Harvest Notes A Snake Snuck In


by Gary Williams A Missionary Story about the Power of Prayer


Te Commission on Missions is starting to collect stories fom our FEBC missionaries so we can make a book for our FEBC families across North America. Tis story fom Gary Williams with Wycliffe Bible Translators when they served in Afica emphasizes God’s invi- tation to go to him for help when we are afaid.


One day when my wife and I were working with the Nuni people of Burkina Faso, I was doing some language work with one of the men late in the aſternoon. Suddenly, some people who had been passing by on the trail came running to our mud house and excitedly told us that they had seen a snake climb up the wall and wriggle in under the roof of our house! Tey showed us where it had gone in and warned us to watch


for it. I realized that it had gone in on top of a makeshiſt ceiling that I had made from grass mats for our daughters’ room. Since we had no electricity, we depended on kerosene lanterns and flash- lights to look for the snake. I didn’t want to risk a snake bite by taking the grass mat ceiling apart, so we decided to wait until the snake came out. We prayed, asking the Lord to remind us to be very careful, and to bring the snake out when we could easily see it. Two days and two nights passed. No snake. We kept praying


as we asked the Lord to protect us. On the third evening, aſter story time for the children, Darlene started carrying Darla, our


Correction: In the last issue, in the article “Christmas for the Orphans” (November December 2016, page 8), the next-to-the-last sentence should read “For further information go to worldwithoutorphans.org/resources.”


younger daughter, to her bedroom while I read one more story to Charman, our older daughter. In the dim lantern light just outside the bedroom, Darlene saw what looked like my belt on the floor. As she walked toward it, the belt began to move! She quickly came back to tell me! I got a broom and killed the snake with the broom handle! We thanked the Lord for his timing in answering our prayers.


If Darlene had gone to the bedroom just one or two minutes earlier, she may have stepped on the snake in the darkness of the bedroom. One or two minutes later it would have gone across to our bedroom where we would not have expected to see it. One of the many passages of Scripture that invite us to pray is


Jeremiah 33:3: “Call to me, and I will answer you and show you great and wonderful things that you don’t understand.” As we obey God, we can call on him, confident that he will give us what we need to serve him.


Te Commissions on Missions has collected many more stories like this one fom our missionaries. We hope to have one volume ready for distribution by convention time this summer. If you have contact with our FEBC missionaries, encourage them to write their story. We take them as they come, and then will edit as needed so they will be appropriate length and vocabulary for young children.


The Williams Family in Burkino Faso 16 Fellowship Focus, January/February 2017 The house where the snake snuck in. FellowshipForward.org


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24