Prayer Stories

Following God's Plan

I led three men from a team sent by First Baptist Church of California, Missouri to a village where we had the opportunity to share the Gospel with many, many people. On our first night there, I gave a gospel presentation to several elders who came by to visit us. The next evening we were able to show the “JESUS” film. The following morning, we went to visit the chief and talk about the film. With him were many of the village elders, as well as several other people. They asked many questions about Jesus, based on what they saw in the film. Sadly, they said their religion was the same as ours except that they believed the way into heaven was to follow their prophet. This allowed me to give another Gospel presentation and to clearly show in Scripture where Jesus revealed Himself as the only way. As we left that meeting, I was very discouraged because it did not seem that the villagers were willing to change their ways and follow the One True God. However, a little bit later, one of the young men who had seen the film and listened to our Gospel presentations was able to go aside and talk privately with the volunteer team leader. Afterwards, this young man committed his life to Christ! One of our Jula lay leaders and I later talked with this young man and prayed with him for a while. Later that night, another young man also decided to become a follower of Jesus! One of the men had commented that several years ago, some Christians had come into the village and wanted to tell people about Jesus, but the chief would not give them permission. Yet here we were doing just that! He was amazed that the chief and the others actually let us do this and that they also sat there and listened with the others. Praise God for giving us this opportunity! What had started out as a very disappointing day ended with seeing two brand new Jula men enter the Kingdom of God. That very morning I had been reading in Isaiah 55 the verses where God declared that His ways are higher than our ways and that His Word would accomplish what He desired, in the manner that He sent it. What an accurate description of what we witnessed that day. All along we had focused on the chief and the elders of that village; yet, God in His sovereignty chose to save two young men whom He brought to hear the Message that was being given. Praise God for these two new believers! Ask Him to bring them together so they can start to pray and worship as one body. Pray that they will quickly grow in their new faith.

Steve Haber - Jula

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