Lesotho (MNN) — Christianity in Lesotho, a small landlocked nation in southern Africa, is often blended with folk traditions like ancestor worship or witch doctors.
As we discussed yesterday, this makes Gospel conversations particularly challenging. After all, why would you listen to someone say you need Jesus when you think you already have Him and other rituals and talismans?
The key to Lesotho and opening Gospel doors may be Flying Pastors.
Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) has partnered with local pastors for their Lesotho Flying Pastors program. Between the pastors’ passion for the Gospel and MAF’s aviation services, they are able to reach people in Lesotho’s remote and mountainous regions for Christ.
(Photo courtesy of Lesotho Flying Pastors, MAF)
MAF pilot Joe Adams says, “There’s a lot of undercurrents and quiet obstacles that are a little hard to see at first, especially for those of us that aren’t from the culture. So that is what’s really great about the Flying Pastors ministry. We are sending people who are Basotho, who speak the language, who understand the culture, and they’re able to go out and to really get to the heart of the issues very quickly and address the challenges that are faced.”
This is what makes the ministry of local Basotho pastors so critical.
“It’s not just an evangelism ministry. It’s also a discipleship ministry,” Adams says. “They’re trying to see self-replicating groups of believers [and] churches that will be able to spread the Gospel to their own communities.”
Around two and a half years ago, the Lesotho Flying Pastors program developed a new vision and mission statement. This was shortly after Adams arrived in Lesotho with MAF, and he has become very passionate about the outreach.
“We decided to focus – instead of going to a lot of places – to go to fewer places and to do both evangelism and discipleship in those places, to develop relationships with the people there, stay on the ground longer…and then try to see church plants.”
(Photo courtesy of MAF Lesotho)
Please pray for the Lesotho Flying Pastors and everyone involved in this outreach. Ask the Lord to bless their ministry and to produce a harvest of righteousness in Lesotho.
You can learn more about the Lesotho Flying Pastors at flyingpastors.org. To find out more about MAF’s ministry in Lesotho, click here.
“It’s really a privilege to be involved in something like this,” Adams says. “I just love the fact that people are finding out about Christ, they are following Him, and they are starting to transform their lives and be transformed by the Holy Spirit working through them.”
Header photo courtesy of MAF Lesotho.
