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GoodNews International"Preach the Gospel to all creation" Mark 16:15 |
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| GNI Home Liberia 2009 |
Liberia 2009 Testimonies |
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| Inspirational stories from the field of souls! Jerry (USA): Leaving the Drum… The Lord gave our Liberia mission team wonderful fellowship, unity and common purpose that solely focused upon Him and His glory. We praise Him for what He did. He allowed us to speak about sin, forgiveness and faith in Christ with over 1600 individuals (not in a mass gathering but each person was given time with the gospel as individuals). Many (1300) responded to the hope of the gospel in what seems like a hopeless war-wounded land of poverty and darkness. Nearly 40 were baptized by and into the church with others waiting to do so in the 8 towns that we visited. At least 8 Liberian bothers and sisters are now able to clearly present the gospel themselves. A church was actually born right in front of our eyes as hundreds came every night to our services and many were publically baptized down at the community riverside waters every day. These new believers met together to plan weekly worship services and the pastor of our host church in Monrovia made arrangements to come to them every Saturday. The last thing the pastor did was to leave them the drum. The drum is one of the primary musical worship instruments in Africa and the symbolism of this act was quite moving as the established church began to reproduce itself in an area so desperate for a church. May many drums be left throughout Liberia as a result of the proclamation of the gospel. Casey (USA): Part of our time in Liberia was in Kakata where we led Alice to the Lord Tuesday afternoon at her roadside hut store. Wednesday morning her blind husband George was waiting there for us. He took us up a side road to the building where several families with blind members live. Pastor Samuel graciously turned his pulpit over to us. Around ten people there listened as we presented the gospel. All prayed the sinner’s prayer with us. When we left, we went to the prison across the road. The guard at the main door said we needed to have reservations to get in. When I asked how long that would take, his reply was several weeks. I told him we were only in town for a few days. He let us in and introduced us to the commandant who told all guards to help us. The guards let us into a wing with 3 cells each containing over 20 men. What had been noisy chaos became orderly, quiet, rapt attention as we led over 60 men to the Lord—including one guard. On Friday, we returned to the prison where we led over 20 men to the Lord in 2 cells of another wing. Many people, usually men over the age of 40, told me that it was good that we came to Liberia at this time. The recently-ended civil wars have displaced hundreds of thousands; illiteracy is rampant; few grandparents remain—killed by rebels or disease. There are signs of a Christian past—many abandoned or burned out church buildings. We were there before the cults returned. There is a spiritual hunger and depressing ignorance. Christ is the only hope for Liberia (as is true for every country). Thierry (LIB): When we went to Kakata, I approached a boy who was walking by, asking him if he had a few minutes to talk with me. He said he did, and I asked him where he thought he might spend eternity. The boy let me share Christ with him, and he received Christ! He was baptised that evening, and came to me and said, "Thank you for helping me be born again". (Thierry himself had just been born again the weekend prior to this encounter) Comfort (LIB): I was able to go to the prison on Bong County, and I talked with many people concerning the words of our almighty one and true God. I shared with them how they could have eternal life, and many believed and prayed to receive Jesus during my time there. Hector (USA): Africa was a new experience for the entire group and we had ministered around the church in Monrovia on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Our hearts were focused on moving to the interior region of the country, Kakata and Salala. That Monday night I had an opportunity to preach to the congregation, and I challenged the congregation to "Arise and Go", just as in the book of Acts. We saw the effect of God's Word as the entire congregation responded to the calling. Those 1300+ persons who received Christ that wee as their personal Savior in a short time with only eight Americans and seventeen Liberians to share the message indicate how mighty is the power of god to work in people's hearts. People groups, whether they are from Africa, the Middle East, America, or whatever country -- God is about reaching groups of people. After a brutal civil war, God is opening the hearts of the people of Liberia. We hope to return there, and minister in the new church in Kakata, and see how they have grown. We have seen areas of great need, forgiveness for war crimes and other brutal acts, prostitution, HIV-AIDS, extreme poverty and literacy (only 20% of the people can read). One of the Liberians with whom we shared commented, "It is time for the strong to help the weak. Please come and tell us about Jesus and let God heal our land." Many Liberians have found new hope through the saving faith in Jesus. We were so blessed to be a part of this mission trip and see what God is doing in Liberia. Shirley (USA): On Wednesday it was a hot and steamy day in Kakata, Liberia, a small rural area north of the capital city of Monrovia. That day I walked just a few blocks down to the river where the Liberian people washed their clothes, their cars, their bodies, and where many were baptized. People began to com over to where we stood and we shared our personal stories of how God had changed our lives. The two Liberian team members with me also were sharing their testimonies. I have never seen such spiritual hunger and desire for spiritual healing as what I saw in Liberia. One person after another prayed to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior. As soon as we presented them with the opportunity to pray and receive Christ they could hardly wait to answer and shout "I want Jesus!" All day long it went that way. Everyday more and more people came to know the saving power of God to deliver from the power of sin. This has been the best mission trip I have ever experienced because God showed me it was not my ability that He was concerned about, rather my availability is what He wants. God will bring in the harvest if we will just go and tell the gospel message. Christine (USA): My difficulty in sitting down to write a testimony is trying to take such a huge supernatural experience and talk about just a small part of it. One of the things I say to people about my experience in Liberia is: “In a small, minute way I think I got a tiny glimpse of how big God is”. Grammatically that may not be a correct way to explain the vision of the immense vastness of God I now understand a little more than before this trip. Before going to Liberia I was given a book to read “The Camel How Muslims are coming to Faith in Christ” by Kevin Greeson. We were also given a short training session on the Camel Method of evangelism. Through these resources I was amazed to learn about the many Muslim around the world converting to Christianity after reporting visions and dreams of a “Holy man dressed in white”. While in Liberia I was blessed to be on the team that went to Sinje to visit the Vai people group. When entering the village the first person we met was the village Chief. After a brief encounter we were instructed to speak to the village Commissioner to be granted permission to enter the village. After going through the formalities with the Commissioner, he informed us of his faith in Christ and gave us permission with his blessing. Walking around the village I met a group of young people who were very interested in hearing what I had to tell them about how they could have a perso  nal relationship with Jesus as their
Savior. In the photo at the right many of them
prayed to surrender their lives to Christ. As our time was nearing an end I came back across the village Chief and
of course he was very curious to know what we were doing in the village. I shared the gospel with him and he asked many
questions about Christianity as he explained to me about being a Muslim. By the leading of the Holy Spirit and my
brief training with the Camel Method of evangelism, I was prepared to answer
some of his questions about the Islam faith leading to Christianity. When I presented the Chief with the fact that
many Muslim around the world are coming to Christ through visions and dreams of
a “Holy Man dressed in white”, he very emphatically said that he would like to
have that dream, he would know that the “Holy Man” was Jesus and he would
believe Jesus to be the Truth and the Life and the only way to Heaven. I am praying, and would ask you to pray,
that this Vai Chief would have that dream and would passionately follow Christ
as his Savior. |
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