The Highways and the Hedges

This story was originally shared in a letter to our Gospel Partners in January 2025. Learn more about becoming a Gospel Partner!

“As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.” 

Matthew 13:23

Do you remember that one time when we were all locked down and told to stay in our homes and wear masks when we went out in public? And how we were not allowed to meet with our churches? That was an exceedingly difficult season.  I remember in March of 2022 going back to Uganda after all the pandemic difficulties and being impressed by the faithfulness of the church to continue making disciples and planting churches despite these difficulties. I even wrote a Gospel Partner Roundup letter about it.  I think on that trip we identified twelve separate new church plants that began during the pandemic.  Praise God! 

Well, in September of 2024, we visited many of those new startups that had grown and flourished, some of them planting additional fellowships along the way.  But one of these new churches, in the village of Nairika, had done the opposite and had diminished the total number of people attending.  Why?  Well, the pastor had been through great personal difficulty when his wife became ill and died.  In this culture, it was considered a bad omen, and many had fallen away because they did not understand a God who could let the pastor’s wife die.  This normal human response to tragedy does not just occur in America.  But, to see a man of God go through such inexplicable loss can be incredibly challenging to a new believer, especially when there is no easy answer.   

But the pastor remained faithful in his charge to make disciples, and he continued with the small flock. Our team was sent there to do a medical and eye clinic and do a Gospel outreach that night. The village of Nairika is on a main highway through the area so there is a lot of traffic, and many came to the clinic.  The response was simply amazing in the clinic.  That day, 220 people prayed to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord in the clinic!  I do not think I have ever seen that kind of response in a clinic.  But the soil was ready and the seed of the Word, by the power of the Spirit, brought forth increase “in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”  

However, God was not finished. We began our Gospel outreach after the clinic and there were only about 20-30 church members there to hear the Word of God preached.  So, we went out to compel the people to come and hear the preaching of God’s Word.  At first, many were hesitant.  In the end, dozens of people came in off the road and out of the village. They began coming from all directions and sat down to hear my friend Jenna share the Good News. That night, 89 more people chose to follow Jesus!  I am reminded of the scripture that says, God is “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us…” 

Places like Nairika are having new life breathed into them through “everyday people” saying ‘yes’ to God and allowing Him to bring the increase. 

Matthew S. Osborn  

President/CEO Partner 135