A deep work in a few

© Louise Perkins

I’d love to introduce you to two guys.

It’s a huge privilege and joy to share life with the students and staff at SOW (Servants of the Word) Bible School here in the Gambia. This year it looks like I’ll focus my energies on just two students in Year 2. Sadly, the class has whittled down from 11 a year ago (not the norm, I hasten to add). 

• Some had valiantly had a go but concluded (sensibly) that they need to improve their basic literacy before being able to benefit significantly from such a course; 
• One we’ve sent off to Nigeria to a full-time Bible school there for a year; 
• A couple are in teacher training and have (frustratingly) been placed at the other end of the country;
• Some are simply too stretched financially not to spend the hours they would spend in class earning.

So, it’s sad for those men and women who have had to drop out. And we by no means intend to cut ties with them; we will keep seeking to encourage them. But we trust that God is in control. He is the Lord of the harvest who deploys his people where, when and how he ordains. And so we recognise this unusually small class as an opportunity from the Lord for us to invest deeply and thoughtfully in these 2 who remain. It’s a great privilege to be a teacher with a 1:2 ratio, it’s lots of fun to really get to know these guys well, and it’s a joy to see their relationship grow as they study and learn together, and spur one another on. It’s often been said that a key to truly fruitful ministry is “a deep work in a few for the sake of the many”. I believe that.

Will you pray with me for these two young men? First, I thought you might appreciate me introducing you…


Alieu (names changed) is tall, well-built and cheeky. He came to the Gambia from Sierra Leone and got sucked into the bumster way of life here. Bumsters are notorious hustlers who get by through (usually) petty crime, often fleecing tourists and whoever else they can. Alieu's life was typical of that community - unrestrained stealing, drugs, alcohol and sex. He’d tell you that - despite his bravado - it was miserable. He became very sick, and when no doctors could help, one doctor said his only hope was to try a marabout (traditional healer / witch-doctor). As is very common, Alieu ended up selling all he had to pay for the ‘assistance’ of various marabouts, but all the sacrifices and charms achieved nothing.

One bumster friend of Alieu’s came from a Christian family and, whilst he didn't care about Christianity himself, he sensed that “their God has power”. Alieu thought it was worth a shot. So he resolved to go to a church service. His girlfriend kept trying to dissuade him, employing various tactics to distract him or discourage him from going. Sometimes he’d be on his way to the church, but he’d bump into some mates en route and choose the easy option of sitting down with them and joining in their boozing.

Eventually he made it. Having grown up in a Muslim environment, the initial experience of church was shocking. In his mind, religious meetings meant taking off your shoes, approaching with an attitude of quietness and respect, men and women being separated… By contrast, at the church, everyone was singing, dancing and drumming! It was like a party! But instead of being offended (as many would be), Alieu loved parties and so loved this!

Alieu felt a totally unfamiliar peace and joy when in the presence of these Christians, which was deeply attractive. In time, God restored Alieu to health, and he found himself continuing and desiring to go to church with an increasing hunger to know more about Jesus from the Bible. He got baptised when he received Jesus as his Saviour and only hope for life and eternity, and his life began to be transformed by the love, grace and peace of God through Jesus.

Two years ago, someone from Alieu’s church took him along to a workshop about Bible storytelling - an important and effective technique particularly aimed at people with low literacy (though Alieu is actually well educated and very bright). Whilst there, Alieu heard about SOW and decided to enrol. He’s now in Year 2, he got an excellent score in last year's external Moore College Introduction to the Bible exam, and recently did a practice exposition on a part of Philippians in class, which was one of the clearest sermons I’ve heard in the Gambia! 

 

**

Tijan is from remote rural Guinea - "the forest” region - extremely different from coastal Gambia with its tourist industry and mixture of African & foreign nationalities. He’s short, earnest, but with a high laugh and a big smile, and speaks with an extremely strong Guinean-French accent (Guinea being francophone). Whilst studying at university in Labé, Guinea, Tijan met a pastor who sensed that Tijan had both the willingness and embryonic gifts for Christian ministry of some kind. This pastor was from the same tribe as Tijan, and had connections with some Christians in the Gambia…

Two years ago, this pastor duly sent Tijan here to be taken in by a community of believers from his tribe (which spans national borders), many of whom have suffered greatly for their faith. It’s one of the least reached people groups in the world (0.05% Christian) The purpose of his coming? To be trained at SOW - somewhere where he would read and study the Bible, and be taught how to interpret it accurately and how to teach it clearly.

Tijan struggled through his first year, unable to find a decent job, but this term we rejoiced when he landed a job as a school-teacher, teaching French. It requires phenomenal hard work and is met with a meagre salary. After full days of teaching, he comes to SOW for Monday and Tuesday evening classes, and then again on Saturdays. Such times would be key opportunities to offer private tuition (where teachers’ money is really made here). Instead, Tijan decides to come faithfully to SOW.

He works incredibly hard, and is making slow but good progress with his English. Beautifully, his classmate Alieu is very patient with Tijan’s much slower rate of English reading and comprehension. There are often lovely moments in class where Alieu takes it upon himself to correct or clarify something for his brother. One battle we’re fighting together is to break Tijan’s habit of dropping the consonants at the end of words, which is common in French. So, for example, “On dit un mot” (“one says a word”) is pronounced in French, “O[n] di[t] u[n] mo[t]”. This leads Tijan to do the same in English - he’ll passionately declare, “The WOR of GO!” (= “The WORD of GOD!”) I’ve just about got used to it! But communicating clearly in English is a massively useful skill, not only here; so as much as I enjoy dusting off my school-level French, we’ve agreed that we’ll only speak English in the classroom. (Unless I can remember a French word or two to translate when necessary.)

Most impressively, Tijan has a phenomenal zeal to use his God-given gifts to serve Jesus by making him known through the sharing of his word, the Bible. He longs to do that back in rural Guinea, after this season of training and discipleship here.

** 

So that’s my class! I’m loving being with these guys for 8 hours a week in class, and other times too. Will you pray with me for them? Above all, I’m praying that this opportunity for a deep work in them would lead to them being trained appropriately and effectively, so that they can then appropriately and effectively reach many others in all the years that God will give them.

© freeimages.com

Doing the two-times multiplication table is surprisingly exciting. And actually quite staggering. Get this… If I, by God’s grace, can make a lasting impression on these two, through the regular opening up of God’s word this year, and then they could each do the same in two more, each year, for (say) 21 years… Guess how many people would have been discipled after those 21 years? More than 2 MILLION!!! 2,097,152. (Do the sums yourself if you don’t believe me!) That’s more than the current population of the Gambia!

It gets crazy when you add on just a few more years… 25 years? 33,554,432. 30 years? 1,073,741,824.

Could the reason we often don’t see that kind of growth be the shallowness of our work in people?

So please pray for a DEEP work in these precious FEW (two!) for the sake of the MANY! And that in the future, God would do a deep work in many others through them, and on and on and on… For God’s glory!

10 Ways to Actually Pray for Missionaries

 © freeimages.com

I gather that more books have been written on prayer than on any other topic in the Christian life. We Christians all know that it’s an extraordinary privilege we have - to call the God of the universe our Father, and approach his throne of grace confidently!! But I think we all struggle to pray as well. Why is that?

And off goes another book about prayer… Which I’m not going to write! I suppose there will be theological reasons why we don’t pray, emotional reasons, circumstantial reasons… I wonder if a surprisingly powerful factor might be quite practical reasons though. As Don Carson put it - we simply need to “plan to pray”.

One of the most significant books I’ve read on prayer is Carson’s masterpiece, A Call to Spiritual Reformation (IVP, 1992), which surveys some of the Apostle Paul’s prayers and what we can learn from them for our prayer lives. It totally transformed my approach to prayer when I read it 10 years ago, and I’m sure it would do the same again if I gave it a fresh read! Funnily enough though, along with all the epic theological elements in the book that had such a big impact on me, something that has stuck with me, as if I read it yesterday, is a most basic piece of practical advice, from the start of the book - “plan to pray”! It’s a simple but penetrating point. Carson elaborates:

“What we actually do reflects our highest priorities. That means we can proclaim our commitment to prayer until the cows come home, but unless we actually pray, our actions disown our words.” (p.19)

So. Dare I ask - what’s your plan? How will you pray for missionaries?

That obviously takes for granted that you want to pray for missionaries. I believe we should! I won’t try to persuade anyone now. Suffice it to say, the more we love and follow Jesus, whose parting words to his people on earth were, “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19), the more we’ll want to be part of that. Many are not called to go anywhere further than across the street, though such endeavours still ought to be backed prayerfully by others. Some are called to go further from home, and they certainly need the prayerful backing of others.

So, what’s your plan?

I’ve been really encouraged, since coming to the Gambia, when friends have told me how they pray for me. One friend wrote to me recently and, after assuring me that he is keeping me in his prayers, he added, “On Thursdays and Sundays FYI”. He’s got a plan! And I’m so grateful.

My goddaughter’s parents have a lovely book they’ve made for her with photographs of people to pray for, including me here. They’ve got a plan! And I’m so grateful.

Writing prayer letters is a funny old experience (as is writing a blog, really). Typing, typing, typing, sharing, sharing, sharing. “Is it worth it?? Will people actually pray?? Will people even read?? I trust that some do. I don’t want to write too much and bore people… Or do people actually want to hear more? Let me be succinct. But I need to explain and give a picture of things…” It’s not easy!

But the writing is (part of) my side of the bargain. The other side is people praying. And I know that’s not easy either! Hence this blog post. Because (here we are finally…) I thought it might be helpful to offer a few practical suggestions on how to actually pray for missionaries. Here you go - take or leave! Ten tips in no particular order:

1. Decide to spend a few minutes praying through any prayer email / letter immediately when you read it. 
2. Save up prayer emails / letters into a folder and schedule a fiercely guarded time into your diary each week to pray through them. N.B. Depending on the volume, storing them up like this can make for quite a tiring prayer session. If more than 5(?), I’d go for two separate slots. 
3. Stick up a world map on a wall, and add pins to mark where people are for whom you’ll pray. 
4. Then pick an activity that creates a pause in your day to pray for a different pin each time - e.g. as the water is boiling / coffee is brewing. 
5. Pray for people you know in different continents each day of the week. (Could be done with #3.) 
6. Use triggers. For example, whenever you see someone walking a dog, say a quick prayer for a missionary you know who has a dog (hint hint). Or I heard of someone who prayed for some missionaries every time she saw the same model of car that they had. 
7. Pick a memorable place that you pass regularly (a tube stop on your way to work / a park on your way to the shop) and decide to pray for a missionary every time you pass it. 
8. Accept that you can’t pray for everything and pick one thing to focus on from a particular prayer email / letter. Write it in a prayer diary (start one!). 
9. Use the PrayerMate app and customise it to however it best suits you. I recommend it highly. It requires a bit of effort to get used to, but many people find it pays off. 
10. Commit to meet regularly with some others who also know said missionary to pray for them - once a month / once a term / whenever. You could write them a note when you do so too - they’d love that! 

I currently benefit from doing three of the above. Why not pick two or three that help you?

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” (Colossians 4:2)

Let’s plan to do so, and make it happen. Remember Carson’s words? “What we actually do reflects our highest priorities.” May God help you and me to plan and to pray.