A Surprise Testimony

Recently, I asked Nhlavutelo, “What were the tools or the things that God used to bring you to salvation?” This young lady is 16 and was baptized the same day as my son, Colin, 3 years ago. She lives with her mother and sisters, but does not see her father who left long ago. In that house, she alone reads her Bible and attends church. Each week when we arrive at the building in Valdezia, Nhlavu has already completed the 20-minute walk and has the doors and windows open. Perhaps the most committed of the youth in that little group, she started a Wednesday prayer meeting. I have a list of “Tsongas Who Have Read the Whole Bible” and though there are only 5 names on that list so far, her name is just after Pastor Nyalungu’s. She had been in Amy’s Sunday school class for years, and now she is teaching that class. Many times, she has been in a group with me on evangelism. During her years in the church she has heard hundreds of expositional sermons. 

But when I asked what were two or three things that God used to save you? she replied, “Your family. I had never seen a Christian family.” 

Last week, two new converts, both 15, told me, “Your children inspire us. They have love for us.” A different young man on a different day said, “When I saw your child greeting people at church, I asked myself why I am not doing that.” 

Over the last few days, other examples came to mind. A woman testified that Amy’s willingness to stay with the Tsongas after she saw a gun on her child’s head—that willingness, that Calvary love of a young mother proved to her that our gospel was true. 

A number of weeks ago, I asked another church member, “Which Christian encourages you the most?” She said, “Mhana Kombi [Amy, lit. mother of Kombi Caleb’s Tsonga name] because she always comes to church, and she serves her children.” 

Today, Colin evangelized a dozen unconverted Tsongas under a tree while the rest of us listened. 

So I have concluded that I am not the only missionary, but rather my wife and children hold positions like the names Paul lists at the end of Romans or 1 Corinthians.

Objection: That Sounds Like Self Praise

Isn’t it self-praising to talk about your family? Maybe. May the One who keeps Israel without sleeping, lead me away from the rancid lust of self-seeking and the subtle pleasure of personal praise. I think it was Leonard Ravenhill who said, “If the old man is not dead and buried, his stench will drive lost souls away.” Would to God that I cared nothing for the praise of man, and only for seeing God at the last day. 

And isn’t it naïve and too soon? Do you know the future, Seth? Can’t terrible things happen? I have even this year had cause to weep over sins in my family. And I often wonder how we will make it to the end. What happens if sins or problems come in the future? That terrifies me. 

Because of those two dangers, why write at all on this topic? Because there is a danger both ways. Maybe it is wrong not to write. 

Answer: Maybe It Will Expand Your Prayers

First, many of you have been praying for my wife and children. I know because you tell me so. According to what I hear from friends, family, and churches, my family is more frequently the object of your prayers than the conversion of the Tsongas. Ought you not to know when God has answered? Don’t I want you to continue to pray for them? Some of you have been praying for us since we announced our first child’s birth back in 2007. Should I give you some encouragement if I can so that as you walk by faith, you might go singing on the road? 

As next Thursday draws near, I want to express my gratitude for answered prayers for my wife and children, for help from them at the churchplants, for a quiet but sweet aroma of life seemingly flowing from a Christian family, but actually from the Rose of Sharon. Please ask on my behalf that from our home a seed would serve God, that it would be told of the Lord to the coming generation. 

Second, I want to urge you to pray for a young girl who never saw a Christian family before she met us. Can you pray that her children would see many Christian families? Pray for family godliness among the Tsongas. Pray for Second Generation Christianity. Pray for the young men who know not how to contract marriage and with whom. Pray for the young women who are cruelly pulled away by the “wisdom” of this world from the goal of building a house, serving their husbands, keeping the home, and being saved through child-bearing. If it is hard to avoid divorce in a place with more gospel light, how much more difficult in a place without? 

Until the earth is full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,

Seth and Amy 

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