Bobo‘s story
I would like to share a short story about one of our believers named Bobo.
Bobo is about 16 years of age. His father died when he was still a baby. Unbelievers today say that his father was killed by an “aborou”, which is a person with the ability to perform black magic. Soon after this mother, overcome by sorrow, committed suicide. It was a very sad day when they found both him and his older sister in the same room his mother committed suicide in. Up to recently it was very common for Mengen people to commit suicide when they experienced extreme sorrow or shame. After this, in accordance with Mengen culture, his extended family raised him and cared for him. He basically stayed with his grandmother and uncles.
Because of these circumstances, Bobo grew up to be a difficult boy, who was even regarded according to Mengen culture as being bad mannered, a thief and trouble maker. On the first day that we arrived in our village , he was one of our carriers and stole some of our foodstuffs. Not long after that he broke into our house and stole some sugar and yeast to make some home brew to get drunk. Regularly after this he gave us trouble, sometimes even threatening to hurt our coworkers. The picture on the left is a picture of Bobo when we arrived here a couple of years ago.
As you know, in the last few years we started to teach the Mengen people through the Old Testament up to the life and death of Christ. What was amazing though was that throughout all of this time he attended all 70 of these lessons, and also the next 40 lessons covering the book of Acts and eventually into the lessons covering the Book of Romans as well. Even though in this time he continued with his trouble and rebellion, the seeds of God’s truth were being sown into his life and so it happened that the Holy Spirit somewhere along the line convicted him of his sin and showed him his need for salvation. And so this orphan boy was adopted into the family of Christ with God himself as His father.
The picture on the right was taken when we first taught the Gospel message and Bobo heard the truth. When we work with these people we experience such great joy at times that we cannot but praise the Lord with our tears. Just think, here was a little boy in the jungle living in these harsh conditions and growing up in the midst of sin and animistic ancestral worship. Everything around him modelled Satan and his ways., yet God had chosen him before creation to be holy and set apart for him. God has done a remarkable work in this young man’s life. He joined the literacy class and learned to read and write and now he is even being trained as a literacy teacher. He is also in the beginning stages of being evaluated to become a teacher trainee in church. God has truly turned his life around. On the left is a picture of Bobo today.
We hope and trust that Bobo will become a great teacher amongst his own people.
Please be in prayer with us for this young man that he will continue on this road and be sanctified so much that he would become an instrument set apart for special use here among the Mengen people!
Remember that you are making an eternal difference by supporting us and we appreciate each one of you guys very very much. We cannot reach people like Bobo without your support.
Lourens