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Faith Beyond Fear: Gospel Hope Across Africa
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What happens when you step into places where the gospel is changing lives every day? Nathan Cook shares stories from Uganda and Senegal of refugee settlements, imprisoned believers, Muslim leaders asking for Bibles, and the surprising ways God strengthens faith when we choose obedience over fear.
You're listening to the podcast of Christ Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. Join us for an insightful conversation where faith intersects with real life experiences and discover how God is at work in our world. We're here today with Nathan Cook, the Christ Methodist Church
Africa Trip Overview
SPEAKER_00missions pastor. He recently went on a missions trip to Africa, and we're going to get him to tell a little bit about that. Nathan, how are you doing today, man? I'm doing great. Good. So where did you go?
SPEAKER_01Two-part trip. And so the first part was to go to Bidi Bidi, Uganda, where Ruth Lomo has a ministry called Ebenezer Global. And so we were going to work with her and support her in the work that she does there.
SPEAKER_00What kind of what's the second part of that trip? We'll go ahead and just cover that part.
SPEAKER_01Second part was going to Senegal to work with International Leadership Institute and doing some of their leadership training.
Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement
SPEAKER_00Okay. So let's take it back and just kind of set some framework here. What is Bidy Biddy and what what kind of stuff were you looking at here?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so Bidibidi is a refugee camp. Actually, we were corrected, it is a refugee settlement. There's been ongoing conflict in Sudan for a number of years. And so there are about 200,000 refugees from southern Sudan living in northern Uganda. And Ruth Lomo is originally a refugee from Sudan. And so she's gone back full-time to live in Biddy Biddy and to start a ministry there. They do a lot of different kinds of projects. They had a network, well, there are about 70 probably pastors that were there for pastors training. Their main work is really in helping people to develop skills that they can use for careers. So they have some agricultural products teaching farming, they have teaching people to sew, teaching people to repair small engines, teaching carpentry, and then they have a big ministry to, especially children with special needs. So some of that's from lack of health care. Other parts of it are just from being in war.
SPEAKER_00So have you been here before?
SPEAKER_01This is my my first trip.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So I know we've partnered with them as a church and worked with them for several years now. You've done a lot, we've seen photos, we've heard stories, we've sent trips before. So what was your first impression getting there?
SPEAKER_01Well, I've heard a lot of stories about Biddy Biddy. And so kind of the thing that I was surprised about is, you know, I was anticipating a refugee camp, meaning like makeshift tents, that kind of thing. And it really is, it's more of a settlement, meaning like at this point, I mean that that camp has been there, I don't know, at least 10 years, maybe more. But they they have, you know, every they have brick, small brick house structures throughout the settlement. Like every every it looks like just about every square inch is planted in corn or peanuts or cassava. So everybody's kind of farming the land right around them. And so that that's that's kind of the main thing that I was surprised by. The second thing is like Ebenezer Global like just has a really nice campus. I mean, they have they have nice housing, nice several buildings for doing meetings in. They had just completed when we got there, just completed another like training building for teaching kids art. So they just have a lot of training, training projects.
SPEAKER_00That's really cool. So can you kind of walk us through a little bit of what daily life looks like for the refugees that are settled there?
SPEAKER_01We only got to go out in actually into the community one day and we kind of walk through the community. And so I mean people try to find employment, but I'd say most of the people are just kind of subsistence farmers, so they're growing crops to feed their families and then getting employment where they can. There's there's a pretty good-sized market that's right next to Ebenezer Global, so lots of people like just selling the products that they're growing. Some, you know, are shipping products like soaps and I don't know, some basic medicines, I think I saw in the camp. Things like to s to sell in the market. There are people, again, some of the seamstresses that have been trained, like they go into the market and they they sell clothes that they make. They so but it's it's a pretty low, like I mean, I think most of the people are living on probably a hundred to two hundred dollars a month, I guess. I don't know. It's pretty a lot of poverty, but at least with the folks that we were interacting with, people were very joyful and and hopeful.
SPEAKER_00No, I think that's really good context to what kind of environment was going on and
Daily Life and Ministry
SPEAKER_00everything. So let's look at what you did while you were there. What was kind of your typical day? What were some of the the big points of what you were doing while you were there?
SPEAKER_01Man, we just had a lot of different projects going on, and so different people were working on different things. Like we had a couple people teaching financial literacy training, Bible studies were going on, we did a vacation Bible school, went out and worked on the farm. So there are a lot of different projects. My my main project, though, was to teach these pastors. So I did training for them for three days straight, and again, had about 70 pastors in attendance. And then one of the things that was really cool about that particular training was the area where Ruth is in, like that area of Uganda is Muslim. Like it's historically been the Aringa people live there who are Muslim people group, and they're the land landlords, landowners. And so, in in fact, Ruth's landlord is a Muslim sheikh, and his mosque is just right next door to where where her camp is, where her campus is. And so they kind of her like the Ruth, a lot of their programming is just for the community, doesn't matter if you're Muslim, Christian. And so, and and they have great relationships with the Muslim community there. And so when some of the sheikhs heard that we were doing pastors training, they wanted to come. And, you know, Ruth was like, Are you sure? I mean, she just wanted to make sure that they understood like this is training for pastors of churches, all the training's gonna be coming from the Bible. She said, You're welcome to come if you want to. And so they they did. They they came and they sat, sat in the and and they kind of were like just kind of by themselves. You know, they were clearly listening, but they were kind of sitting off by themselves. And kind of slowly, I think over the course of the three days, it kind of warmed up to the to the community. So by the end, like they were asking for Bibles to take back to their church and to read the Bible. They wanted to study it and to kind of compare it to the Quran. And but there was a one particular thing that was really cool. We had these three young guys from Rwanda, they were friends of Zach's. They're actually living in in Nashville, but their families were Rwandan refugees. And they came with us on the trip, and one of the young guys, his name's Elias, really feels a sense of calling to raise up intercessors. And so I asked Elias if he would do about a 30-minute training with the pastors, like teaching them how to raise up intercessors for their church. And at the end of that time, Ellias asked if the Muslim men wanted to be prayed for. And he he did just an amazing job of like just very graceful, was not pushing anything on him. He's like, if, you know, just if this is something that you'd like to receive prayer, we'd love to. And they did, and they they came forward and he prayed this beautiful kind of prayer of blessing over them. And after that time of prayer, like they just really opened up and like they wanted to have a little moment to share and just to kind of honor Ruth for inviting them and having them honor the group. And it was right after that that they asked for the Bible. So it was just really cool to kind of see this ongoing relationship between the Christian and Muslim community around Biddy Biddy and just the gr the grace, I guess, that's upon those relationships.
Muslim Leaders Respond
SPEAKER_00I know you've re led similar trainings in other parts of the world. How did this compare to some of those others? I know that's broad and based.
SPEAKER_01I mean the biggest thing I've never had a Muslim in my training on how to plant churches, because that's what we're doing. I mean, we were teaching them how to share their testimony, how to share the gospel, how to make disciples. And so I had no idea like what it was gonna be like having not just Muslims, but Muslim leaders. Trevor Burrus, Jr. So I guess they told you before you started that was gonna be.
SPEAKER_00But I mean, as far as the the Christian pastors that were there, it was a fairly standard interaction or anything unique happened that was notable.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell Not under that. I mean, we you know, again, like we're we're doing training, it's it's a training the trainers. And so like we we would do the training there during the day and then encourage them to like use the training that night and then come back and have you know a few people report. And so people were engaging, they were very, very excited to to receive the training. And the other thing, like I again, that you said like what wasn't expected again, I just didn't kind of think through the poverty situation. So we had just we took probably I don't know, 30 Bibles with us that were just kind of laying around the church that we weren't we weren't actively using, and so we took those with us, and those were like gold to the pastors. And so like future trips we should plan on again, maybe taking some money with us to buy Bibles and country for those kinds of trainings because they were yeah, it was it was they were very honored to receive Bibles when they could.
What Convicted Him
SPEAKER_00Nice. Well, was there anything in this particular part of the trip that was really convicting to you or anything that really pulled on you in a different way than uh it was expected?
SPEAKER_01I I think like I've been telling people this, like my my biggest takeaway from the trip was seeing the value of having people like Robert and Gladys Hunt that have like really just taken ownership over this ministry. They're members of our congregation, very active members of our congregation. Robert's on our missions team. But I like to the point like you're asking about conviction, to the point of like, that's where I would shift. I mean, it's just like seeing the value of people who have a sense of calling to engage in a particular ministry where they're engaging with their time, money, thought, their their network of relationships. So, so they're inviting their friends, they're inviting people from the church to engage in this ministry with them. And just like it's just really powerful. And and we have other trips like that, like Joe and Tony Luther, same, they have kind of the same level of ownership over the work that we're doing in Sinata, Mexico with the Hugo ministry. So, like we have other people here in Memphis that have that same kind of level of ownership. It doesn't have to just be a short-term trip, but like I'm thinking about Julie V with a room in the inn, and like, you know, she has just kind of again owned that ministry and just very involved, is connected with the leadership. And so the more that we can build around that, meaning the sense of like people who have a personal calling to share the gospel, to to help those in need, the more that we can build around that, I think the stronger our missions program's gonna be.
SPEAKER_00What was your pool to go this time? What what about since you've never been before and you have these people that are established, what was the pool?
SPEAKER_01So I've known Ruth Lomo since we moved back to Memphis and moved into Binghamton and so for for over 20 years. And so she's she's a personal friend, and I've wanted to go on this trip since starting three and a half years ago. Like it just hasn't it hasn't worked out for me to go personally. And so I've I've been looking forward to this for a while. Gotcha.
Prison Ministry Visit
SPEAKER_00So was there anything else substantiable, substantial or notable about your time in Biddy Biddy before we moved to Senegal?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I guess the one last thing I'd share is Ruth arranged it for us to go and visit a prison. And this was the first time that Ruth has ever done this. But it was a it's not like a prison like what you would imagine here in Memphis. It's very low security. It's more like a farm. It is a farm. It's a working farm. And the prisoners who are there are there for usually one to two years. There's no fence, there are armed guards. I didn't I didn't ask. And I don't know that much about the legal system, but yeah, it feels that way. It felt felt that way. You know, very clearly the the men in charge of the prison were Christians. Like they they really saw these guys as like not just like, hey, we're here to keep these guys in prison, but they're they're they're really wanting their well-being, wanting to help them rehabilitation, wanting to help them learn some skills so that when they got out of prison that they could provide for themselves and for their families. And so, you know, we we brought, I don't know, it's probably two or three hundred dollars worth of supplies for them, basic things like soap and blankets and this, but like they were so appreciative of that. I mean, and I'm really talking about the guards, like so appreciative that we we brought that for the prisoners there. We had a time of worship, and basically the the prisoners led the time of worship. And again, this is you know, it's about half Muslim, half Christian. We're sing singing Christian worship songs, had a great time, again, of just kind of sharing the gospel, encouraging them. At the end, my translator, the guy who translated for me the whole time, his name's Quaji, he he kind of closed our time in prayer, but also shared his testimony at the end. And he shared that he came to Christ in prison. And when he was sharing, you could just see all these guys, prisoners, like they're just eyes welling up with tears, just very moved by what he was sharing. And he's just giving them hope, you know. And after after our time of worship and sharing, we had played a soccer game and just had a time of fellowship with them. And so I think it's definitely something that we'll do in in the future, and something that Ruth wants to continue uh with that relationship with the prison.
SPEAKER_00So before we move on to Senegal, you had 20 years of wanting to go on this trip. I don't want to.
SPEAKER_01Oh no, no, no, not 20 years. Three and a half.
SPEAKER_00Well, yes. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Like so so Ruth's ministry to Biddy Biddy is is more recent.
SPEAKER_00Okay, gotcha. Yeah. That makes sense. Okay. So you had three and a half years of wanting to go on this trip. I don't want to say did it meet expectations, but Oh, it did. I mean, like that's talk about that for just a second. How like how fulfilling was it to finally go on this trip and to to see all these things and to be in this place that you've wanted to go for so long?
SPEAKER_01Oh, I mean, it it was great. I I knew that it was gonna be good beforehand, just because I I know Ruth. But yeah, it's something that I want to continue personally being involved with. Like, you know, I'm I'm not, you know, I'm I'm working through the end of September here as the missions pastor, but this is one of the ministries that I want to continue to invest in personally.
Heading to Senegal
SPEAKER_00That's great. So you did your time at Biddy Biddy and then you went to Senegal. Can you tell me a little bit about that part of your trip?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so that was a smaller trip, meaning it was just Zach and I who who went.
SPEAKER_00And Zach, I don't think we've ever established Zach is also a member of the church.
SPEAKER_01Member of the church. He's been on several of these mission trips with us. He's he's never been to ILI before. And so he he has a real heart just for Africa. And so I wanted to introduce him to the work that they're doing with the So this is the work that we've been doing with the Falani people. So people who are probably familiar with on that, again, this is ministry that we've had and supported for several years now. So one of the things that happened there was these are folks coming from Mauritania into Senegal, and there were like floods in in Mauritania, which it does does. I mean, it's kind of the rainy season. So lots of people weren't able to leave, like they weren't able to get transportation. So we only had about half the group that were there for the first couple days. And so instead of just kind of going on and doing it without them, like we waited, but while we were waiting, we would meet with the folks that were there and they would just kind of share their story and testimonies with us. And so that was amazing to hear.
SPEAKER_00So it's just like over dinner, over coffee, what was that kind of experience?
SPEAKER_01I mean, no, this is kind of all day. You're sitting and listening and just having conversations with people.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, it wasn't like all day. We'd probably do it two or three hours a day. And having different people share. And so some of the things, you know, there was a young 18-year-old who had been arrested and put in prison twice for his Christian faith. Don't see that every day. He was amazing. There were a couple guys. Oh, do you want to ask someone?
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, I was gonna say, what is kind of the Senegal's different from Uganda. What is kind of the acceptance of cultural Christianity there? So Senegal and Mauritania are different.
SPEAKER_01Okay. And so Senegal's secular government. There are a lot of Muslims and Christians that are open to Christianity in Senegal, which is why we have the meeting there. Mauritania is an Islamic republic. It's illegal to convert to Christianity, punishable by death. The government is, I think some places in the government are easing up on those restrictions, other places are cracking down. It's kind of a complicated place. But Christians there are definitely under persecution.
SPEAKER_00Okay. That's helpful. Okay, so you waited a couple days to start the
Inside ILI Training
SPEAKER_00conference, and then so w tell me a little bit about what establish what is ILI? What do they do?
SPEAKER_01International Leadership Institute. So they are a leadership training program. They have a kind of standard curriculum that they take people through. And they're doing this globally, like ILIs all over the world. Our partnership is with a couple of guys who work in North Africa in the Middle East. And so that's who we support. And really our support is kind of intentionally limited to the work among the Falani.
SPEAKER_00Aaron Powell That's interesting. Yeah. Okay. So is this a similar training that you did with the pastors in Uganda, or is this a completely separate curriculum?
SPEAKER_01Aaron Ross Powell No, it's a different curriculum. Okay. The leadership curriculum is really for any Christians. Pastor training, again, could be used for any Christians, but it was specifically kind of church planting, church development kind of curriculum.
SPEAKER_00Aaron Powell I'm assuming there were no Muslims in the ILI sessions.
SPEAKER_01Almost all of the people that were at ILA were Muslim background believers. Trevor Burrus, I was very wrong. So they they have like they're they're all they were all people who have converted from Islam to Christianity.
SPEAKER_00Aaron Ross Powell Okay. Well walk us through that a little bit. What was that like? Any notable experiences from that session?
SPEAKER_01I think again, kind of my big takeaways, like one of the leaders there, I'm not going to say his name just for the sake of security, but but one of the Falani leaders. So the Felani are a Muslim people group, Unreach People Group, they they're all across kind of Africa, kind of, I don't know, a lot of West Africa, some in Central Africa. But the the group in Nigeria, Boko Harun, those are all Falani Muslims, which is kind of a militant Islamic group that's been doing a lot of persecution of Christians. And so what was explained to me is the Falani kind of see themselves as the protectors of Islam in Africa. And there's some within this group that really want to help build a Christian identity among the Falani, like all across Africa. And so they were having another meeting to kind of address that after we after we left. But again, probably big takeaway is just, you know, we our church was provided them with funding to bring all those leaders together. And so just seeing, I guess, the fruit of what again the church has been involved in this Felani ministry for a number of years now. It's just kind of it's frontline, frontier church planting ministry. And just seeing Christianity emerge among a group of people where it's never really been established historically before is just really rewarding. And I hope that people continue to support and go and do do some of this training, but really get to know and pray for the Felani believers that we were working with.
SPEAKER_00You used the word reward, but what does that do for your spirit, for your encouragement as a believer to go and witness that and to even participate in that?
SPEAKER_01I mean, one, it's eye-opening, like just again to hear I mean, there's just daily threat of persecution. People are making decisions often. You know, to convert to Christianity in that part of the world means that you're probably going to lose your job, that you may lose a relationship with your family, that you're going to be completely isolated and alone, and yet they're making decisions to follow Christ. And you're like, well, how does that happen? And so, I mean, we heard story after story. So again, one this is just one story, but we met a man who was blind. And he was thankful for his blindness. And we're like, What? He's like, he's like, well, now that I'm blind, I can see. And we're like, what are you talking about? And he's like, well, before I was Muslim and I was spiritually blind. And he's like, but he's, you know, he had this vision of Christ coming to save him. And he's like, now I'm a Christian and physically I can't see, but spiritually I can. And it's better this way than it was before.
Persecution and Calling
SPEAKER_00So when I hear you talk about persecution in this way, and you frame it in the Western cultural American sense of Christian persecution, we're talking about an entirely different ballgame here, correct?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, this is this isn't unique to people living in Mauritania. There are lots of places, and not just in Muslim places, like India is increasingly seeing persecution among Christians. But yeah, it's it's different in the sense that it can cost you everything. Like it can cost you, again, livelihood, family, social networks. And we don't really experience that in the U.S. I don't know people that are experiencing that in the U.S.
SPEAKER_00That's really helpful context. So you you walk away from this time and now you're coming back to share with us. What is the the kind of the key thing that you want people to hear from all of your time over there?
SPEAKER_01I think, again, main thing, I hope that people would pray very intentionally about calling. So so less about what's happening in Africa and more about what is God calling you to do? How is God in calling you to engage the world with your faith? Because that's that's where we're going to see the most fruit. And I think where people are really going to experience the joy of the Lord is when they know they're serving God in the way that he desires with the gifts and talents that they've been given. And so my hope is that people just kind of break out of cultural Christianity, of coming to church a couple times a month, to getting to this place of where you're really abiding in Christ, you're hearing from the Lord, taking steps of faith to overcome fear. You know, there was a lot of fear that several people had, a lot of people had before we're going to Uganda, because in the news, there's news of Ebola. And I think the Ebola is pretty significant in the Congo, but it was not a big deal in Uganda at all. But there's real, real fear about going into that situation that has to be overcome. And I think it's worth it, you know, to overcome fear with faith. And that that fear can be like people can be feel incapacitated about going into Binghampton and serving with some of our partners there because of feelings of being unsafe. And I would just say, like, I think if people would take the time to look through scripture, see what scripture says about fear and faith, and just realize that this is a part normal part of human condition, is that we want to protect ourselves. We want to I mean, it's we we want to be comfortable and safe. Felt safety is incredibly important. We've come to understand from rearing children and knowing people who deal with trauma, like it's it's important, but we can't let our fears dictate our our actions, I guess is what I'd say. And there are all kinds of scripture passages that talk about Jesus is sending us into unsafe places. I mean, he talks about before he sends out the the 70 in Luke chapter 10, he says, I'm sending you out as sheep among wolves. Jesus knows that there are difficult places, but like when you see the change and transformation that happens when people really come into relationship with Jesus, when people begin to experience the power of the Holy Spirit, when they begin to be kind of set free from mental frameworks, sometimes emotional bondage, physical addictions, and you see again just the joy and life and freedom that people have in Christ, like seeing and experiencing those things, I think, encourages and builds faith. And sometimes I do think it takes, like especially for these short-term trips, sometimes it takes getting out of our comfortable environments that that we're when we're in an uncomfortable environment, that we're more open to learning and more open to these experiences. And it can really be life-changing. And so if people are considering taking a trip and haven't been before, like I'd I'd can I'd encourage them to pray. It doesn't have to be bitty-bitty or synagogue, but you know, pray about taking the trip.
SPEAKER_00That's great. I think the best place to end right now is having you pray over the listener a lot of what you've covered and just a word of encouragement
Closing Prayer and Next Steps
SPEAKER_00in that prayer. Do you mind doing that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'd be happy to. Heavenly Father, we thank you just for opportunity to give witness to the work that you're doing around the world. And for those who are listening, Lord, I do just want to pray against fear. If people are listening and they're thinking, man, I'd really would like to take a trip sometime, but I'm a little afraid of it, or I just don't know if I have the time or the resources or money. Lord, instead of just living in those doubts, I pray that people would take those doubts to you and pray with faith and ask, Lord, that if if it is your will for them to go and take one of these trips, that that you would provide the resources, that you'd provide the time, that you would provide the encouragement for them to go. And just pray that you'd help people to step out on faith and to live by faith and not by fear. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
SPEAKER_00Nathan, if somebody's been stirred by this conversation, what should they do? What's the next step?
SPEAKER_01Call Stephanie.
SPEAKER_00Okay. She will get you going. We'll put her email in the show notes so people can reach out. Thanks for sharing, Nathan. Okay. Thanks, Lance. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the podcast for Christ Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. We pray that today's message has inspired and encouraged you in your walk with Christ. To stay connected with our church community, visit us online at ChristchurchMemphis.org. We hope to see you this upcoming Sunday for worship as we seek to glorify God and make disciples of Jesus Christ among all peoples.