I was raised in a small west Texas town with a population of about 4000 people. There were quite a few churches in my small town. I loved growing up there.

Later, when I was an adult, I moved to a village in Africa with a population of about 4000 people. Fissel, Senegal was a great place to live. I loved the baobab trees, the little concrete house that I lived in and called the pink palace – because they painted the outside pink. I guess pink was the cheapest color of paint. I loved the Sereer language and the Sereer people. On one of my first days in the village as I was walking to the well, I began to realize that I was probably one of the few, if not the only Christian in this African village with no churches around. If these precious people were going to learn about Jesus, I needed to tell them.

 

Romans 10:1-4, 8-17 

      “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. …’The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is the work of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, ‘Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.’ For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ 

      “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’

      “But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our message?’ Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard though the word of Christ.” NIV

 

Verse 14 in the NLT reads a little different. “But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?”

 

 

There are people around us who need to hear. Will we tell them?