Joey Howell shared this with us.
We met “George” in Benin (West Africa) in April. He helped translate the Bible stories for the Bariba language. He would listen to a line of the story and tell us what the storyteller said and we would match it to the Bible. After every story, I would ask if he had questions. The idea was to let the Holy Spirit translate the story into his heart. That is just what happened.
One day, in the middle of our session, George stopped us. “I have to tell you something,” he explained nervously. “We have Jesus in our (Muslim) tradition but now that I’ve been listening to the real stories of Jesus I want to follow Him and see these miracles like His disciples did, but I’m afraid. You see, here in Benin we can be Muslim or Christian as long as we still follow our traditional gods. This bracelet that I wear is the sign of my personal god. If I take it off and follow Jesus, will my life fall apart?”
My teammate and I told him that following Jesus did not make your life trouble free, but Jesus is more powerful than any other god. We arranged for George to meet Parfait, the man who set up our school in Benin. We prayed while they met, and when they returned, Parfait told me, “He has good news.” George told us, “I just gave my life to Jesus.” He motioned to the bracelet on his wrist. “Today I will take this off. I prefer freedom!”
We told him of the verse that says the angels rejoice when one sinner repents and that he was the cause of much celebration in heaven that day! We gave him a Bible and he was so excited to receive it and hear and study “the real stories of Jesus”. God is turning many people to Himself just as He did with George.

Coach Training

I (Rochelle) met Joey Howell amid the 80 new staff members going through New Staff Training in September. It is a privilege for us to get to send him to use his skills to train and evangelize more people like George!
I attended New Staff Training because I was being trained to become a coach for our new staff. A coach comes alongside the new staff member to help them through the whole process until they arrive at their assignment. As a coach, I will be a supervisor, an encourager and a prayer warrior for a few of these staff whom God has called to serve Him in full-time ministry.
The picture to the left shows me with the new staff that I coached during the conference. Stephanie will disciple students in Ireland, Joey will take oral Bible stories to unreached people with no written language, and Laura and Foster will bring the Gospel to students in Italy. These new staff are representative of the many who give their lives so others may find life!