Following the God of the One Guy

Sometimes following the God of the “One Guy,” as I call Him, can be unpredictable and at times a challenge certainly to the wisdom of man. I praise my God though, that He doesn’t follow me, but rather we are called to follow Him. For in doing so, we see the glory of God if we patiently obey His voice.

After a highly fruitful six-day straight set of medical and evangelical outreaches to the Fulani, we were set on flying back from Garoua, Cameroon, to Douala, where we would fly back to Paris/Houston. Then a call comes in from Pastor Emmanuel from Douala, who was watching over us. He was the one who received us when we arrived.

This is the same pastor who was over a thousand miles from home in the city where we built our first church, Zigage, three months ago. There in a “chance” meeting, he met P who informed him of our coming and the need to receive us safely. What a blessing Pastor E was to us. He followed the God of the One Guy.

Things happen for a reason

“Your flight looks like it has been canceled,” came the word. We chose to go back to Garoua from Ngong where we were staying to confirm this. By faith we agreed we would be flying back that day. When we arrived, it was clear the door had been shut. Then in my exasperation I turned to the Lord, “OK God, who is the One Guy we are supposed to reach?” The Spirit spoke to me saying, “I will reveal it when the time comes.” So much of the Christian life involves waiting for the timing of God to reveal Himself and His will for our lives.

Plan B is only “B” in our eyes. Rarely, is it “B” in the eyes of God. For the God of the One Guy, it is always “A” or yes in Christ. But the flesh was hoping for a different plan A. Now we faced a drive of six hours to Ngaoundere to pick up the train to Younde, which would take 14 hours, then a transfer to another train to Douala, finally arriving there 24 hours after we began our trip home.

Well, “Judas,” who claimed to be a pastor, but continually proved himself otherwise, trapped us into a scam involving his brother and the conductor of the train. As a result, B ended up stowing away on the train until the appropriate inducement could be applied. I kicked a man out of our cabin under authority of the police, and so the four of us shared a cabin with another young Muslim man who spoke some English.

Aha! The One Guy has surfaced. I didn’t get his full name, but I will call him Abdullabra. He was quite content to play video games until we all went to sleep. He was traveling with a woman from another room. I kept thinking, God is this really the One Guy?

Finally at the end of our 14-hour ride, I thought, well let’s at least get him a French New Testament. D gave him one, and he received it with both hands, smiling from ear to ear, like he had won the lottery.

He had received not the lottery, but the choice of God, the grace of God through the Word of God and by faith He will receive the living Word of God. That was the last we saw of him, but I believe this man from Kaele will become a great witness of the resurrection of Christ, just like us.

Plentiful harvest

You are probably wondering by now when I am going to share the harvest with you. Now is a good time. We saw about 4,000 decisions for Christ, and treated 700 kids. We also saw dozens of miraculous healings. From the first village, I walked by a man holding his palm up wiggling his fingers. I thought, “That is weird.”

“Hey B (my nickname for D), did you see that guy moving his fingers?”

His reply did not surprise me, “Yeah, I saw he had a problem moving his fingers, laid hands on him and in Jesus name he received healing. Then a mocker who saw this had a locked shoulder. I prayed for him too and he was moving his arm up and down like normal.”

Well Jesus has just arrived. I wonder what the mocker thinks of Him now. LOL! We had the usual mockers, radicals and government obstacles, not to mention the spirits of division that came suddenly upon several team members and threatened the work.

After the work was over, we faced some spiritual opposition that threatened to destroy the work of LBNF. But I love it when love covers the multitude of sin that can affect us. We quickly recovered and went on.

One threat that many of you prayed about was the change of heart of the local officials who kept us out of a certain area. After four days of outreaches in other areas, we finally were released to go into Kate and Arbinga where we saw the greatest outpouring of Jesus grace we have ever seen with easily 2,000 people making decisions for Christ, and dozens of miracles.

I also led two chiefs to Jesus there in Kate during the medical outreach. The God of the One Guy gave them Proclaimers in Fulfulde to hear the Word of God. He chose six to give testimonies in these two villages resulting in even more people choosing to follow Jesus.

E had constructed a screen in the likeness of Campus Crusade. The screen allowed people on both sides to see the Jesus film. This allowed between 1,000-2,000 people in Kate to watch the film. It was breathtaking to see how many had come to Jesus.

The Spirit gave me some new thoughts on how to reach the Muslims by incorporating more Old Testament prophesies about Jesus.

The next day we encountered the men you see in the photo. One on the lower right told Peter, “Our leaders have lied to us….We have lost so much livestock to the Boca Haram.” Peter was encouraged that the Lord was opening their eyes. They asked me to pray for them. I thought better of it and seizing the opportunity I preached to them in some detail. When I asked if they were ready to follow Jesus as Lord and Savior the leader again spoke for the gang of five saying, “we are ready”. So our prayer together began, “Jesus I follow you….”

That evening I asked the Spirit what He intended to do that night. “Just what I did last night,” came the reply. So we enjoyed another night of 1,000 souls coming to Jesus.

This night we had a little more time before the curfew so I let more men give their testimonies of healing. It was great.

Again, their testimony led to more salvations. Then in a quiet moment I heard in an instant the Spirit say, “J, this thousand is for you, but the five are for me.” I understood the God of the One Guy to say that through these men the Lord would bring salvation to many Fulani in the area.

Even before I wrote this newsletter I encouraged E upon return, to take these men with him as they went to evangelize other villages. Pray for Z who is essential to the work in this area, but has some character flaws, some of which have been addressed. Don’t worry he is not the only guy who isn’t perfect in LBNF. I know because neither am I.

You’re making a difference

Your investment here has produced an awakening. I saw a tidal wave in the Spirit being set up to wash the land of the principality of Islam.

In terms of economics, we were able to win a man to Christ for each $7 contributed. Z and E now have the money to buy a motor bike, which will increase their access to the villages here.

Thank you for your partnership, prayers, glasses, and other support.

FYI, $400 buys 200 French New Testaments. Proclaimers which are the New Testament on a solar powered digital device, cost just $100 a piece. They are a powerful witnessing device which continues when we leave.

For Africans, each outreach is about $1,200 depending on location. A motor bike is approximately $1,000, a tricycle about $3,500. It cost about $2-3 dollars to treat one child with malaria and parasites.

J