RAPID CITY, S.D. (BP) — When Dakota Baptist Convention evangelism intern Segun Adeyemo accepted Christ in Nigeria in 1998, it was the third time he’d tried to do so. When he’d responded to invitations on previous occasions, beginning at age 11, he’d done so out of fear.

“I grew up having a different kind of image of God, a God that should be feared because of hell fire, a God that we should be afraid of,” he told Baptist Press years after the first time he heard an evangelist present only the punitive aspect of God’s personality. “And because of that I had a lot of questions in my heart for a very long time. … Why should God be believed if His desire is just to throw people into hell? … Why would God be so wicked?”

But in 1998, he heard a sermon on the love of Christ.

“So for the first time when I said yes, I was able to embrace a loving God this time,” he said, “not a God that’s waiting to punish, but a God that loves us so much, that because of His love, He’s willing to do anything for you to bring you into His Kingdom,” Adeyemo said. “And I stepped forward that day and accepted Christ genuinely. Even though between then and now, I’m still maturing.

“Even though I make mistakes, I never see it now that God is wicked or looking for someone to punish,” he said, “but it is because of His love.”

God’s love has taken the 52-year-old Adeyemo to the marriage altar with Funmi, his wife of 20 years whom he met at a church in Lagos, Nigeria. Funmi grew up in the church and accepted Christ after a relative planted a house church. The couple moved to South Africa, where God’s love called Adeyemo to the pastorate and church planting, to an evangelism ministry and to men’s ministry, teaching men how to be godly leaders of their household.

In was in Pretoria, South Africa, that the Adeyemos met Fred MacDonald, the current executive director and treasurer of the Dakota Baptist Convention (DBC). MacDonald began taking mission trips to South Africa eight years ago when he was a director of missions at Pecos Valley Baptist Association in Artesia, New Mexico.

MacDonald continued the work when he moved to the Dakotas. In a personal ministry partnership with Julius Mbu, pastor of Hope Baptist Church in Pretoria and also a ministry associate of Adeyemo.

“God has knit our hearts together,” MacDonald said of Mbu. “Julius is a man with a vision to reach a continent and God has allowed us to come up alongside of him and work together on that vision by training pastors, pastors’ wives and other church leaders.

“Our hearts’ desire is to see a revival sweep across Africa,” MacDonald said, “and to know that we’ve had a little part in that.”

MacDonald takes two trips a year to Pretoria, holding training conferences for pastors on various aspects of ministry, retreats for pastors and their wives, and women’s training sessions coordinated by MacDonald’s wife Denise. Local pastors have accompanied him on various trips.

It was on MacDonald’s first mission trip to Pretoria that he met the Adeyemos and baptized their oldest daughter, Damola, now attending college in the U.S.

While MacDonald’s time in South Africa could be compared to the uttermost parts of the earth, as Jesus commanded the apostles to be His witnesses in Acts 1:8, to the Adeyemos, South Africa was home.

There, Adeyemo pastored Word House Christian Center and planted Waterbrook Baptist Church. He worked with the TELL Africa Evangelism Initiative (Take the initiative, Expose the gospel, Love and Live it out) which Mbu and MacDonald helped establish. And through the ManUp ministry, he taught men godly character and leadership.

“For the past nine years, each time Dr. MacDonald has come to South Africa,” Adeyemo told Baptist Press, “as part of his message … he would always mention Acts 1:8, that you shall be my witness here in Jerusalem, then beyond in Judea and Samaria, and finally to the farthest places on earth, to the utmost part of the earth.

“About three years ago, God began to lay it on my heart that we should go to the utmost part of the earth,” Adeyemo said, “and that happened to be the Dakotas.”

Completing the arduous work of obtaining a religious worker visa, the Adeyemos and their three daughters — Damola, Teni, and Frederica — came to the U.S. last year. He works as an evangelism intern at the DBC where Funmi volunteers three days a week as a ministry assistant. The couple expressed appreciation for the generosity of Southern Baptists in the Dakotas who have helped with the transition and welcomed them there.

Already, Adeyemo has helped the DBC establish a three-year evangelism strategy to reach the Dakotas for Christ.

While the couple has lived in several African countries, this is their first time traveling outside the continent.

“Being here has been a great source of encouragement for us. We did not know what culture we were going to meet,” he said. “But since we’ve arrived, it’s been much like a culture shock. But a shock in the sense that people have been extremely, extremely wonderful to us … both within church and outside church. … And to be honest, I never believed the culture of love when we came here. It is one of the things that we really appreciate.”

God’s love is what motivates Adeyemo in ministry.

“I believe it is the sum total of everything we do with regards to ministry,” Adeyemo said. “The love of God should be the greatest motivation for everything. And the reason is very simple. Because everything that God is doing for us — or everything that God is doing for the lost, or everything that God is doing for the world — is out of His love for humanity.

“So in everything we do in ministry, whether it’s evangelism or anything, the love of God should be the greatest motivation. So each time we do anything, the love of God must be central to it.”

He has approached the internship as a learning experience and will share his new knowledge wherever God leads him, whether an extended stay in the U.S., a return to South Africa, or elsewhere.

“We’ll wait on God,” he said. “We believe very strongly in everything we do, everything is in God’s hands. He is the one who rules in the affairs of our lives. In Him we live, in Him we move, and in Him we have our being.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.)