The Shumaker Family's Blog

Last Sunday night was a night of excitement.  After I finished preaching, I let Salif talk about 10 min.  He told us about the work that God is doing at the village church, Roungou.  While he was talking the power went out.  It happens some during service times, and we normally keep preaching or singing or whatever we are doing.  The problem was that this night was different.

I met Salif in 2002.  He was a hard core Muslim that followed in the footsteps of his father.  He was trained to be an Imam (Muslim leader of a Mosque).  After two years of conversing, (it really was a surprise to me), he received Jesus as his Savior.  He began working in the ministry doing whatever was needed.  He taught kids, lead singing, translated, etc.  He was very faithful.   We started a work in a village called Roungou.  It is about two hours by car.  The problem was that we could only go every other week.  We discussed the need to be out there every week.  He approached me and told me he was interested.

He has faithfully gone out there every week for over two years.  He leaves early Saturday morning, takes a bus to one town, and then takes a smaller bus to another town.  Then he rides his bicycle for about 45 min to 1 hour to get to the village.  He does children’s programs, discipleship courses, and has two services for the people.  Then he comes back on Sunday night.

A few months ago, I was at Eternal Believers Baptist Church.  I talked about Salif’s testimony and his faithfulness.  After the message, Pastor Grant Burke told the church that he wanted to raise money for a moto for Salif so they took a special offering for this need.

Salif didn’t know about this.  I wanted it to be a surprise.  So that is why Sunday night was different.  Sunday night was going to be the night we surprised him, and the power went off.  We quickly got some candles and lit them.  Then I called Salif and his wife up front.  I explained the story about how God put a desire in the heart of Pastor Burke.  Then I said here is the gift that was given, and the moto was brought in.

Salif was shocked.  He turned to his wife and gave her a hug.  The church clapped for over a minute.  It was a beautiful thing to watch how God has blessed the faithfulness of Salif.  Pastor Konate then presented a special gift for Salif’s wife.  It was material to make their traditional clothing.  What a night!  The pictures aren’t perfect because of the power being cut.  We did get a few pictures after the power came back on.

Mamata (Salifs wife) told my wife that Salif couldn’t eat or sleep that night because he was so excited.  God is good.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 2nd, 2011 at 1:24 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.