In Mali, where just three per cent of the population follow Christ, OM is reaching communities with the gospel through practical means, Bible studies and a lot of prayer.
French-speaking Mali, in West Africa, was first visited by missionaries in 1921. While they made some disciples, progress was slow, and now there is almost no growth within the church. OM is working to change that statistic and has seen many people come to faith through Discovery Bible Study (DBS) groups.
Adama*, a medical doctor from Mali, leads OM's ministry in the country and strongly believes his medical training should be used for God’s work.
“In my second year of medical study, I received a clear vision that God wanted me to be a medical missionary,” he recalled. "I worked for three years, then went to The School of Mission in Côte d'Ivoire for 18 months. I returned to Mali, then went to Nigeria to see the practical aspect of medical missions in 2013. From then until now, I started working as a missions worker, using medicine.”
Healing bodies, strengthening souls
In 2016, Adama decided to start his own medical ministry to reach out, preach the gospel and make disciples. He is now using a similar model with OM.
“We have a medical clinic where we receive patients on a daily basis,” he said. “Every day, we start with a devotional time with people who come for prayer, and we pray for them. That can take up to two hours and some people come just for prayer.
“The medical staff then continue to consult those who come forward for consultation.”
The team also runs a medical outreach to create bridges between communities and the gospel through medical aid across a wider area.
"This month, we were able to start an outreach in one village, and before that, we carried out many medical outreaches,” Adama said. “Because of those medical outreaches, we were able to start DBS groups among women, men and young people.
“When we go to the village, we have different groups where people come together to study the Bible. Now, we gather them on Sundays.”
Since 2022, more than 150 groups have been started.
"God has helped us,” Adama said. “We have seen four generations of disciples — disciples, making more disciples — and we developed four generations of leaders. And we have baptised more than 300 people in those countries in those years.”
Hope behind bars
One of the most encouraging ministries has been in prisons, where OM began by providing food for 200 people and then started bringing medical aid. Once relationships had been built, the team started running DBS groups.
The Bible study changed one man's life forever.
“They were studying the forgiveness of Jesus, how Jesus forgives us and how He expects us to forgive others. The guy started struggling. He was crying and eventually gave his life to Christ. But that was not the end," Adama said.
“He spent three days battling with the Holy Spirit because he had to make a decision. He had decided to revenge himself against one of his relatives. He wanted to kill them the day he would be out of the prison.
“But the Lord was working in his life, and one night, he said he couldn't sleep. He spent the whole night battling with the Holy Spirit and eventually surrendered. He said: ‘Lord, give me Your strengths. I would like to forgive [my relative].’ And after that, he started weeping and praying. He said: ‘Lord, I will forgive them.’ He started calling their name: ‘I forgive you, I forgive you, I forgive you.’
“The following day, he asked of the prison officers to allow him to call his relatives. When he called them, he said: ‘I forgive you because Christ has forgiven me.'
“He became a free man in prison. From there, he started sharing the gospel with his cellmates. Between our visits, they share the gospel among themselves and help each other read the Bible, and we gave them an MP3 player with Bible studies for those who cannot read.
“We left a copy of the Bible with one of the men who gave his life to Christ. His cellmate wanted him to hear the Word of God. He didn’t understand. ‘I wanted to be alone,’ he said. ‘They are disturbing me, I want to read alone and they want me to read with them.’ We told him to help them, and since then, he reads to them.
“Another man gave his life to Christ and, two months later, he was released. He was baptised. His wife was still a Muslim. In collaboration with a women’s ministry led by my wife, we tried to reach out to his wife, and eventually, she gave her life to Christ and was also baptised.
“He has now started Bible groups in that city and we’ve already baptised six people from those groups. That is what is happening inside and outside.
“So we see the beauty of the gospel. We see only the gospel that can change and transform the life of someone like this in prison. And we thank God for that.”
Supported by prayer
Every act the team makes is led by and supported by prayer. “We put much emphasis on prayer because we see that without prayer, we cannot do anything,” Adama explained.
“For example, we have all-night prayers that we do on a monthly basis. We have 24 hours of prayer, and each person will take one hour per day, and we do that on a monthly basis. We have prayer walks whenever we start to engage with a new community or while we are working in the community.
“We have fasting and prayer that we do on a weekly basis. Every Friday, we come together and pray and fast to pray that God will make a breakthrough in what we do."
* name changed
Pray for the staff of the medical clinic as they treat patients and pray with them. Pray that the patients will be open to hearing the gospel.
Thank God for the lives saved through the prison ministry. Pray for safety for those involved in the work, and pray for the staff in the prisons, that they too will hear God’s Word and want to know more.
Pray for the DBS groups. Pray for the continued growth of these groups of disciples and that they will be an encouragement to each other and to the OM team.