Gene Carver, the 65-year-old pastor of First Baptist Church, Cordova, said God called him to serve in Africa 36 years ago but it was not until four years ago that he answered the call.
Since then, Carver has traveled to Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda for at least one week each year and has seen miraculous things happen. Once while searching for a lost bag with medical equipment with the help of the chief of security of Kenya’s Mombasa International Airport, Carver was able to give the man a Bible in both English and Swahili. Carver then went into customs where four men were watching a Kay Arthur sermon on television.
“One of the men said, ‘I need to be saved.’ It was like a sovereign appointment,” he said. Carver led the man in prayer for salvation and ultimately saw the chief of security and another of these men saved that day.
During his trips, he preaches to large groups where numbers make professions of faith and witnesses to individuals through an interpreter.
Carver tells of going into the bush in Tanzania and his encounter with the Maasai warriors along a dusty “pig trail.”
He walked along with the tall, thin men wrapped in red cloaks and began to do hand games with them, which he said they found very amusing.
He also gave them chocolate, a treat few had ever tasted.
Carver said he carries a pouch of chocolate and other candy with him to open the door to witnessing opportunities.
He had an interpreter help him witness to these men.
“Five of them wanted to come home with me. I could just imagine these Maasai people on the streets of Cordova,” Carver said.
He cannot project how many were reached during his time in Tanzania, but the people, both young and old, seemed hungry for more than just chocolate.
Then there are the sick brought for prayer. He recalled two blind men who were prayed for by a doctor from Pell City. Carver said others reported that the men were going through their village later that day telling everyone they could see.
A woman with an inoperable, softball-sized tumor on her stomach was also prayed for. She later returned with no signs of a tumor.
“I don’t know why things like that happen in Africa but they do,” Carver said.
Though Carver said he has often wondered what his ministry would have been like had he been willing to respond to God’s call earlier, his missions work has changed his Walker Baptist Association church.
“This group of people has become very missions-minded. They want to hear about people getting saved,” Carver said, noting First, Cordova, recently started an outreach program to those with a drug or alcohol addiction and people going through divorce or other crises. “We just want to reach out to people who are hurting.”
Carver said he hopes to continue his work both in Cordova and abroad as long as God will allow.
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