Some time ago, we were eating Sabbath lunch in Bamako with some expatriate acquaintances. It was our first Sabbath back in Mali after our furlough, and we were happy to spend time with these people we hadn’t seen in a while. While enjoying the meal, we all talked about the work we were doing in Mali. I shared that we were missionaries and told a little bit about AFM. Sometime later in the conversation, someone asked me, “Why can’t we just give the people Bibles and just let them read them? The culture here in Mali is closer to Biblical culture than our Western culture is.” This question disturbed me on a number of levels, and I kept thinking about it long after the conversation.

I have always believed that God has commissioned all people who believe in Him to be missionaries of some sort. Matthew 28:19 says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. ”

Let me tell you another story that happened to me just the other day, a story that illustrates the need for people who know Jesus to tell those who don’t. On this day, a friend invited me to a funeral in a village on the other side of the Niger River. It was some distance away, and we would be traveling there on our motorcycles. My friend asked me to transport a friend of his who was going to be presiding over the ceremony.

On our way to this funeral, before we had even reached the river, I got news that the brother of one of my close friends had died. This was a shock to me. I had seen the young man recently, and he had been in good health.

Wondering what could have happened to him, I tried to get out of the first engagement, but my friend really wanted me to accompany him to the funeral across the river. Remembering that I had been praying for greater opportunities to witness, I agreed to continue to the first funeral, planning to hurry to my other friend’s village as soon as it was over.

The Lord blessed my time at the funeral. It was my first trip across the river, and I made many new acquaintances. Also, on the way, I was able to talk with my passenger and explain a bit to him about what Christians believe.

I also gained some interesting cultural insight. At the funeral, a friend was pointing out various people and telling me about them. “You see that man with the long, white beard?” he said. “No one dares make him angry! He is a shape-shifter who can turn himself into a lion. People are afraid of him because if he is angry with them, he may meet them in the jungle one day as a lion and do them harm.”

But this was only half of my day. I arrived back at my house around 4 p.m. and, after a quick bite to eat, I left for my friend’s village, located about one hour away by motorcycle. After arriving at the village and greeting the grieving family, I found out what had happened. Apparently my young friend had gotten sick. On the twelfth day of his sickness, his family took him to the hospital in Kangaba where the doctors told them he was very sick indeed. So they took him back home and sacrificed a cow, a red rooster and a white hen. Nothing worked, and he died on the fifteenth day of his sickness.

The father of the family has read the Bible in Bambara quite a bit. He also has listened regularly to a Proclaimer, a solar-powered device that plays the audio New Testament in Bambara. His oldest son has even claimed Christianity, although he hasn’t yet been baptized. I have given him an audio New Testament in Bambara on a memory stick that he listens to with headphones. Even though several in this family have been reading the Bible, they have not yet taken hold of the strength and power that comes with knowing God. They still have more confidence in their old system of fetish sacrifice.

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” We can see an example of this in the story of Phillip and the Ethiopian eunuch. Phillip asked the eunuch, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The eunuch replied, “How can I unless someone explains it to me?” I gather from this story that those who understand spiritual truth can greatly speed up the understanding of those who are interested in learning God’s word.

So, to the question, “Is it enough to just give people Bibles in their language and let them read them?” my answer is no. It is not enough. It is an important step, but just as important are people who can come alongside interested readers and mentor them to full faith in Christ. We are starting our fourth year here in Mali, and, from what I have seen so far, we need a lot more people like that. Please continue to keep the Malinke people in your prayers. —

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