African-Americans Reaching Africans

Three Hours Under the Mango Tree

Relationships are everything in Africa. People love nothing more than to sit and visit with neighbors or get to know new friends. Clocks and watches often go unnoticed when good conversation abounds.

When a group of believers from Broadview Church, an African-American congregation on the outskirts of Chicago, made a vision trip to western Africa, time seemed unimportant as they visited several areas throughout the city, engaging people with stories from the Bible.

To help build a relationship with the people, the four men from Broadview chose traditional African names upon arrival in western Africa. When introducing themselves with their new names, they were received with laughter and warm embraces, a typical welcome in African culture.

One particular day the men from Broadview visited a small community to share God’s story from His creation of the universe to Christ being the Messiah. Once again they were warmly welcomed and invited to tea time.

Tea time is important in western Africa. The tea is carefully prepared in a small ceramic or metal tea pot, the water brought to a boil using a tiny, metal basket holding smoldering charcoal. Sugar is added for a strong, sweet taste and after the tea has been poured over and over between two small glasses, creating a frothy layer on top, the glasses are passed around for all to share.

Of course, visitors partake of the tea first.

On that hot and humid October day with an unrelenting sun, a large mango tree provided the right amount of shade for a comfortable visit outdoors.

Robert Walker, missions pastor at Broadview, began the story of how God created the universe. Christopher Robinson, assistant pastor, picked up the story where Christ is born into the world.

Many western Africans are of the Islamic faith and have been raised learning the teachings of Muhammad. The comments and questions did not take long after the two Americans concluded their story.

“Jesus was a prophet but He is dead,” a young man said. “Muhammad is the last prophet.”

Robert and Christopher carefully explained how the Bible is God’s Word and tells us Jesus was dead but defeated death and ascended into heaven three days after being crucified for our sins.

The questions continued.

“How did Mary become pregnant with Jesus but remain a virgin?” another young man asked. “This is not possible.”

Again, the visitors from America shared how God’s Word is perfect and true and tells Mary’s story of becoming pregnant and giving birth to Jesus as a virgin.

For three hours, the men from Broadview shared stories from God’s Word, answering questions and trying to help the people understand the truth of Jesus Christ in hopes they would no longer be confused by false teachings.

“We wanted to come in, be relaxed, have a relationship and find some common ground that we could lead on,” said Robert. “We see how they have taken some portions of truth and mixed it together with false doctrine.”

Despite the differences in beliefs, the people were in no hurry for their visitors to leave. Three hours could have been six and no one would have noticed.

On this day a new seed was planted under the mango tree: the seed of truth.

To learn how your church can get involved in missions in Africa, visit www.imbafrica.org.