Travel with a missionary pastor who is taking the Good News to West Africa

By Rev. Dr. Alfred Lansana

Photos by Tennyson Julius Williams

My dear friend, I have a story to tell you.

Although we don’t know each other, I have felt your prayers and have seen the difference your gift of God’s Word makes in places like my home country of Sierra Leone.

I want to tell you how your seeds of faith—planted through your ongoing prayer and generosity—have led to an incredible harvest in West Africa, taking the gospel where it has never gone before!

I Experienced Your Gift Firsthand

In my childhood days in Sierra Leone, my friends and I would run door-to-door, talking to people and inviting them to church. I didn’t know that was “missions”; I never wanted to become a pastor. I simply wanted to share the love of Jesus.

Years later, I moved to the United States to study. I earned multiple degrees and built a successful career. Later, my wife Florence and I started a church in our basement. We shepherded the church into a thriving congregation near Atlanta. For many years, I have poured myself into preaching, counseling, chaplaincy, and prison outreach. But I always felt that something was missing.

That all changed two years ago, when I encountered the ministry you make possible through American Bible Society!

My wife and I were in Kenya, attending a training hosted by American Bible Society and other ministry partners. We learned about the End-to-End program and how it’s being used to spread the gospel through visual, audio, and print Scripture. But we never expected that our hearts would be touched by this ministry.

I remember sitting beside my wife, holding an audio device in my hands. We were hearing the Bible come alive in Mende—the language of our hearts, the language of our families, the language we grew up thinking, praying, and dreaming in. It’s impossible to tell you how amazing it was!

In English, we understand the Bible. But in Mende, we felt God’s Word spark something new inside of us. Even with all my experience and studies, I’d never encountered the Bible like this. It was as if we were hearing the gospel for the very first time, and our hearts overflowed with joy.

All I could think was, This is what I have been looking for! And I knew that I had found what God wanted me to do.

You Made a Way for Us to Bring the Gospel to a Muslim Village

After we realized what End-to-End could mean for sharing the gospel with our people, we couldn’t wait to start.

As soon as we arrived in Sierra Leone, we began working with a missionary friend, Musa, and others to reach their communities. We were making incredible progress. But there was still a challenge ahead of us.

Sierra Leone’s population is 80 percent Muslim. Other Christians had tried to bring the gospel to Muslim villages before. Even Musa had made several attempts but had been turned away.

These were the people God wanted us to reach.

When I told him where we needed to go next, Musa said he wasn’t sure they would allow us to come. But I had experienced what your gift of God’s Word in my language could do. Even though I wasn’t certain if we would be successful, I told Musa, “When we go, we will give them an audio Bible as a gift, so that they can begin to hear that the Jesus they are running from can speak their language.”

With this mission, we traveled to the first village by motorbike to meet with the village chief and the local imam. Without gaining approval from these two men, there would be no way for us to reach the people. All I brought with me was the audio Bible. I gave it to the chief as a gift and told him, “This is something I have encountered, and I want to share it with you.”

My friend, you cannot imagine our joy when we returned the next day and learned that the chief had not only listened to the Bible, but told us, “There is truth in this.”

That evening, with the blessing of the chief and the imam, the village gathered together to watch the story of Jesus in Mende. As they watched the life of Jesus in their language, we saw people’s faces change. They wanted more.

Then, the chief asked a question I will never forget: “Can you build a church here?”

The village wanted to begin immediately. Everyone was involved, from the youngest children bringing buckets of water to the women and men forming the bricks with their own hands to the local carpenters who built the pews and the pulpit. Even when a heavy rain destroyed their progress, the community didn’t give up. For the longest time, these people had seen the Bible as foreign. But because of you, they saw and heard the gospel in Mende, and they knew this Good News was for them.

“This is the truth,” the chief told us. “We want our children to learn this new way of knowing God.”

The church used your audio Bible to learn more about God until they found a resident pastor. Soon, people from other communities began to ask us, “When will you bring a church to my village?” That’s how, one Easter morning, we saw what God can do with even the smallest seed of faith.

We Saw an Easter Miracle!

When it came time for a second church in a nearby village to open its doors, it was almost Easter. But the village didn’t want to celebrate alone—they wanted to invite the neighboring villages to join them. The only issue was that Easter Sunday fell at the height of Ramadan, a month of fasting and prayer for Muslims.

People began to tell me, “This is a risky thing to do. It’s too bold. Not only are you going to Muslims with the gospel, but now you want to launch a church during a time that is sacred to them.”

To tell you the truth, I didn’t know what would happen. But I knew that we serve a God of miracles—he had already brought us this far.

So, on Easter Sunday, we opened the new church, joined by dozens of visitors from other Muslim villages. The crowd was so large that we needed to add extra seats outside. During that unforgettable service, we listened to the Mende audio Bible together. God worked miracles, signs, and wonders. People were healed in the name of Jesus.

Then, we invited people to give their lives to Christ.

Almost the entire congregation raised their hands, including the chief who first received your gift of Scripture in his language!

Afterward, even though it was the Ramadan fast, everyone shared the feast we had prepared to celebrate the resurrection—and the new life you brought to this village through the gospel.

Before they returned home, our visitors told us, “We’re ready. We want this same God to come to our villages.”

Your Gift is Multiplying!

After that miraculous Easter Sunday, I knew that my assignment from God was to continue this life-changing work.

We’ve already seen a spiritual harvest born from your faith and God’s faithfulness. In the original village we visited, the chief told us that the Bible helped him become a better leader and mediator. Families who were enemies for years have reconciled. Crime rates have dropped. And God answered prayer by blessing the village farms with a more bountiful harvest than ever before.

One man told us, “Since a church was established in this community, we have been brought out of darkness into the light through the teachings which have revealed truth to us.”

Today, we celebrate 14 churches built in Muslim villages in Sierra Leone since 2023!

But this good news is not just for Sierra Leone. It’s for the Kingdom.

That’s why we’re training believers in other West African nations like Senegal, Guinea, the Gambia, and Liberia on how to use End-to-End. These people are braving tough terrain, harsh weather, and even the possibility of persecution because they know the power of what they carry. The gospel is changing lives, everywhere it goes. And God is blessing our work through faithful partners like you!

Thank You for Sowing Seeds of Faith!

Every time a child hears God’s Word in their Muslim schoolroom; every time a mother sees the gospel unfold on the screen; every time a village gathers to listen to the Bible in their common language, seeds are sown.

You have opened doors to places where the gospel has not gone before!

Whether you give, pray, or even spread the news about what God is doing by sharing my story with a friend, it’s not wasted. Every seed sown in Africa is bearing fruit, and I am seeing it firsthand.

Because of you, I can say with the Apostle Paul:

My ambition has always been to proclaim the Good News in places where Christ has not been heard of, so as not to build on a foundation laid by someone else. As the scripture says, “Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.”

(Romans 15:20–21)

Thanks be to God!

 

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