Go to Work!
A young medical missionary student embraces his calling to ministry.
“Please, can I talk to Elisha and you?” Emmanuel, one of our medical missionary students from Zambia, had just come back from a week of practical work in Ibaga, one of the villages where we have a Bible worker stationed. Emmanuel had visited homes, giving advice for better health. After just one week, a young man Emmanuel had worked with had expressed his desire to follow the truth.
Three or four days later, we finally sat together to talk. “Listen, I have been studying at Eden Valley with the goal to go back to Zambia and open a similar training school. But with the coronavirus slowing activities down, I’ve spent a lot of time speaking with the Lord. Time and again He has said: ‘Go to work! Go to work!’ After my week in Ibaga, my heart is burning to go work for the Lord. Are you considering opening any new outreach centers?”
Elisha and I looked at each other and laughed. This very morning we had talked about Isapulano, a mountain village where we wanted to start some outreach. The lack of trustworthy, devoted workers had prevented us until now, but we had decided to send our master carpenter to spend a Sabbath with the five church members there. “Why don’t we send a student with him—like Emmanuel?” Elisha had said.
Needless to say, Emmanuel agreed. After he had shared in Isapulano, the lady in charge of the church group came to Emmanuel and asked, “Why don’t you stay with us? You could work here and teach us. There are so many things we do not know about the Bible.”
We spent the next two weeks preparing for Emmanuel to settle in the village. God kept confirming our plans. We would think of something and Emmanuel would come the next day with the very same suggestion, or we would propose an idea and Emmanuel would laugh and say that he had been asking the Lord about it.
Emmanuel teamed up with Eliab, one of our graduate carpenters, to go to Isapulano. They went with a 5-gallon bucket of corn flour, but a villager offered his whole cornfield for them to harvest whenever needed. Another villager invited them to pick leafy greens at their convenience because the cold season was coming anyway. Somebody gave them four huge bags of charcoal—the very thing they needed to cook and warm up the house! They were even invited to teach in the primary and secondary schools, and soon had several students learning Bible, English and carpentry.
Eliab, the carpenter, took four sets of tools with him to reach out to young boys and men. Emmanuel, the medical missionary, has been helping people with different ailments. To a man complaining of stomach pain, insomnia and weakness, he gave the only things he had: ginger, lemon and garlic, and much prayer. After a week, the man came back and said he had been pain free, working in his fields and sleeping wonderfully. News spread that these boys had come to help people, and outpatients started trickling in. Eliab and Emmanuel are throwing themselves into the work with all they have and all they are!
The village has provided a piece of land for us to build a small church on as a school project for our carpentry students. We also plan to purchase some land and build a little house with four or five treatment rooms and a carpentry shop. We thank God for providing devoted, trustworthy workers to help out and reach hearts in Isapulano!
Location
Tanzania
Author
Nadege Vande Voort and her husband Elisha operate Eden Valley Foster Care Mission, a trade school for underprivileged youth in Tanzania. You can reach them by emailing harvester2188@gmail.com. Their address is Box 17, Mafinga, Iringa, Tanzania.
How You Can Help
Pray for Emmanuel and Eliab as they plant this new church. Pray that they will have strength and resources for whatever God may be calling them to do.
Give to Elisha and Nadege’s mission in Tanzania by marking your donation “Eden Valley Foster Care Mission” and sending it to:
Outpost Centers International
5132 Layton Lane
Apison, TN 37302
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