(EDITOR’S NOTE — This year’s Week of Prayer for International Missions in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is Dec. 1-8.  Each year’s Lottie Moon Christmas Offering (LMCO) for International Missions supplements Cooperative Program (CP) giving to support Southern Baptists international missionaries’ initiatives in sharing the gospel. This year’s offering goal is $205 million. To find information and resources about the offering, go here.)

Twenty-five Senegalese islanders crowded into a classroom. Sitting in front of a film projector, their eyes were glued to the screen. As they watched the JESUS film, International Mission Board (IMB) missionaries Moses and Beth saw clear emotion on the faces of the islanders.

After the film, 15 people came forward during a response time. They’d heard the clear presentation of the gospel. They wanted to know more. They wanted to know this Jesus — the One who’d suffered and died for their sins.

Moses was immediately grateful that he’d braved his fear of the water to take the gospel to those who had never heard the truth. Because he did, new believers were added to the Kingdom that day.

When Moses first started doing ministry on the islands, he was hesitant. He couldn’t swim.

Moses wasn’t usually hesitant to follow God’s will. He obeyed it when he felt God calling him to salvation in his early 20s. He listened to God’s voice to travel to the United States from his West African home to attend Bible college. After college, he followed God’s call to seminary and to marry Beth. And when the Lord led the couple back to West Africa — specifically Senegal, the place where his wife served as a Journeyman — they obeyed.

But ministry on islands when you can’t swim — that seemed like a different story.

In the beginning of this ministry, Moses clung to God’s promises in Isaiah 43:1-2, and he clung to his very own orange life jacket, and stepped into the small, wooden canoe.

For the past two years, he’s seen ministry on the islands pay off. He visits unreached islands but encourages a growing church plant on another island nearby.

The people on these islands have many needs. They live in an area where animism and fear dominate the religious landscape. It’s not rare for them to sacrifice animals to appease their ancestors.

Making a decision for Christ can cost new believers everything.

After conversion, most families try to bribe their son or daughter back to their traditional faith. When they don’t recant, because they’ve rejected the worship of their ancestors or won’t bow a knee to false gods, their families reject them.

Still, off the coast of Senegal, the gospel has prevailed. Moses has seen people come to faith and a young but growing church planted. The gathering of new believers on the neighboring island stands strong, despite persecution, meeting together in homes.

Moses has found that training leaders in the rural mainland and remote island churches is best done through partnership. Churches from the U.S. get involved with the training on short-term trips, making it an effort highlighting the cooperation of Southern Baptists.

Pray

• Praise God for churches in the U.S. who partner with Moses and Beth to do ministry on the islands.
• Pray for Moses and Beth as they continue to minister among the unreached in rural Senegal.
• Pray for new believers to stand firm despite persecution.