Mike McAfee weaves the truck through traffic until it finally rolls to a standstill. It looks like bedlam, but it\u2019s just a typical morning in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.<\/p>\n
The roads are wet from recent rains with standing water in many places. Along the roadside are street sellers hawking goods from tables piled high with mangoes, avocados, bananas and small pineapples. Other vendors wave goods outside the truck windows. At a newsstand, several men read the headlines of newspapers tacked up on a wooden board.<\/p>\n
McAfee eases through impossibly narrow spaces between vehicles and finally turns onto a less congested street. After a few more lane changes and turns, he pulls into Koumassi, an area east of where he and his family live. The Southern Baptist missionary comes to this industrial area at least once a week to visit with Seidou (SAY-doo), a Muslim man who moved to Abidjan from Burkina Faso in 2001. McAfee parks the truck and steps through an entrance leading to a long, narrow way — almost like an alley but called a foyer. Doors on each side lead into rooms where families live.<\/p>\n
Seidou is Bissa, an ethnic group that can be found in northeast Ghana, where he was born, and Burkina Faso, where he grew up. He, like many other West Africans, came to Abidjan for work and has been employed as a security guard, but jobs are difficult to find, he said. As he and McAfee start to visit, speaking in French, Seidou talks about work. He hasn\u2019t been paid in two months, he said.<\/p>\n
He and McAfee sit in a small entry room. Three doors open out from this room: one for Seidou\u2019s family\u2019s living quarters, another for his brother Issaka\u2019s family and the third for Issaka\u2019s second wife. As the men visit, five or six children, curious about the foreign visitors, wander in and out of the room. It\u2019s summer and school is on break. McAfee\u2019s daughter, Karis, joined him on this visit, hoping to play with Seidou\u2019s niece Sadia. But Karis discovers that Sadia is now in training in a tailor\u2019s shop so she\u2019s at work today. Sadia won\u2019t be returning to school when her brothers start back in the fall. She started working in the tailor\u2019s shop — leaving her school education behind — when she was 11 years old.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all about trying to make a living to support the extended family. When wages don\u2019t come, it impacts the entire family — not just wife and children but sometimes adult brothers and sisters, cousins, aging parents and others.<\/p>\n
Learning the stories<\/p>\n
On this visit, Seidou brings out a DVD he recently purchased on the street: \u201cLes Dix Commandements,\u201d a French version of the 1956 Cecil B. DeMille epic film starring Charlton Heston as Moses. Seidou knows McAfee will be interested because usually it\u2019s McAfee who shares Bible stories with him.<\/p>\n
Seidou speaks fluent French, but McAfee was able to find \u201cThe Jesus Film\u201d in Bissa, his heart language, and show it to him on another visit. Today McAfee uses the film on the television as a jumping off point to discuss biblical truths. He also has worked through the Bible with Seidou, sharing many key stories.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way we do evangelism in Africa is we tell stories,\u201d McAfee said. \u201cThe Bible is one big story and so we break that down. We tell what we call a \u2018resume\u2019 of the Bible called Creation to Christ or Creation to Return. That is our evangelism strategy as we go into these communities that don\u2019t have … a Christian presence.\u201d<\/p>\n
When McAfee tells a story, he asks the listener three key questions afterward:<\/p>\n
\u2022 What lesson have you learned from this story?<\/p>\n
\u2022 What are the characteristics of God?<\/p>\n
\u2022 Is there something that you need to obey?<\/p>\n
These questions help McAfee discover what the listener has heard and give him opportunities to reinforce biblical truths.<\/p>\n
Storying is a powerful tool in Africa, McAfee says. \u201cIn the States, you tell someone, \u2018I want to tell you a story,\u2019 and nobody wants to hear. Here you say that and everyone gathers around,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
McAfee said Seidou knows the stories and has heard clear gospel presentations. It just comes down to a decision. On this day as they talk, Seidou repeats what he has told McAfee in the past.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeidou says he\u2019s conflicted because the Koran says that God doesn\u2019t have a child and the Bible says that Jesus is God\u2019s Son,\u201d McAfee said. \u201cHe says, \u2018I\u2019m watching all these things to try to figure it out.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI [told him] it\u2019s a very important decision because if what Jesus says is true, then the only way to have eternal life is through Him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with the French version of \u201cThe Ten Commandments,\u201d the pirated DVD Seidou purchased includes two other films: \u201cIn the Beginning,\u201d a 2000 American made-for-television film telling stories from the books of Genesis and Exodus, and \u201cThe Message,\u201d a 1977 film made by a Syrian-American director that tells the story of Islam\u2019s origins.<\/p>\n
Praying In Jesus\u2019 Name<\/p>\n
Seidou has not only heard and discussed New Testament Bible stories but also seen Jesus\u2019 healing power in his home, McAfee said. One day, Issaka was there as McAfee was sharing with Seidou. Issaka told McAfee that he hadn\u2019t been able to work much for the past 12 years because of back problems. McAfee agreed to pray for healing for Issaka\u2019s back, if he could pray in Jesus\u2019 name.<\/p>\n
Since Issaka\u2019s back had hurt for 12 years, McAfee started by telling him the story of the woman who bled for 12 years and visited doctors and mystics but found no one who could heal her until she touched Jesus. \u201cI told him that story, and I told him that what Jesus said to her is very important,\u201d McAfee said. \u201cHe said, \u2018Your faith has healed you.\u2019 And I said, \u2018Issaka, it\u2019s going to come down to your faith and who Jesus Christ is.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so Issaka agreed to allow me to pray for him in Jesus\u2019 name. We prayed, and he didn\u2019t get healed immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n
But when McAfee came back the next week, Issaka saw him from a distance. \u201cHe came running and he said, \u2018Pastor, Pastor, you\u2019ve got to pray for me again.\u2019\u201d McAfee asked him why and Issaka told him that he was \u201chalf healed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I said, \u2018Well let\u2019s go in the house and we\u2019ll talk about it,\u2019\u201d McAfee recalled. \u201cSo we go in the house and we start talking about having faith in Jesus Christ … and I prayed for him again that he would have faith in Christ and that Christ would heal him. Well again, nothing immediately happened. I went home that day, and I came back the next week. Issaka came running and he said, \u2018Pastor! Pastor! Thank you! Thank you! I\u2019m healed!\u2019 and I looked at him and I said, \u2018Issaka, you\u2019ve got to remember what I told you two weeks ago that if you were healed that you have to give the glory to Jesus Christ because it would be Jesus Christ that healed you.\u2019 He said, \u2018I\u2019ll give the glory to Christ, I\u2019ll give the glory to Christ. I\u2019ll tell everybody it was Jesus that healed me.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love to tell everybody that Issaka accepted Christ and that Seidou accepted Christ and that the family which was a Muslim family has now all accepted Christ and they\u2019re all going to church, but that\u2019s just not the case,\u201d McAfee said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Africa, it\u2019s so hard for a Muslim to accept Christ. He has to count the cost,\u201d he said. \u201cIf Seidou accepts Christ, if Issaka accepts Christ, what is the cost? They might lose their jobs; they might lose their means of support. So he has to count the cost. I know that Seidou is probably counting the cost, and what he decides to do will be after he decides [whether] it\u2019s worth it to follow Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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