The population in Africa is the fastest-growing in the world today. That growth plus poor infrastructure in much of the continent make gospel progress challenging. But these challenges cannot stop the light of Jesus from piercing the spiritual darkness in Africa.
More than 500 million unreached people reside in Africa, and God is moving in miraculous ways among the lost on this continent. Hardened hearts are softening, believers are bravely enduring persecution, and the Church is multiplying at an incredible rate.
Here are a few stories of how God is changing lives in Africa.
A Softened Heart
Everyone in Kaleb’s village feared him. He was angry and known to beat his own mother. No one wanted to be near him.
Except Jamila. Her heart was burdened for her brother, and she wanted to tell him about Jesus. One day, Jamila and her husband traveled to Kaleb’s village. She told him how Jesus paid for his sins and offers the way to salvation. But Kaleb—his heart still full of anger—rejected the gospel. Jamila continued to pray for her brother’s heart over the next month.
Miraculously, Kaleb’s heart eventually softened, and he decided to make Jesus his Lord and Savior. His heart of anger was replaced with a heart of generosity, and he donated his land to establish a church.
Persevering Through Persecution
Samuel Garba serves as a pastor and East-West national partner in West Africa. He and his wife, Mariama, have experienced persecution for their faith, though their country’s constitution allows the freedom of religion.
When their son, David, was late coming home from school one day, they assumed he had stopped somewhere along the way. But as the sun began to sink lower in the sky, worry set in.
Darkness fell as Samuel and Mariama began knocking on the doors of their friends and neighbors, asking anyone who was home if they had seen David. Stop after stop turned up fruitless. The Garbas even decided to visit the morgue, wondering in anguish if their son had died. He was not there either. Samuel decided it was time to report their son as missing to the police. Then, he and Mariama fell to their knees in prayer.
Three days later, a man saw a missing persons post on Facebook and recognized David, who he’d seen with a group of boys a few days before. This tip led the police to David’s location, 15 miles away from his home. David was rescued and returned safely, but not without a harrowing story to tell.
The morning before his kidnapping, David was approached by two of his friends who asked if he was fasting in observance of a Muslim holiday. When David replied he was not—and that he did not believe in Muhammad as a savior—his friends reported him to a local gang.
David was kidnapped and driven 15 miles away, where he was told to renounce his faith. He refused, resulting in repeated beatings over the course of his captivity. By the grace of God, David remained steadfast through his persecution.
While the entire family is continuing to heal from the trauma of David’s kidnapping, one thing endures—the Garbas continued commitment to spread the gospel among their Muslim neighbors and friends in West Africa.
A Multiplying Movement
Chidi is a Christ follower who had lived in an urban part of his African nation for years. But the Holy Spirit used the words of an East-West missionary to convict him to pursue his own people with the gospel. It was time for Chidi to leave the city and return to the unreached interiors of his village in a tribal African region. Ready to use the training in evangelism, discipleship, and church planting he had learned from the missionary, Chidi returned to his tribe to make disciples.
As he spread seeds of the gospel among his people, many came to faith, and Chidi started a church. On Sundays, they gathered under a leafless tree to praise God for the gift of grace through Jesus. Over the weeks, the church continued to grow in number.
Chidi knew what he needed to do next. Large portions of the region still needed the saving message of Jesus, so he selected faithful leaders from the local body, trained them, and commissioned them to start their own movements of gospel-centered multiplication.
Today, Chidi continues to lead the church God entrusted to him, and those he commissioned have started five new churches, multiplying followers of Christ in one of the most difficult-to-reach places in Africa.
These stories are just a glimpse at the many ways God is moving in Africa. Today, please pray that the Lord would continue to soften hearts, strengthen persecuted believers, and multiply gospel movements in Africa.
Ministry in Africa
East-West comes alongside believers in Africa who are taking the message of the gospel throughout their land, helping them provide necessary humanitarian aid and integral training in evangelism and church planting. By combining our resources, East-West and nationals are meeting the physical and spiritual needs of Africans.
