The Shumaker Family's Blog

As I teenager, I knew that God wanted me in missions work when I got older. I surrendered my heart to do just that, but I never imagined all that being a missionary entailed. My heart was always touched by news of men, women and children in far off lands who knew nothing of Jesus and how He died to free them from their sins. I would go and tell them.  They would get saved. That was all.  I guess the thought of teaching a children’s class was somewhere in the back of my mind, but that was it.  At the time I didn’t picture myself as a “pastor’s wife” who would lead women. I wasn’t a leader. I wasn’t comfortable in front of people.  I just wanted to be a missionary and see souls saved.

As time went on, I realized that being a missionary wife was, in fact, the same as being a pastor’s wife, and I would have to take on more roles than I’d ever dreamed of. To this day, I still feel more comfortable in front of a group of children, but God has given me a love for the wonderful ladies in our churches and a desire not only to see them saved, but also to help them grow in their faith.

Today was a great day in our ladies ministry, one I don’t know if I ever really believed would come. With the help of the pastor’s wives we work with and two other missionary wives, we had a ladies meeting involving ladies from 5 different works.  God truly blessed! I was so proud of the ladies who took part in the meeting.  One particular testimony really touched me. Mamata told about being born into a Muslim family and coming to work for our family.  I asked her after work one day to stay and talk to me. I told her about Jesus, and she prayed, asking him to save her, but only because she was scared not to. She told her relative (a Christian) that maybe she should quit because I wanted her to be a Christian and she didn’t want to be. The relative said to keep working and not worry about it. Mamata began coming to church with us. After one particular service, she realized that she really needed to be saved. What she had prayed before wasn’t from her heart, and this time, she wanted it for herself.   She was truly born into the family of God after the service that Sunday morning.  We began to study the Bible together. We would read the same portions of scripture in our personal quiet times and talk about what we had learned afterwards. We followed a discipleship program.  She talked about how much reading the Bible for herself really helped her grow in her faith. Then, she talked about how God blessed her by letting her marry a good husband, a pastor.  (Her husband is Salif, also a former Muslim who’s father wanted him to one day lead a mosque. Many of you already know his testimony.) I was touched by Mamata’s testimony. She gave it with such confidence. She has grown so much. I was encouraged to do more for the Lord.

Sometimes, it feels like my efforts are in vain or like I just don’t have the time or energy to keep working with people, but then God gives me just what I need to encourage me. It is not me that does the work anyway. It is Him working through me and allowing me to be a part of His plan for reaching Burkina Faso with the gospel. Yes, it means more than just witnessing and seeing souls saved. It means pouring my life into others and helping them grow into mature Christians that can win others and help them grow.  It is a huge task. It takes time and effort, but it is possible with God!

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 30th, 2011 at 10:19 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.