Twenty-five Senegalese islanders crowded into a classroom. Sitting in front of a projector their eyes were glued to the screen. As they watched the JESUS Film, International Mission Board missionaries Moses and Beth saw clear emotion in the faces of the islanders.  

After the film, 15 of them came forward. They’d heard the clear presentation of the gospel. They wanted to know more. They wanted to know this Jesus — the one who’d suffered and died for their sins.  

IMB missionary Moses leads a Bible study at a church plant in southern Senegal. IMB Photo

Moses was immediately grateful that he’d braved his fear of the water to take the gospel to these people who had never heard the truth. Because he did, there were 15 new believers that day. 

When he first started doing ministry on the islands, Moses was hesitant. He couldn’t swim.  

Moses wasn’t usually hesitant to follow God’s will. He’d obeyed it when he felt God calling him to salvation in his early 20s. He’d listened to God’s voice to travel to the United States from West Africa to attend Bible college. Originally from Togo and having lived in Senegal for seven years, this journey meant leaving home. After college, he followed God’s call to seminary and to marry his now wife, Beth. And when the Lord led the couple back to West Africa — specifically Senegal, the place where his wife served as a Journeyman, he obeyed. 

But ministry on islands when you can’t swim – that seemed like a different story. 

“When the Lord called me to do the ministry [on the islands], I said, ‘No, it’s not possible because I don’t know how to swim.’ And immediately He gave me Isaiah 43: 1-2,” he said, referring to verse two that says, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you…” 

He clung to that verse and his very own orange life jacket, not trusting the ones that the boat provided, and stepped into the small, wooden canoe, ferrying him to the people on the islands that so desperately needed the gospel he had to offer. 

A canoe ferries passengers across a river to a remote island in southern Senegal. IMB Photo

For the past two years, Moses has seen ministry on the islands pay off. This particular day, he was taking the gospel to an unreached island. But there’s a growing church plant on another island nearby.

The people on these islands have many needs. They live in an area where animism dominates the religious landscape. It’s not rare for them to see an animal sacrifice happening in the village. They’re sacrificing to their ancestors – to appease them. Fear dominates the religious landscape. If something happens in their village, they assume it’s because their ancestor is upset.  

Making a decision for Christ can cost new believers everything. 

After conversion, most families try to bribe their son or daughter back to their traditional faith. When they don’t recant, because they’ve rejected the worship of their ancestors or won’t bow a knee to false gods, their families reject them. Wives are taken away from husbands. Their businesses are often boycotted. In a society that works together in the rainy season on the farms, the believer is left to work alone. When they die, they have no burial place among their families. 

But on these islands, the gospel has prevailed. Moses has seen people come to faith and a young but growing church planted. The gathering of new believers stands strong, despite persecution, meeting together in homes. 

Pastor Dave Miller (left) of Sioux City, Iowa, shares a meal with Moses, an IMB missionary, and nationals in southern Senegal. Miller partners with IMB missionaries to train and disciple pastors. IMB Photo

While the new church plant on the islands only heard and began responding to the gospel a few short years ago, Moses has found that training leaders in the rural mainland and remote island churches is similar. And it’s done through partnership. Churches from the U.S. get involved with the training on short-term trips, making it an effort highlighting the cooperation of Southern Baptists.  

Moses assumed that since he’s West African (Togolese), and his wife is a former IMB Journeyman to Senegal, they’d be prepared for everything. His rural ministry has ramped up in the last few years, and he sees the persecution and need for training and discipleship among the people of whom he’s called. He knows that even the fact he’s West African couldn’t adequately have prepared him for the ministry God’s entrusted him. 

“The fact I am from here, I thought ministry would be very easy for me,” he said. “But what gets the engine going is not any knowledge whatsoever. It is abiding in Christ, praying a lot, understanding the nature of the warfare. It’s not of this world.” 

Pray for

• Moses and Beth as they continue to reach the unreached in rural Senegal.  
• the new believers to stand firm despite persecution.  
• churches in the U.S. who partner with Moses and Beth to do ministry on the islands. 

Last name withheld for security.  

The work of the IMB is sustained through faithful giving of Southern Baptists through the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering®.