What’s your story? We all have one – it’s part of what makes us human.
What happens when we are able to enter into each other’s story in a way that makes a difference in the trajectory?
Robdu was one of twenty-three children. Same father, different mothers. Life as a girl in her fundamental M*slim family meant learning to cook, searching for wood to cook with, hauling water and taking care of the younger children. She doesn’t know her exact age, but guesses she was married around fifteen.
Life after marriage was much the same – cooking, finding wood, hauling water and caring for nine children she birthed at regular intervals.
Growing up, her family claimed to be M*slim, went to the mosque and said prayers regularly, but they also were deeply enmeshed in tribal witchcraft. The boys in the family were indoctrinated from an early age both in Isl*mic traditions and in the mysteries of witchcraft. Both of those pursuits were enhanced by chewing khat, a hallucinatory leaf. Robdu’s husband did the same.
The two NewLife missionaries living and working in this M*slim village were visiting the families of the children attending NewLife’s Mana Gammachuu school. Robdu’s 5-year-old girl had just begun her first year of kindergarten, and the missionaries stopped by her house. At the time, her husband was living elsewhere with another wife and Robdu’s daily living was extremely hard. She was grateful for the good lunch her daughter received at school.
The missionaries shared words of Jesus with Robdu and hearing His Words of love caused tears to stream down her face. She confessed that as far back as she could remember she had been afraid. Afraid of her father, afraid of her husband, afraid of the dark, afraid of big trees, afraid of the lake, afraid to go to sleep and afraid of dying. The missionaries asked if they could bring her fears to the Father. Robdu nodded yes.
As soon as the missionaries started praying, a spirit loudly shouted against them, throwing Robdu violently to the floor. Immediately the two men recognized the evil spirit controlling this woman and ordered it to leave in the name of Jesus. The spirit was silenced. Robdu lay as if dead. The missionaries continued to intensely pray for her, and after fifty minutes she sat up and smiled. For the first time in her memory, she said her mind was quiet and she felt peaceful.
She remembered the words of Jesus that had been read to her and wanted to hear more. The missionaries shared scripturally His plan of salvation for her; Robdu knelt down on the dirt floor of her hut and accepted the free gift offered by Jesus Christ.
The drudgery of Robdu’s daily living remains the same, except not the same at all! Now she wakes up with hope. Having never experienced human love, the love of Jesus and His presence that will never abandon her fills her in a way she is unable to describe. Robdu is hungry and thirsty for the things of God and attends the church in her village. She is telling her children about the astonishing encounter she had with the True God, and wishes they had the miraculous Book the missionaries had. Her older boys can read and Robdu is determined her girls will also attend school so they can read for themselves the remarkable Words that completely changed her life. She has truly been set free from the chains of a terrible bondage.
It is converts like Robdu who we desperately want to gift with a solar-powered audio bible. She is illiterate, yet yearns for more of His Word.
Every person has a story.
You are invited to step into Robdu’s story.
Gift an audio bible for $28
a paper bible for $10
Send a child to school for $35/month
But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”
Romans 10:14-15 New Living Translation (NLT)