I entered the village where the École des Femmes (School for Women) meets, and greeted the chief and the instructors. I had been invited to share a short message with the women. My missionary friend who runs the school had informed me that the women I would be meeting had already made professions of faith in Christ. They were studying Scripture and the principles of a Christian home and marriage, and learning how to read, write, cook, and sew.

Photo by Nancy Burton from her blog at www.coolbeans3.blogspot.com

As I prayed and watched the women proudly show what they’ve been learning, God reminded me of how I got to where I am today and that I should tell them. I shared with them that once, over thirty years ago, a missionary woman was old and poor in health and had to return to the U.S., her home country. She did not stop being a missionary, though. She spoke to groups of children and told them about Jesus, and that is how I first heard the Gospel and asked Jesus to be my Savior. She was old. She was physically frail. She was a woman. But God used her to work a miracle – to give me new life in Christ – and now I was there to share my story with them.

Photo courtesy of Esther Writebol

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” —Acts 1:8