Seeing the Light in Liberia

By   •   March 27, 2011

The man with the red-tipped cane walked up to the counselor hesitantly. With a crack in his voice, he said he wanted to pray with someone. “I lead a ministry for the disabled, but I have fallen by the wayside,” he said.

Although legally blind, he could see enough to point to where a shy young lady stood with her head hanging down. “Please, someone needs to pray with her too. She is my fiancé.”

While waiting for a male counselor to join the little group, the blind man began to share some of his story. “I am so ashamed. I heard Mr. Graham talked about sin tonight and I want to change.

“You see,” he added, crying, “she isn’t really my fiancé. We are living together in sin.”

Taking the young woman aside, the female counselor asked about her need for prayer. “He’s right,” she admitted, “but I have no where else to go.”

The 19-year old was born in Liberia, but moved to New Jersey at the age of 6 when her parents divorced. After enduring years of sexual abuse from her father, she returned to Liberia, alone, at the age of 12.

“Papa tired of me and forced me to come back to my mother,” she explained. But her mother was too busy to take care of her and she ended up on the streets of Monrovia.

“I want to know Jesus personally,” she said. “I know God a little, but He seems far away. I need His help.”

This couple is among the hundreds who either recommitted their lives to Christ or asked Him into their hearts for the first time at the All Liberia Life Festival.

On the final of three nights, Franklin Graham preached from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 19. He told the story of Zacchaeus who heard about Jesus coming to Jericho. “This little man was so short he had to climb a tree to see,” Graham said. “But he did whatever it took to meet Jesus. Will you do the same tonight?”

Known as a notorious sinner, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and received forgiveness. “You may be a sinner,” said Graham, “but you can do the same. For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”

Tonight in Liberia, the lost were found and the blind saw Christ in their hearts.
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