Sokonyi lived in the “bush” in south central Africa. He had had little or no schooling, but was well taught by his parents to worship and appease evil spirits. Some of these were supposed to be spirits of dead relatives who returned to the village bringing harm and disaster. All the villagers were in constant fear, as you can imagine. Besides this, every one was superstitious. Charms of various kinds were worn by them and hung in their houses to keep them safe from harm.
It was that kind of background Sokonyi had. But one day a little Book was placed in his hands. It was the Gospel of Mark translated into his own tribal tongue. He read it with difficulty, but what it contained so attracted him he couldn’t let it alone. It told of One who walked on this earth healing the sick, cleansing lepers, casting out demons, helping the poor. Never had he known anyone like that! Then later on he read how wicked men nailed Him to a tree.
The Lord Jesus spoke to Sokonyi’s conscience, showing him he was a sinner. He accepted the Lord Jesus as his Saviour. The heathen practices dropped off one by one, for he was a new creature in Christ.
We urge you who read this paper to do as Sokonyi did; that is, take the Lord Jesus as your Saviour.
Do you think he kept all the precious truth he read in Mark’s Gospel to himself? No, he didn’t. They made him so happy that he wanted to pass them on to others. First of all he gathered the men, women and children of his village and read the Word to them. Then he walked to the surrounding villages and did the same thing there. Sometimes he walked great distances to carry the glad tidings to his people, though he was weak in body.
It was while visiting one of these villages that a remarkable incident took place. While he was preaching a young married woman raised her hand, indicating she believed. The meeting ended; Sokonyi returned home. A couple of hours later this woman’s husband came running, very excited but happy. He told how his wife went about her duties after the gospel meeting with such a strange feeling in her throat. She discovered she was able to talk. You see, she had been dumb — without the power of speech. The Lord Jesus had loosed her tongue when she believed! That really was a day of rejoicing. She, too, came later on, at which time Sokonyi called the people together to thank the Lord for His goodness to this woman.
Quite a temptation came to Sokonyi a few years later. When the government officials learned that he was so well thought of among his people and such a leader, they offered to send him away to school to get an education. But this he refused, deciding it would be more pleasing to the Lord Jesus to remain among his people to help them.
ML 01/11/1959