The Shumaker Family's Blog

Here is our latest prayer letter:

Dear Pastor and Praying Friends,

As stated in our last prayer letter, we will be returning to the States at the end of May for a six month furlough. We have already begun to book some different meetings.  If you would like to have us in, please call me at 706-534-8965 or e-mail me at keith@theharvest.net  God has given us some of the greatest and most faithful supporters that a missionary family can have and we are very grateful.

I want to share with you the testimony of Pastor Konaté:

Konaté grew up in a Muslim family.  His family was very religious and always faithful to the mosque and their prayers.  Konaté completed his education and became a school teacher.  While living on his own, he was still faithful with many of his friends to go to the Mosque every day to pray.  He met a Christian who began to share Jesus with him and invited him to church.  Konaté, out of curiosity, went to church and was touched by the preaching of the Word of God.  He repented of his sins and believed on Jesus.

In spite of going to church on Sunday morning, he was afraid of what his family and friends would think.  He would still go to the mosque and pray.  After about 6 months of this, he decided he couldn’t be a hypocrite any longer.  He went to his family and said that he became a Christian. His family wasn’t as hard on him as his friends were.  His friends came by ready to go to the mosque one day.  Konaté said, “I am not going to pray today.”  One friend asked, “Why not? Are you sick?”  He said, “No, I have become a Christian.”  They laughed (thinking he was joking) and said, “Come on!”  Again he said, “I am not going to pray to Allah anymore because I pray to Jesus.”  His friends gave him a hard time but didn’t give up on him.  For many weeks they came by and tried to persuade Konaté to leave his new faith, but he couldn’t be shaken.

Shortly after this, in 2007, he came to our church, Living Water Baptist Church.  He was like a sponge and began to grow greatly in his faith.  I began to disciple him personally.  In 2008, I announced that we were beginning our Bible College.  He told me he wanted to come.  I asked him, “Why?”  He said, “God has called me into the ministry and there is no other thing that I want to do.”  While working two jobs, he faithfully began to prepare for the ministry.  He later became the assistant pastor at Living Water Baptist church.  I was ready to leave the church in his hands because of the great job he was doing, when he came to me and said that God had called him to go and start a new church.  He was comfortable in the church.  The church paid him well.  The church is our biggest and most stable church, but he desired to follow God’s leading.  I asked him, “Why do you want to leave?”  He said, “We have talked about having hundreds or thousands of Baptist Churches around the country so I need to go and start one.”

In June 2012,  Pastor Konaté and his family went to Kaya (the fifth largest town in Burkina Faso).  He has been doing a great job.  Many have been saved.  He is discipling many weekly.  On Easter Sunday he baptized 6 people.  Your faithful support has allowed men like Pastor Konaté to be in the ministry.  Thanks for all you do.  Pastor Konaté and all the people he has been able to reach are your fruit. I have attached two pictures:  the church pastor Konaté planted and him with two of his disciples.

His Servants,

Keith, Rebecca, Emily, Meredith, Isaac and Caleb

 

 

This entry was posted on Friday, April 26th, 2013 at 9:32 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.