Sharing the Gospel in The Gambia

Written by Dylan Wells & Trace Clevinger

Almost ten years ago, Waypoint Church was planted as a missionally focused Church. Around 2016, just a few years after being planted, God laid it on the hearts of Waypoint’s pastors to form partnerships to reach 2 international locations and people groups. The first is a global city in Southeast Asia and the 2nd is a small country in West Africa, The Gambia, and in particular the unreached and largely unengaged Jahanka people group. Since then, two Waypoint families have been sent out to SE Asia and members of Waypoint Church have gone on 8 short-term trips to the Gambia, sharing the Gospel with the Jahanka and forming partnerships with local believers. A team from Waypoint plans to return to The Gambia during the last week in March 2024 and we would like to invite others to join us on this vision trip.

The Gambia is a majority (96%+) Muslim country in which its citizens have little to no access to the Gospel. On a past trip, we met a man who was fluent in English (which is rare in the villages) and as we talked, we learned that this man was well educated and informed on US culture and politics. He even asked specific questions about Mike Pompeo, the US Secretary of State at the time. When it came to the Gospel, the questions he had were: What does the Cross represent? When did the death and resurrection of Jesus happen? Was it recent? He asked these things because he had met Christians before, but they had never shared with him about Jesus. Despite the advances in communication and technology, the majority of the people in The Gambia have still not heard the good news of Jesus Christ.

There are many ways to engage in The Gambia. There are opportunities to serve in medicine, teaching, business, agriculture, and rural village evangelism. During this trip we plan to spend time in a rural village, where our ministry partner Kebba lives, where we will attend church, serve in the clinic, and spend time sharing stories about Jesus. We will then travel to a more remote village where we have visited in the past and where there are no known followers of Jesus. The village chief has been very welcoming and open to hearing about Jesus. We will spend time in this village visiting with our friends and sharing stories about Jesus. Finally, we will return to the capital city where we will visit a Christian school that is attended by mostly Muslims. Their families send their kids to this school because of the quality of education, despite the fact their children are learning about Jesus. This school was started by a Gambian American who we providentially met on the plane ride into the Gambia on our last trip.

Prayer Requests:

1. For the spiritual warfare that Christians in The Gambia and Waypoint short-term teams often face.

2. For the remote village that we will be visiting. Pray the Lord has been working on their hearts and for their willingness to hear the message of Jesus.

3. For the village of our ministry partner (Kebba). For the church in this village. For several men we met last time who profess faith privately but not publicly. For others in the village who have heard the Gospel but have not followed Jesus.

4. For Allison, a missionary from NC that we partner with who lives in the Gambia full-time doing medical ministry and evangelism.