Divine Appointment

So this is not to be a portrayal of every day in Benin, West Africa. But it is an account of one day that resembles others we have had here in the past 6 years.

I was to go to the village of Ainahoue (yee-nah-way) with my teammate, Steve. Unable to accompany me due to a bout with malaria (recovering well now), I figured I’d go alone and leave around noon. Some things “delayed” my departure until 1:30p. As I was driving by the village just down the road, I saw Ega. He’s one of my favorite people with which to minister. He’s got amazing faith and has blossomed in the past 2 years into one of the most effective evangelists and teacher. He was greeting another believer who was outside preparing a meal. Ega asked where I was going and when I told him, he said, “I’ve never been to his village, can I go with you?”

Crippled with polio, I lifted Ega up from the red terrain and into our truck. We greet one another (which in the Aja culture takes about 5 minutes!) Then we start to chuckle at God’s timing. I told him that if I had left “on time”, I wouldn’t have seen him and would’ve had to minister alone. He joked, saying “maybe someday you Americans will learn that God doesn’t work by a watch, but by African time.” He laughed because he loves the watch I got him 2 years ago and he knows African time often is so unhurried that it even frustrates the Africans.

We arrived at the home of Mathias (pronounced in French as “mah-tee-ahs”). Mathias is another one of my favorite Aja believers. Persecuted by not only his own family, but ridiculed by most of his village. Job taken away. Land stripped from him by his own flesh and blood. Targeted by a relative who tried to kill him with a machete. But always faithful. He does have his days of wrestling with faith and trust, but he’s the real deal.

We were seated outside his hut in wooden folding chairs. The clouds were dark with rain impending. Just as sprinkles began, a familiar face pulled up on a bike. This man, Nyoke (guess on the pronunciation), had been a part of a conversation once with me and Mathias. He is not yet a believer and was pretty antagonistic the last time and arrogant about his confidence in his voodoo gods. Honestly, expecting a day of encouraging Mathias and other believers, I sighed heavily at the thought of having to debate Christianity with this guy.

As the rains poured down, we were rushed into Mathias’ hut…Ega, Mathias, myself AND Nyoke (“Ny-OK”; does that even help?). Mathias proposed, “shouldn’t we hear the Word of God Randy has brought?” I had prepared a short lesson of encouragement, but God took over. I instead turned to Nyoke and began to question him about whether or not he had pondered the things we discussed the last time (I’m not confrontational by human nature, but all of a sudden I found myself vigorously challenging this guy). As I talked to him about the imminent judgment of God, I asked Ega to chime in. Did he ever! He told his testimony of how God delivered him from a life of darkness. Prior to his conversion, Ega would sell the homemade moonshine that people would buy as a sacrifice to their gods or as a gift to the witchdoctor. With a little encouragement from Mathias when Nyoke had his head in his hands pretending to not listen, Ega broke into a very descriptive, powerful rendition of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. Then as we could feel the intensity of the spiritual battle, Ega breaks his train of thought, shouting,
“Snake!”
Our glances shot to the doorway to see a 6 ft long snake slithering just 5 feet from where we had been sitting outside. The snake got away before they could kill it (I was standing back like a whimp!) Ega immediately analogized to Nyoke that Satan is the snake that deceives and hates the Light (Ega’s really good!)

After an hour of a truly divine appointment (you think the rain just happen to start when Nyoke was pulling up?), the Holy Spirit of God touched his mind and he began to share about his curiosities about Mathias’ faith and the protection Mathias’ always talks about. With three witnesses, he said he’d be at church on Sunday to begin learning about God’s Word.

Rejoicing not only in Nyoke’s movement toward Christ, but also in Ega’s inaugural visit, Mathias had his wife prepare a meal of rice and a nice juicy piece of fish (eyeball included at no extra cost!) Mathias’ doesn’t have much money and this feast was a sacrificial gift, yet small in his eyes. He wished he could have done more.

We visited some land near his house where Steve has been teaching them about agricultural innovations (raised beds and organic gardening). We then drove across to the other side of the village (stopping along the way to greet some of the Christians) until we arrived at Janvier’s house (john-vee-ay; that’s January in French by the way). Since his turning to Christ, Janvier has been stricken with leprosy. He is in the early stages, but suffers from mounting deformities and lack of feeling in his hands and feet. He wounded his foot recently because he couldn’t feel the nail go through his foot. Infected, he has been having a local nurse come by to clean it, but was lacking the money. Ega and I contributed a little so that he could continue the wound care, and we sang some songs and I shared a little from the close of Isaiah 40 about hoping in God. With his infection, Janvier missed church last Sunday and was desperate for something from God. As we drove away from his house, Mathias shared with us that Janvier, his wife and two kids, had not had much food to eat in the past week. I checked my pockets and found the equivalent of about $6 and Mathias said he’d be able to get about 3 days worth of food for them. It was touching to see a brother in Christ care for another.

God is good and last Tuesday was an example of His provision, the power of His Word, and the perfection of His timing (better than American or African time!)

- Rockin’ Randall