CAMEROON—Jeanne is a neighbor of mine who has a severely handicapped boy named David. She herself was also born with spina bifida. These conditions are difficult enough to deal with in the North American culture, but here in west Africa these things are even more challenging. I often found Jeanne and David outside making donuts to sell.

After greeting her numerous times and getting to know her, I went to see her to share the gospel. I had shown her The Story of Hope and even went through it quickly with her. She always listened well and seemed open. She is a practicing Catholic. She had always wanted to take a Bible class at her church, but wasn’t able to, so one day she said she was interested in studying The Story of Hope with me. We went slowly through the study, usually doing two stories a week. When we arrived on the lesson about Nicodemus and studied about being born again, I saw a light come on in her mind. She said,“Now I understand what it means to be born again!”

She has also attended some charismatic meetings and thought that being born again was the result of being baptized. She seemed ready to make a faith response, so I led her to the back of The Story of Hope and asked her to read the “Personal Faith Response” section. In May she personalized that faith response statement in her heart. Maybe we aren’t supposed to jump ahead, but it was so evident that the Holy Spirit had clarified truth to her.

We continued and recently finished the rest of The Story of Hope. She is not a very good reader, so we are doing more of a conversational follow up for new believers. Please pray for her to understand believer’s baptism. Her relationship has also opened up other relationships and opportunities for me to share Christ with other women in her group for disabled women.