of physical water, but their greatest need is the Water of Life.
Normally, we don’t begin our program until after nightfall, but we had a wonderful crowd that had already gathered early.
We showed a film, and then I took the Word of God and preached to them. There were over 200 present. When the invitation was given, God did an amazing work. Almost all 200 came forward. We had multiple pastors there and wanted to deal with them more individually, but this wasn’t possible. We had to gather them together and tell them through the Word how to receive Jesus.
I have never personally seen this great of a move at one time in a village and what was most shocking is that many adult men also trusted Jesus as their Saviour. In a village, it is extremely rare to see older men trust in Christ. A week later I am still on a high from what God did. We are trying to figure out with Pastor Salif how we will start a church in this village. We would also like to help them physically because of their great need of water. If God provides the money, we will most likely try to put a water pump in this village because of this urgent need. What truly thrills my heart is that they found the Water of Life.
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May 14th, 2014 at 2:05 am
Glory be to God, who has the power. What great and mighty things he hath wrought! -Such an encouragement, Bro. Keith. Do they try different methods of filtering their water? When I was in Africa years back, the water was also not clear, but yellowish or greenish. How blessed -how spoiled -we are. God is very good to us.