Knocking at the Door

Earlier this week, a man came knocking at the door of the nurses' office in the VVF ward. Though he is from a tribe that is historically entirely Mslm, and has been a Mslm all his life, he said he wanted to know how to become a Christian.  "I'm not happy with my religion and the things going on inside it," he told the nurse, "I want to know how to be a Christian, and I want to know the Bible." 

This man's daughter is one of our patients in the VVF ward.  She had suffered a significant trauma during her last childbirth that resulted in perpetually leaking urine ever since.  Two weeks ago she underwent surgery to repair her fistula and will likely be in our care for at least another 1.5 weeks. 

Our nurse - a young, compassionate woman, fully committed to following Christ herself - took the time to explain how Jesus died for our sins and how by asking him to take the penalty for our us, he will forgive us and give us eternal life.  Though this nurse is limited in her Hausa, one of our ward attendants is fluent in both English and Hausa, and aided with the translation and in leading this man as he repented of his sins and asked Jesus to save him.  Since that time, he has not left our ward, wanting to know more about this man Jesus and of the Bible.  

Today (Sunday) our attendant took him with her to the hospital's chapel service and to meet the pastor. After the service they arranged a time for him to meet one on one with the pastor tomorrow to talk further.  We plan to help connect him with evangelists and disciplers from his own tribe. 

Though in many instances, persons from Mslm backgrounds can face significant persecution and risk of death if they become Christians, this man says he is pretty sure his fellow villagemen will be okay with his conversion.  This perhaps may be due to a rather rapid spread of the Gospel in the past couple years among people of his tribe around Nigeria. What he wants, however, is to know as much as he can about Jesus and what the Bible teaches so that he can share it with the others back home.  Even though he cannot read in any language, he desperately wants a Bible of his own, and one for each of his children to be reading. 

How cool is that? This man LITERALLY came knocking on our door wanting to know how to become a Christ follower! Praise God for the work he has done in this man's heart and his desire to share his new-found freedom with others! 

Please pray for this man, his evangelistic efforts among his people, and for a reinvigorated desire among our VVF staff to be prepared to share the Gospel at any moment with our patients and their families.  Lives are truly being saved at our hospital, and they aren’t necessarily even the patients!

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”  (Revelation 3:20)