Footsteps from the Past

Philippines – "It Cannot Be True"
Paul Friederichsen often trekked into the mountains preaching the gospel.
One time he talked with a chief who wore a silver-handled sword as a sign of his authority. As Paul explained God's way of salvation, the man listened carefully and asked questions about this teaching that was completely new to him. Then he asked Paul, "How long has your country known of this?"

Paul replied, "For many hundreds of years."

"And how long have YOU heard about this?" the chief persisted. Paul said he had known about salvation through faith in Christ all his life. He had learned it from his father and grandfather.

Then came the unanswerable question, "Then why have we not heard of this before? My father never knew this, and his father never knew this. It cannot be true."

Paul and Kay Friederichsen Like Those That Dream, page 51

Brazil - Oxen Learn New Language
When someone becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same anymore. A new life has begun. With Harold Jefferis we arrived in time for the special meeting to congratulate Raul, saved a few months ago, and his bride (the mother of his several children. They had just been married.) Raul told us about his work on the sugar plantation (where we held the meeting). He drives an ox cart full of cane sugar carrying it to where it is loaded on trucks.

Raul testified of his joy in Christ and said, "My oxen have to learn a whole new language. I don't want to use the dirty, blasphemous words I used before I was saved to lead and drive them. At first, they didn't understand my new language, but they are learning. Oxen take longer than people do to learn new words. But the joy of Christ fills my mouth with the right things to say."

After a hard day's work driving the oxen, Raul walks five miles to church and five miles back home.

(Willard Stull, written on the back of a post card to Dr. Harold Commons, March 12, 1968)