“I need these sins to be washed away from me,” responded a village elder when asked why he wanted to give his life to Christ.  For the past 3 months AfricaHope’s Church Ministry team had come on a weekly basis for a time of bible storying, beginning at the time of creation and culminating with the resurrection of Christ.  For the final week of storying for the year, the Church Ministry team had slaughtered a goat with the men to discuss what they had learned so far, and shown the “Jesus Film” the previous evening to share the life and ministry of Jesus..

After finishing with the story of the Bible the next day and challenging the people to make a decision about Jesus Christ, Mein, one of the elders in the community, spoke out about his desire to know Christ.  He shared how many sins he had, mainly related to cultural rituals and alcohol.  He then said, “I want to leave these evil practices and follow Christ.”  Our staff shared with him his need to place his faith in Christ, repenting of his sins, confessing Christ as his Lord, being baptized, and living a new life.  The elder responded by saying, “I am ready today, I have decided.  Let me give myself to Christ and be baptized now, because there is drought and tomorrow the water might not be here!”

On the way to the small stream of water, they ran across two of Mein’s sons who were home on break from secondary school.  After sharing with them about their father’s decision, the boys praised God, saying they had been praying for their father for many years!  They also had been looking for an opportunity to be baptized and asked if they too could come to the spring.  Together, the man and his 2 sons were baptized that day!

This elder has continued to share with AfricaHope his excitement about the forgiveness sins and living a new life.  Our staff continue to visit regularly for encouragement and discipleship of this man and his sons.  A few weeks ago, our staff was able to get a solar-powered audio Bible in Maasai (the tribal language) to Mein to help him continue to learn from Jesus’ life and ministry.  Please pray for him and his family as they continue to serve Christ as their Lord and resist pressure from many in the community to turn back to their former lives.