Dinner was a far cry from an Arkansas Baptist church supper.
On this night six members of Arkansas’ Valley Baptist Church, Searcy, squeezed into a modest Muslim home in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and dipped their spoons into African groundnut stew and fish sauce served over “attiéké,” the staple Ivorian food made from cassava, a root vegetable. They were eating with a local family who was breaking their Ramadan fast.
“Man, you could not have told me 10 years ago I’d be over here eatin’ with a Muslim,” Paul Yingling said with an incredulous shake of his head. But then you couldn’t have told Yingling and his wife, Jan, that God would so burden their hearts for Muslims that they would find themselves traveling to West Africa to tell stories about Christ. Yingling is an auto technician in Searcy, a town about an hour northeast of Little Rock. The Yinglings were part of the team of Valley Baptist volunteers who first journeyed to Abidjan in 2013 to see how their hometown church might impact a West African city far away.
The room is cramped on this summer evening. It’s July and the hosts haven’t eaten a bite or sipped a drink since before dawn.
Hospitable host
The small home belongs to a hospitable and dignified man named Seidou. He shares it with his immediate family as well as a brother and his two wives. Seidou and his three brothers have gathered for this meal. Like many immigrants they came to Abidjan from Burkina Faso looking for work.
Along with typical Ivorian dishes Seidou pours traditional drinks. The Arkansans tentatively sip “bissap,” a sweet ruby red drink made from dried hibiscus petals.
International Mission Board missionaries Mike and Heather McAfee and their three children are present also, thanks to the Cooperative Program. The McAfees, friends of Seidou’s family, are urban church planters in Abidjan, the economic capital of the country. Its ever-growing population of at least 6 million reflects the diversity of West Africa. Islam, Catholicism and African tribal religions influence daily lives. Mike estimates there are about 30 small Baptist congregations in this city of millions.
New church plants
Mike and Heather wear many hats as they work with Ivorian churches and seek to establish new church plants in this sprawling metropolis. They network and partner with U.S. Baptist churches, including Valley Baptist. On the church’s first visit the McAfees introduced the team of five women and one man to areas of the city where they saw the potential for a church plant. The team worked with translators and members of the local Treichville Baptist Church to meet neighborhood residents and engage them with Bible stories.
Yingling said, “The believers here … want to reach this city for Christ. They are capable of sharing the gospel; it just kind of helps that we’re here — it kind of gets their foot in the door, you know. … They love God and even though I’m a country boy from Arkansas we’re able to come together in one accord and share the gospel for Christ.”
Back at Seidou’s home on that summer evening before dinner was served, Yingling had walked with his dinner hosts to the neighborhood mosque so the men of the family could pray.
“That was saddening to see them so dedicated to doing their work and praying … [because] they don’t really know for sure their sins are forgiven and where they’ll stand with God on judgment day,” Yingling said.
To view a video on the McAfees, visit vimeo.com/99838886.
(BP)
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