 |
Hey guys!
Here's the blog link: mdcoope3.blogspot.com
As always I want to start by thanking you guys for your radical generosity in supporting me, whether prayerfully, financially, or otherwise. You all are the backbone behind everything that I do here and even in the United States and I mean it when I say that I could not do any of it without you. I can't thank you all enough times and words can't express my gratitude.
Things have been going really, really well here. Most of the stories will have to wait until I return because having 30 minutes to write out this update is simply not enough to catch you up on what has happened over the course of the past week. I know many of you have been eager to hear what happened with Malick since I wrote about him in my last email. Unfortunately when I met with him the language barrier proved to be much more significant once I got past the surface level with him. He spoke great basic English but it was difficult trying to explain Biblical concepts to him, and whats more is that he was pretty closed to it anyway. He firmly told me that he did not want to or have time to study the Bible with me. That was a pretty discouraging first meeting. However, God is good and I did my part in stepping out in faith and my prayer is that hopefully I was able to plant some kind of small seed. Now, I want to tell you all about a guy I met named Stephen. Stephen said he was a Christian which of course raised my eyebrows, given the spiritual climate of the University. Stephen was even wearing a cross necklace, but when I asked what it meant to him to be a Christian he said it meant he "believed in God and was not Muslim." While that might have seemed like a loss, it was very good because it meant he didn't have background information fed to him contradicting the Bible such as that Jesus is not the Son of God, or a family who was totally opposed to him believing in Christ. I opened the Bible with him (he had never seen one before though he called himself a Christian) and he was very eager to study it and see what it had to say. He was confused about the fact that he couldn't be born a Christian, he had to make his own personal decision to receive and follow Christ. He was also confused that it was not doing good things that got him to heaven but that it was because Christ had paid his debt before God. We have met multiple times now and studied the Bible, going through passages in Genesis, Isaiah, Psalms, John, Ephesians, and even Revelations. Stephen speaks incredible English, that is what he studies at the university and he is a masters student (it is one of 8 languages that he speaks). Now when I ask Stephen to tell me how he believes he can have a personal relationship with God and get to heaven he says "By putting your faith in Jesus Christ who died on the cross for your sins." This is amazing, this is a huge deal because of the language barrier here and the closed hearts, it usually takes a very long time to get students to the point where they understand the Gospel. He even tells me that he believes it is the truth, but he understands the gravity of the decision and that he will have to follow this for the rest of his life if he chooses to put his faith in Christ. He says he will make a decision of whether or not to put his faith in Christ, but he was not ready to make it right then. I meet with him again tomorrow at 2pm Senegalese time and 10am Eastern time and again Thursday at that same time. I really believe he is close to putting his faith in Christ!!!
That is the only story that I have time to share right now, unfortunately. However, I can assure you that God is at work mightily here in Senegal in even more ways than that. In fact, one of my teammates, Anna (many of you know her) was able to lead a girl to put her faith in Christ!!! He has also done tremendous things in my heart and I have grown a lot in my faith since being here. If you want to hear another story, there was one that I posted a few nights ago on my blog but I didn't get to email it out. Thanks again for all your prayers and please feel free to leave comment on my blog (even if it has nothing to do with my blog post) I'd love to hear from you. Email me if its of a personal nature.
Prayer Requests:
- Please pray for all of my contacts that their hearts would be opened to the truth of God's Word, but especially for Stephen that he would have the courage to put his faith in Christ and that he would be able to see that it is worth putting his faith in.
- Please pray for my team, we have experienced incredible unity and close relationships but pray that that continues, and pray for our individual walks with God that they would continue to be strengthened.
- Pray that every Senegalese student at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) would come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior.
In Christ,
Matt
No comments:
Post a Comment