For 25 years, we have been praying for the salvation of the T peoples,* a large, nomadic
group residing in Northern Africa.
Five years ago, there were less than 100 Jesus-followers in the entire nation, and the rest were resistant to the Gospel. But God sent the blowing wind of the Holy Spirit, and today the T people are coming to the Lord by the hundreds in Discovery Bible Study groups.
This rapid growth coincided with the publication of the Bible in one of the languages spoken by the T people. The translator we used had labored in the mountains of this region for 50 years without a single convert, but he invested himself in learning their language and was able to translate the New Testament. This is one story of how God moved hearts.
Dreams and Visions
Iken* is the son of a community chief. I visited him after the death of his father. I found him at home about to take his camels to the nearest source of water, more than six miles away. As we were chatting, I asked him about the most urgent need of the community. He responded that it was water and invited me to follow him. He took me behind his house where I saw fresh marks in the sand outlining a certain area. I asked him what the marks meant. Iken told me that the day before, he was sitting in that very place, and he saw a man coming to him dressed in white. He had seen that same man one day talking with his late father, the chief. The man told Iken that the place would be a source of water because God loves them, and God had heard the cry of this community. And then the man in white disappeared.
I told Iken that this man is Jesus and that Jesus had sent me to talk to him about his love which is more valuable than water itself. I also agreed with Iken that water is needed and that’s why the man I was traveling with was a water engineer and he had a message for Iken as well. The man I came with was hoping to build a water project creating a pipeline from a nearby source of water to Iken’s place. Iken later started a Discovery Bible Study group in his own family and he and his family embraced the Lord.
Presently, three Bible Study groups are running in that community and three leaders are in training to take over the work.
*Names and regions have been changed for security purposes.
