A Twisted Crown of Thorns ®

Ever wondered how a person gets to become a Christian? Well, they get an encounter with God – an encounter that is planned by God and a conversion that is enabled by him. For He alone though His spirit does a new work in their inner most person.

In 1918 the people of West Nile, a special region in the heart of Africa were first reached by a Christian couple who chose to live among them in the most unusual and quite extraordinary of ways. This special story is still an encouragement more than a hundred years later – even though the beginnings were so modest and seemingly fruitless in the eyes of ordinary men. But God indeed had began a work only he himself would water and nurture.

Alison Southall beautifully recounts the story of the Gardners. These were ordinary people – Frank and Edith Gardner. Frank was a son of a postman and Edith was a daughter of a butcher. They heard of the need to take the gospel to Africa and indeed they responded to the call – unknown to them an intriguing adventure was just beginning. Listen to the story:

The church in West Nile is still alive today, as God has caused that small mustard seed to grow. Frank and Edith Gardner’s great-grandson, the Revd Adrian Beavis, sums up their experiences of 1918-19 so well:

I hope this encourages us never to think fruitfulness and faithfulness are judged by size. That even in pain and seeming failure God is still at work.
No matter how small the seeds we think we are sowing today, God is the Lord of the harvest and can ‘bring forth a fruit hundred-fold’. So ‘don’t despise the day of small beginnings’ and KEEP SOWING!!’

More resources on the story:

How Baptists planted an anglican church