Praise God that 17 new international workers were appointed by the U.S. C&MA Board of Directors in February 2024. Among those workers are Jacob and Sarah from our Eastern PA district! We asked Jacob to write about God’s calling on their lives.
When Sarah and I first met about a decade ago, we were Alliance missionary candidates planning to head out as singles. That all changed.
Our Story
After we were married, we were sent to France in 2013 for a year of language study and then to Guinea to serve among one of the larger people groups. We divided our time between engaging those who had never had a chance to hear about Jesus and discipling the two men and one woman who had made professions of faith.
However, in 2018, we felt God calling us back to the U.S. and eventually arrived in Eastern PA in the Northern Tier region to shepherd one of the Alliance churches.
It was at last year’s General Council that Sarah and I both felt God calling us back to West Africa. In direct answer to our prayers, God unified our hearts toward the same ministry and gave us a strong invitation from a team of international workers serving in the region. Since then, we have had overwhelmingly positive affirmations from everyone with whom we shared our story. And in February, the C&MA Board of Directors officially appointed us to return in the fall of this year!
We will join a team serving in the mountain region through Bible translation, medical ministry, evangelism, and discipleship. We will also work closely with another team that has been opening doors through an agro-pastoral community development ministry.
Our Heart
Luke 10:1 has been on our hearts: “After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.”
We want to follow Jesus’ leadership as He sends us to go wherever He is preparing to go. We are asking that He would empower us and the few believers to preach the Gospel, cast out demons, heal the sick, and bring other men and women to repentance. We are looking for those men, women, and villages in whom God is working and calling to Himself.
We believe God wants the believers to be discipled and networked together that they may stand firm in Jesus by the Holy Spirit as men and women whom God would use to saturate the region with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
There are roughly five million people in this specific people group. From the last we have heard, there are possibly about 200-300 Christ followers—there are even fewer known baptized believers and faith communities. Persecution is rising for those who have stood up as followers of Jesus.
However, even in the face of persecution, God is teaching His children to stand firm and to press forward in their testimony. God is giving grace to men and women to turn to Him and to stand for Him and by Him, even when family and friends threaten their lives. Still, these believers have not been equipped to disciple others.
Our Prayers and Plans
Please pray that God would teach Sarah and me how to make disciples of men and women in ways that free them to be disciples that impact their family and friends for Jesus. Please pray for signs and wonders by God’s servant Jesus and that God would give us and the believers boldness (Acts 4:29-31). Pray for strength, health, and wisdom as we parent our children and lead them in this season of grace.
Sarah and I will finish our ministry in the Northern Tier on Resurrection Sunday. Before then, we will be working to pack and send several containers to Harrisburg for shipping. After we move to be closer to Sarah’s parents, we plan to spend our time sharing the vision of the season of God’s grace being poured out for the reaching of men and women for Jesus in West Africa. For us to be sent in August, we will need to have our support raised by May 15.
Thank you for your support and prayers!
You can now easily give by going to cmalliance.org/give and clicking “a worker you love.” Type “Jacob and Sarah” and follow the instructions from there.
You can find our district’s endorsement letter here.