The Shumaker Family's Blog

Sunday night we had the commissioning service for Salif.  I am not sure if all of you know his testimony but God has done great things in his life.

He was born into a Muslim family.  His father was the village Imam (muslim leader of a mosque).  Normally, an Imam chooses one of his children to follow in his footsteps.  Salif won this honored position.  He was sent off to Mali as a young child to learn how to read Arabic and study the Koran.  Before I met him, he even lead a mosque in a village.  I met him in 2002.  In 2004, he put his faith in Jesus.  He came to me one day a little while later and said, “Pastor can you help me to read?  I want to learn how to read the Bible.”  He started helping with the children.  Then, he began translating for me.  Then, he led singing.  Next, he began to teach adults; and, now, he is leading our village work.   Who knows what he will do next, but God is using his life.

We weren’t yet ready to have an ordination service for Salif because he hasn’t finished all of his studies, so we had a commissioning service.  It was a wonderful service.  God has blessed our young church.  We support two other missionaries, but now God has given us one of our own.

I am very proud of Salif.  He started out as a night guard at our house.  He quickly became our friend.  Then, he became a brother in Christ.  His is now like one of our own family.  I am very proud of my son, Salif.

Below: We were praying over Salif.

Below:  The men that I am training with a few other leaders.  Salif is wearing the t-shirt.

Below:  Isaac and Meredith enjoyed the snacks after the servic.  Drinking beesap (tastes like kool-aid but made with a flower) out of a baggie can make a mess.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 8:04 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.