“Moses will be baptized this Sabbath!” The text from the Clay family flashed onto our phone screen one sunny day in New Zealand a little over a year ago. Tears of joy sprang to my eyes. Moses had loved Jesus for years. He had learned some scripture stories from a local Bible worker who had given him a Bible. Jesus had delivered him from a demon. He had also stilled the waves when Moses prayed on a sinking fishing boat. During these crises, when Moses recited his Islamic prayers, nothing happened. But when he called upon Jesus, the demon fled, and the waves became still. Expressing his faith, he told us that Mohammed is dead, but Jesus is alive and powerful. We were able to study the Bible with him for quite some time, as was our student missionary and the Clay family. Finally, the time was right, and he sealed his decision in the waters of the Great River.

Over the months that followed as our family was preparing to launch, we heard reports from the Clay and Church families that Palm Village, where Moses lives, had some families who were Jesus followers. We began to pray for this village. We prayed that if this was the village where God wanted us to go, He would prepare the way and open the doors.

Fast forward to soon after our launch. The Clay family had sent one of their SMs to teach English in Palm Village. The response was overwhelming! On a usual day, there were more than 100 students. The classroom was packed, and curious parents stayed to watch through the windows, occasionally calling out to their children to be quiet and pay attention. The villagers were asking for a family to come and help teach English. This was the perfect open door for us.

Before moving forward, we wanted to meet with all four missionary families on the Great River Project to pray and discuss some ideas. We invited Moses to be a part of our meetings. When we asked him, “How can we best help your people, especially spiritually?” Moses gazed at his hands and thought for a moment.

“My people live in darkness and fear.” Wistfulness edged his voice. “They don’t know about the hope they can find in Jesus. They are so afraid of God.” He went on to share the need for a Bible translation that would seem authentic to them. He also shared the need to have a place to worship, a visible landmark that would give believers a sense of belonging and identity as they venture out on journeys of faith.

After listening to Moses’ heart, we shared some of our ideas. Since the Great River People are spread over a broad area, we split into two teams to spread our influence. Since the Great River people are Muslim, our teams need platforms to justify being there. Our part of the team (the Roberts and Kiwi families) is planning to use English teaching as one of our platforms. We could also offer training to local facilitators in health, hygiene, nutrition, gardening and other things in order to influence the wider community. As trust and spiritual hunger develop, we could invite people to join Bible-study groups and ultimately church groups.

As we shared these and other ideas with Moses, we asked him what he thought. Would this be something his people would respond to? His eyes sparkled with new hope. “Yes! Let’s do it! I think it is very good.”

We are still in the brainstorming phase, but we have been checking out the possibilities. We have just returned from spending the weekend visiting in Palm and surrounding villages. We visited the village chief and the district chief and asked them what they thought of the idea of providing more English teachers. They both seem very open to the idea. Pray that God will open and close doors as we move forward. “Man plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps” (Prov. 16:9).

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