Answered Prayers

Hey everyone,

I know I just posted yesterday but I want to tell you all about an incredible thing that happened today. I want to tell you because it is an answer to the very things you all have been so faithfully praying at upon my request. I want you to know that your prayers have been answered (or at least hopefully some of them). This post is about the home visit to Etienne's house that I write about yesterday in my P.S.

Honestly it's hard to know where to start or how to collect my thoughts because it all just happened and I'm still kind of full of adrenaline but I wanted to write about it while it was fresh. I'll do my best. Etienne and I went to church together this morning to a French speaking church and it was awesome. He loved it and it was awesome to watch him worship. Afterwards Justin (my director) and I went to his house as planned. We spent all morning and afternoon just hanging out and meeting all of his cousins and uncles who he lives with. For the record if any of you travels overseas for Missions, do home visits early and often because they express SO much care for the person and respect. It means more to them than I can express, and he opened up a ton. He loved showing me hundreds of pictures of his village and family back at home and traditions. So did his Cousin Patrick who I have also blogged about before. If you'll remember, he also came to know Christ earlier in the summer. The other thing about home visits is that they are longgg. Thy are marathons but they are worth it. Anyway, back to the story. Etienne and Patrick left the room at one point and their uncle (who is the head of the family and very influential) said he wished he could participate in the group Bible studies Patrick had been organizing (see the post "launching baby movements") but he is too busy. We told him we'd be glad to share with him some of what we had taught, and handed him a "Knowing God Personally" booklet which is essentially the Gospel summarized into 4 main points and in French and English. He began flipping through the booklet and Patrick and Etienne come back in and we get sidetracked hanging out and talking. About 30 minutes later conversation came to a stop and an awkward silence and we realized that the uncle had been totally disengaged and absorbed in the booklet since we had handed it to him half an hour ago. We said hey man you've been looking at that thing for a while, do you have questions? He did, and long story short we were able to share with him John 3 how Nicodemus was a Pharisee followed all the law but that wasn't enough Jesus said he needed to be "born again." This hits home with Catholics because many of them are in a system of "works-righteousness" which basically means they try to earn their way to heaven by following rules instead of resting in the grace of God displayed by Jesus' death on the cross as payment of our insurmountable debt before God. Anyway so we asked him what he thought it meant to be born again and he didn't know but he wanted to so we explained to him Ezekiel 36:25-27 that God has promised to cleanse us and take out our hearts of stone and replace them with hearts of flesh and put in us his Holy Spirit. We emphasized how it was God cleansing us not us cleansing ourselves, and that this prophecy in Ezekiel was fulfilled through Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. Things were clicking for him and he knew that being born again meant the Holy Spirit coming into his heart a having that heart of flesh. He recognized that he could have good behavior and still have a heart of stone, and be spiritually dead. We were just about to explain to him that to get the Holy Spirit, this heart of flesh, and be born again all he had to do was repent and believe and ask Jesus into his heart. Then, much to our dismay, he said he had an appointment and would love to keep talking about this but couldn't. God wasn't shaken though, He had this in mind for His glory too. Backtracking, this entire time Etienne and Patrick have been helping translate and helping their Uncle understand the Gospel! :) Anyway, so he has to get going but before he goes we tell him that when he gets back, even though we'll be gone and probably won't ever see him again if he wants to be born again then to ask Etienne and Patrick how to go about doing that, what the next steps are. He said he would! After he left, I asked Etienne and Patrick what they thought they should say to him when he asked. They didn't miss a beat, both of them had already memorized Revelation 3:20 in which Jesus says "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me." They knew the Gospel, they had accepted it already. They turned to the prayer in the back of the "Knowing God Personally" booklet which they had both prayed, and said they would have their Uncle read it and tell him that it wasn't that they were magic words but if they expressed the desire of their Uncle's heart then he could pray them and according to Revelation 3:20 Jesus would come into his heart just like He promised, and take out his heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh, and begin a relationship with him. I was ecstatic, these two young Senegalese believers were going to lead their Uncle to begin a relationship with Christ!!!! We're talking about Spiritual Multiplication in SENEGAL!!! IN THE 10/40 WINDOW (if you don't know what that is, google it)!!! After that I had a great discussion with Etienne and Patrick about 2 Corinthians 5:15-21 which talks about us being Christ's ambassador's and how we've been reconciled to Christ and entrusted with His ministry of reconciliation. Through asking questions about the passage, they came to their own conclusion without me shoving it down their throats that helping someone to be reconciled to God (or have peace with God) meant to share Christ with them, because they believed Christ was the only way that peace with God was possible. When that came out of their mouths, I just about lost it. They said it made them sad that so many people in Senegal dying without ever even hearing about Jesus. They understood that God's plan A for getting the Gospel to the Senegalese people was them as ambassadors and there was NO plan B. That if a President sent out his ambassador and that ambassador didn't deliver the message, that it just plain would not get delivered at all. That's HUGE. We also went through Romans 10:14 about how people can't believe in the Good News if they haven't heard it. Patrick said once he knew the Bible as well as Justin and I did, he wanted to travel the world and teach the Bible. They decided their "small" action step to apply what they had learned in 2 Corinthians was going to be to begin trying to be ambassadors to their cousins and uncles that they lived with, including one Muslim cousin. They even asked about verse 16 which talks about not seeing people as the world sees them but as Christ sees them. They drew the conclusion that it meant seeing people not by their outward appearance but seeing people as either having a heart of stone and needing Jesus, or having a heart of flesh and having Jesus. It was AWESOME!!! Some time this week, Etienne is going to help me translate in sharing Christ with one of his friends who doesn't speak English. I cannot describe to you how exciting this afternoon has been with words in this blog post but I hope that right now you're encouraged that your prayers are leading to incredible things happening here in Senegal, and I hope you're almost as pumped as I am about what I'm getting to see God do here first hand. Praise the Lord!!! No glory to me, God gave me His word to teach, He gave me His son to teach about, He gave me His Spirit to guide my conversation, God gave these young Senegalese men His Spirit to understand and be moved to action. GOD is good! GOD is might to save! God is moving and causing Spiritual Multiplication here in Senegal, in the 10/40 window, in an area where thousands of people are dying every day without even having heard the name of Jesus, there are some native believers who are upset by that, and want to do something about it. People who will be here long after I go home in a week. People who have deeper relationships with other Senegalese, people who speak the language, people whose lives are beginning to be radicalled shaped by Christ in a way that provides testimony to the people that they are living with. I can't get my mind around it. In Senegal sometimes we are seed planters, and often times we don't see those seeds grow or come to fruition but today God blessed me with seeing everything I have worked towards and prayed for this summer come to fruition right in front of me. This was why I spent a majority of my summer in a little Copy Shop with Etienne and Patrick. This was why God sent me to Senegal, this was why God asked you all to give financially so I could be here, this was what we've all been praying for. I don't know how to wrap this blog post up well, which is probably why I'm still going on and on, but today was amazing, thank you all again for everything that you do. None of this would be possible without you, I can't say that enough. I love you all, keep praying!

In Christ,
Matt