Donkeys, prayer and evangelistic series. Do these all go together? You bet they do, at least in Kangaba.

Mamadou, one of Neil’s close Malian friends, was having some difficulties. He kept two donkeys for hauling his family’s water. Several days earlier, he had let them off their ropes to wander, thinking they would come back to eat, but they didn’t. It had been two days since he had seen them. To make matters worse, one of the donkeys was borrowed.

The Adventist church in Bamako had just wrapped up a small evangelistic series in Kangaba that we had assisted with. Mamadou had been one of the few faithful attendees. Was it a coincidence that his donkeys had gone missing right after the series had concluded? Probably not. Satan wasn’t happy with Mamadou’s interest in Christ. We told Mamadou we would be praying that he would find his donkeys, and we loaned him one of our motorcycles so he could widen his search.

Two days later, Mamadou still hadn’t found the donkeys, and he was ready to give up. He suspected they had been stolen by donkey sellers who had passed through town with a large herd of donkeys for sale. Apparently these sellers aren’t averse to scooping up loitering donkeys along the way and adding them to their herd. We continued to pray, knowing that God was able to bring the donkeys back no matter where they were.

The next evening, Mamadou came to our house in a state of high excitement. Hearing his joyful greeting, we knew what had happened even before he told us. The donkeys had returned! He was relieved and happy, and so were we. Praise the Lord that He cares about all lost things!

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