Amelia led a team serving among a Muslim people group on a small tropical island in the Indian Ocean, teaching English and studying the local language and culture.
She now serves in West Africa, sharing the gospel with those in a region that is very opposed to the message of Jesus Christ.
Could you partner with Amelia in this work?
Amelia serves in West Africa, sharing the gospel with those in a region that is very opposed to the message of Jesus Christ. She recently shared an encouraging story from a colleague about a man he has been discipling. This young man keeps his faith secret and lives in fear of anyone finding out about his faith. But the other day, he walked into his brother’s home and saw his two nieces watching the Jesus film on an Arabic TV channel. Without thinking, he exclaimed: I love this film, it’s my favourite! And with his brother sitting right there, his nieces told him that they watched this channel all the time. Pray that this would be a small beginning, and that the number of those who love Jesus would grow and grow in that family.
Amelia serves in West Africa, sharing the gospel with those in a region that is very opposed to the message of Jesus Christ. Her team leaders have recently left, and they are not the only ones. At a recent prayer weekend, there was a collective intake of breath when it was announced that one African couple who have been there for 17 years would be leaving. In the last two years, 19 long-term workers have left, with half of them having been there more than ten years. At the same time, new people are coming in (Amelia included), so it’s definitely a season of change. Pray that they would have eyes to see what God is doing and that in the midst of goodbyes and hellos, they would keep remembering that this is God’s work, not theirs, that he has good plans for this country and for his people there, whether they are staying or going.
Amelia* serves in West Africa, sharing the gospel with those in a region that is very opposed to the message of Jesus Christ. Marriage and divorce are topics that come up repeatedly: her friend was married at 12 and had her daughter at 13, while her friend’s older sister has been married and divorced five times, with children from three different fathers. While the former is now much less common – and her youngest sister has made it all the way to university without getting married, the latter is not seen as unusual. Maybe five times is at the upper end, but it’s not something that would necessarily cause surprise. On the other hand, to be a never married woman in her mid-40s, that is a strange thing! And while Amelia’s language still limits the depth of conversation, it’s an easy jumping off point into things of faith, and a number of things she has said are repeated by her friends to new people when she meets them. Pray that the strangeness of what they hear would linger and prompt a desire for more and better than what they currently know.
* Name changed for security reasons
We use ‘Creative Access’ to refer to nations, areas or ministries where there is great hostility towards Christianity and where traditional ‘missionary work’ is not possible. Workers, therefore, need to be ‘creative’ in how they proclaim the liberating news of Jesus Christ. In North Africa alone, 200 million people from 472 unreached people groups are unreached with the gospel. That’s 200 million people unknowingly heading for a Christ-less eternity.
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We long to let all Africa's people know that they can have life, in all its fullness, for comfort rather than being in fear of breaking taboos or working to earn favour in the eyes of their gods.
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We asked Amelia to share what she has learnt about sharing her faith over the 13 years she has lived on an island in the Indian Ocean, and how important it is to understand other people’s faith before sharing your own.
We asked Amelia what’s it’s like to live on an Indian Ocean island and to seek to share the gospel there.
Amelia lives and works on an Indian Ocean Island as part of a church planting team. We asked her, in the context of her work, why bother with church planting and what benefit it has in reaching the lost with the good news of Jesus Christ?
