An Open Door

For almost three years now we have been helping a mother with children
at a small village 10-12km south of here. Her husband is gone most of
the time and does not take care of his family. Wendy Roberts has been
the primary one to take interest in this family, because one of the
children in particular was severely malnourished. Over the years, he has
grown more healthy because of Wendy's work.

Recently, we have started weekly visits at her house and around 50
neighborhood children gather around to hear Bible stories and to sing
songs. Normally we go after Dabgue church, as her village is only about
3km further down the road. Last week, however, a message was sent to
inform us that we were not welcome at her place any more and that she
did not want us to come. "Is this message true?" we wondered together
after the church service was finished. "She didn't seem hostile at all
last week when we were there," we remembered.

The decision was made for just Frederick and I to go down that week and
check things out. When we talked to the woman, she expressed her
concerns. Other people were spreading gossip about her and giving her
trouble and she became scared. The chief of the village said, "You have
foreigners at your place each week. If trouble happens, you are
responsible. They have not come and talked to me yet."

So we happily agreed to return and visit with the chief. Any time a
foreigner enters a village to do something more than pass through, it is
customary to announce his presence and intentions to the chief. This we
had neglected to do.

We brought the matter before God in prayer, asking that His will be done
in all of this. These troubles are only complications from the Devil to
distract and disrupt the work. We sensed that God was still in control
and were not concerned.

After finding the chief not at his home Thursday, Frederick and I
finally arrived at his compound to talk with him Friday morning
(yesterday). The chief seems to be a kind man and welcomed us warmly. As
I explained our mission to him in French, Frederick translated into
Nantchere. The end result was his thanking us and saying, "Any time the
Word of God comes to this village, I will not hinder it. You have an
open door. There are people in this village who are unhappy that you are
here. But others are happy. We do not force people. If they want to
worship the trees, they can worship the trees. But if people want to
come, maybe I can help arrange a place for a church someday. For now,
you may meet there under that big tree." Before leaving, we thanked the
chief and invited him to visit our meetings sometimes.

Praise God!

Today, swarms of children enthusiastically followed our moto as we drove
into the village. More adults came than usual. Even the chief's wife
came and listened to the story and singing.

At the end of the service, a man by the name of Joseph approached me. He
would like to attend our church. Normally he is busy teaching elementary
school Sabbath morning, but he wants to rearrange his schedule so that
he can worship with us. He also wants to help with anything he can to
set up a church. If we need help transporting benches, he can help. His
brother wants to come. "You are teaching things that no other church
here teaches, and I want to learn more!" he said.

The chief's wife has been sick for 8 years and came to ask us for help.
We pray that we will know what to do, but we do not know a solution at
this time.

A cripple boy asked us to fix his crutches. He has outgrown his crutches
and they are too short for him. We told him that we would try to get him
some more wood to fix his crutches.

Please pray for this new outreach project. We have more open doors than
we know what to do with. We desperately need more workers. The work is
great, yet we do not know how long we have. Let us work quickly in times
of relative peace and ease!