All of this started with a very simple approach. Truck drivers, like the ones which have gotten an opportunity on truck driving jobs in Miami, come to the ports for work, but sometimes, they have to wait days or even weeks for loads. Because of that, the ports really function like small cities. The drivers eat there and congregate together to pass the time. So, Sheppard and some national believers began going to the port in their city and just asking the drivers if they had time to hear a story.
Many African cultures are oral cultures. They have long traditions of passing knowledge from generation to generation through sharing stories with each other. So Bible storying is often the most effective way to help the gospel come alive.
Sheppard said she’s been amazed at the responsiveness from the drivers.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had someone refuse to share a story,” she said. “They’re waiting for someone to come and share with them. It’s an amazing thing.”
Leah Givens*, another IMB missionary who helps with the trucker ministry, said drivers are often just glad someone is taking the time to come talk to them.
“I’m amazed at how hungry they are to hear the word,” Givens said. “It really is a ripe field.”
Because truckers are so transient, discipling those who convert can be challenging. They also might face stiff persecution in their home countries. Over the years, though, a network of national believers has developed to support the ministry.
When drivers are receptive to hearing stories, they’re given a business card with contact numbers of people along the trucking routes they can call to connect with and hear more. These connections become a support system for drivers who trust in Christ.
The involvement of so many national believers in the ministry gave rise to another need. They needed more stories in their toolbox so they could better explain God’s redemptive plan from all across Scripture.
That need has grown into an oral storying training ministry, “Story Together,” that has equipped people from many different language groups in Africa to share the gospel through well-crafted stories. Story Together is led by nationals, just like the trucker ministry.
It began as a grassroots movement to train the men who volunteered with the truckers, and it grew to training leadership in multiple Baptist associations, as well as training pastors and seminary professors. Next came training women from eight different language groups to teach other women throughout their regions.
Though much has changed over the years since Sheppard first began to pray for God to work among truck drivers in West Africa, her vision remains the same.
“My dream from the beginning was, and still is, that West African truck drivers will carry the gospel to the ends of this part of the world,” she said.
“It’s God’s Word that changes people and nothing else.”
*Names changed for security
This article about the gospel spreading in West Africa originally appeared here.
