Chapter 38 - Another Moses

“The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he

that winneth souls is wise.”

—Proverbs 11:30

Finally, we were back in Abengourou, the place

we were supposed to be. We had rented a small
house in town for the church, and it was doing well.
I was praying for a man to whom I could teach the
Word of God and who could become the pastor of
the congregation.
    I was out early one morning getting food when I
noticed a man selling bread and coffee in front of a
boutique. I introduced myself; he in turn introduced
himself as Moses. I was dumbfounded by the perfect
English he spoke. As I have mentioned, I had
studied French in Canada, but his English was far
better than my French, not to mention that he also
spoke many other languages fluently. I thought to
myself, “Lord, this man could be a great help in the
church.” I gave him a gospel tract, and we spoke
about the Lord. Before I left that morning, he had
accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour.
    I was praising the Lord for his salvation and
praying to myself, Lord, “I pray this Moses is for
real.” I asked him if he would like to study Bible
lessons, and he said he would. I told him I would
bring him one in the morning, and he said he’d be
waiting in this same spot. Little did I know what
God had in store for this man who had just accepted
His Son, Jesus, as his Saviour.
    The next morning I returned as promised, with
Bible lesson in hand. Moses was waiting for me
and said, “I’ll finish this one today, and tomorrow
you can bring me another one.” I was excited about
this new Christian named Moses and the hunger he
seemed to have for the Word of God. I left praising
the Lord for the jewel He had led me to find in this
spiritually desolate place.
    At the very next service, Moses was present and
attended faithfully as the days and months passed.
He worked his Bible lessons, read the Bible that I
had given him, and grew by leaps and bounds in
the Lord. Then one day Moses informed me that he
believed the Lord wanted him to preach the gospel.
I had been praying that the Lord would call Moses
to preach and lead the church in Abengourou, so I
asked him if he would like to attend a Bible school
near Abidjan, a two-hour bus ride away. He said he
would enjoy that very much.
    Moses enrolled in the Bible school and even
started preaching some in our church. It was
amazing how this man soaked up the Word of God.
We discovered that he had been studying law at the
university in Abidjan and had run short of money.
That was why he had been in Abengourou selling
coffee and bread when I first met him.
    Eventually, I relinquished all the preaching to
Moses, since he knew his own people better than
I did and could communicate the Word of God to
them much more effectively than I could ever hope
to. Moses was doing a great job preaching, witnessing
for the Lord, and attending Bible school,
and everybody seemingly loved this man of God.
Everything seemed to be going well, but then terror
like a bolt of lightning struck violently.
    Linda came down with a medical condition we
could not understand. An American doctor in
Abengourou tried to attend to my dear wife but to no
avail. I had to take care of some business in Abidjan
and took Linda with me. The wife of  missionary
friends, Jeff and Carla Bassett, who lived close to
Abidjan agreed to watch Linda for a couple of
hours while I attended to business. When I returned,
Carla had diagnosed Linda’s problem.
    “Jay B.,” she explained, “Linda has a chemical
imbalance in the brain. The reason I know this is
because I have an aunt who has the same problem.”
I had no idea about what she was talking. We had no
computer at that time, therefore, I could not google
it. I thanked Jeff and Carla for their help
and headed back home, pondering Carla’s
words, "Linda has a chemical imbalance in the brain."
    Linda did not get better. By this time Moses had
assumed full-time care of the church, since taking
care of Linda and the family had become a full-time
responsibility for me. We finally made the decision
to return to the United States. We packed our belongings,
turned the church over to Moses, and ask
another missionary to watch over things until the
church could get their own land and building. Then
we flew back to the States to obtain medical attention
for my bride of twenty-three years. Little did I
know we would not return to West Africa.
    I kept in contact with what was happening in
Abengourou, and then one day I received some sad
news the church in Abengourou had closed because
of the war. Moses then moved to the Bible school
and taught there for a while. Eventually the Lord
blessed him with a godly wife, and he and his wife
were missionaries in Burkina Faso for a few years
but now are ministering, as Associate Pastor, faithfully
in a church near Abidjan the capital city of the
Ivory Coast, West Africa.
    The Lord has greatly used Moses, and still is, to preach and
teach the Word of God. I remain thankful that I had
the privilege of meeting Moses and introducing him
to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. When I hear or
see anything about Africa, my heart still aches to be
there winning the African people to Jesus. If there
were any way I could, I would go back to Africa on
a second’s notice. But God’s ways are not our ways,
so I cherish my memories and look forward to what
lies ahead.

(Copyright by Jay B Ayers)