This week we had the privilege of meeting the man who was the first Christian in our region. His name is John Paul and he lives in a village 35 kilometers from us. He is a deacon in his church.
John Paul grew up in a small village outside of Bobo. When he was still a teenager, his older brother worked as a guard for a missionary family in Bobo. From time to time, the missionary would take his guard to the village to visit his family. During these visits the older brother and the missionary started telling stories about Jesus. Through these stories, John Paul made a decision to follow Jesus.
John Paul grew up, married, and as his family grew he found that he was needing to go farther and farther away in order to find good fields to plant and to feed his family. So, in 1997 he and his wife decided to move their family to a very isolated region where the soil was rich and abundant. And, they settled their family and raised their 10 children there.
When John Paul relocated his family, the nearest church was 70 kilometers away from their humble home. He searched for other believers in his village but did not find any. John Paul started inviting his neighbors to prayer meetings and they met under a tree to read the Bible together and to pray. After 5 years of holding church under a tree, a young pastor was sent to his village to continue the ministry of building the church.
Today there are an average of 100 adults who attend this village church and the children number 50 or more. There have been 30+ believers baptized!
John Paul says “Choosing to serve God is the best choice that I ever made. My life has been full and blessed”!
In our fast-paced sophisticated society we often take our mobility for granted. Whether our means of transportation is motorcycle, car, truck, bus, train or plane we can easily get to where we are needing to go in a fairly painless fashion.
