A great Sunday sets the stage for Salvation on Monday!

Sunday was a great day at church. In attendance were two men who have been absent for several weeks. We also had another man visit for the first time. His “wife” was saved and baptized in our church. 

Brother Greg preached a great sermon and afterwards the church honored him with testimonies and gifts. It was Greg’s last day at our church as he and I move on to start a new work in another area. I will be preaching at our church in Kingereka every Sunday while Greg takes the preaching load at our new church plant. After the services were over I talked to our visitor (named Mandara) and set up a time to meet with him on Monday.

That Monday afternoon meeting happened just a few hours ago. As we began to talk I found out that he was a devout Muslim for quite awhile. He began to see things in his religion that really bothered him. He explained that it had been almost 1 year since he quit practicing Islam. I began to explain the details of salvation by grace through faith and how that Jesus did all the work necessary for our salvation when He died on the cross. I explained that it’s humanly impossible to do enough good works to earn forgiveness. After showing him a few verses from the Bible, he bowed his head and prayed, confessed that Jesus is God and asked for forgiveness of his sin! Amen!

I told Mandara that there are many things to learn in the Bible. He interrupted me and said that he was going to read the Bible. I continued and told him about being baptized and becoming a member of our church. But there was one matter that preceded these; he and his “wife” needed to be officially married. He agreed. He told me that they have been living together for 2 years now and that it has been too long without being married. I told him that I was available even as early as tomorrow to help them with this matter. He asked, “What about this Sunday?” His wife said that was too soon because a certain someone would not be in town. She said, “Let’s do it in 2 weeks.” He agreed! Wow! That was easy.

It’s true that when a person gets saved he becomes a new creature. He changes his actions and instead of living to please self he lives to please God.

Please pray:
For Mandara and his family (wife and 1.5 yr old) as they grow in the Lord.
For more souls to be saved.
For the new church plant (beginning Feb 6 2011)
For good morale during the holiday season. It often gets very lonely during the holidays.