Fig 1. Pastor Anderson and Ms. Andressa at Senegal’s International Leopold Sedar Senghor Airport

Yesterday, Mr. and Mrs. Paim became the official resident pastors of the leprosy village in Kedougou, Senegal. Ever since their original pastor, Pastor Anna, left for the sake of her children’s education, the leprosy village was without a full-time pastor for a long period of time. Without an operating pastor, life in the leprosy village was arduous and without joy, and the children were not educated. However, Mr. and Mrs. Paim selflessly stepped up to the challenge of pastoring the village and gave themselves to support the Lord’s cause. How were they so eager to dedicate themselves to the Lord’s calling? Why would they willingly come to a land of leprosy?

The Lord Chose Them Among Thousands

Andressa had a very typical childhood – she was born into a Christian family, grew up with loving parents, attended a local high school and graduated college with an undergraduate degree at the age of 22. However, one thing sets her apart during this time – her passion and faith in the Lord. With the love of God burning strongly in her heart, she was baptized and became a Christian early on.

After graduating from college, Andressa proceeded to work at a bank in São Paulo, where she became a senior manager. And as she dealt with the fortunes of many merchants, she became very conventionally successful. She was able to purchase a good car and an apartment in a beautiful neighborhood, and she lived her young life to the fullest.

However, one year during the annual carnival in São Paulo, Andressa came to a revelation. That night, she participated in the carnival’s displays and festivities, wearing brightly colored costumes and riding on flower floats with her friends. After the carnival, she and her friends went to a bar and got very drunk. To a young girl who just stepped into society, this life definitely seemed fulfilling, and she desperately wanted this dreamy life to continue forever. But when she woke up the next morning, a voice said to her, “Andressa, you can’t be like this.”

A feeling of emptiness came. She lifted her head and said to herself, “Is this my life? Will I have to walk through the rest of my life like this?” She was instilled with a desire to change herself. Right after this revelation, the phone started ringing, and one of her friends asked her if she wanted to go to the bar that night. Andressa declined, saying, “No, I will go neither to the bar nor to the annual carnival ever again.” It was at this time when Andressa fully gave herself to the message of the Lord.

Her husband’s story is a little different.

Anderson was born in a non-Christian family. At age 16, his father passed away due to sickness, leaving only his mother, a younger brother, a younger sister, and himself. As he was always selfless and hardworking, Anderson picked up the burden of supporting their family despite being so young.

One day, he attended a church evangelistic meeting and played soccer with his church friends afterward. He had a wonderful time, and ever since then, he started enjoying church. To him, the words of the Lord nourished his heart like the sweetest nectar. He began to seriously think about life, and got baptized and became a Christian soon after. From then on, he set his heart out to dedicate everything he had to the Lord. Under the support of the church, he entered a theological seminary.

One day, he went to a church to hold a summer camp for homeless children. Just then, a girl attracted his attention: it was Andressa, her pleasant smile and hardworking soul striking Anderson as beautiful. Anderson remembered that God had once spoken to him in a prayer, “I will find you a wife in church.” Later on, he learned of her name. He proceeded to find her and ask her to help him organize a children’s gospel camp, to which Andressa agreed without hesitation. Together, they served the Lord through the gospel camp. Every day, Anderson traveled through half of St. Paul just to take her home, and picked her up again every morning. Their love was like a flower, blooming beautifully and purely in the Brazilian summer breeze. After they progressed to the solemn pledges of love, Andressa confided in Anderson that attending the two-week youth summer camp was only possible with a special leave, resulting in no income for half a month, but love was priceless, and she was therefore able to find her dear beloved in the Lord.

Fig 2. Anderson and Andressa’s Wedding

Upon getting married, Anderson followed his wife’s suggestion of earning money while taking classes at the seminary. Andressa also worked hard and diligently, allowing them both to enjoy the sweetness of living while experiencing a stable and profitable Christian life. Like many other caring Christians, they held Bible studies at their home and attended Church every week.

Fig 3. Anderson and Andressa’s graduation from the Seminary

God’s Call from Guinea Bissau

On a Sunday in 2012, Pastor Oliver returned to São Paulo from West Africa to preach at Anderson’s church. When he talked about the glory of the kingdom of God, his face glowed with sacred glory. He stretched out his hands and began to call: “The crops are ripe, where are the workers?” A sudden wave of heat forced Anderson to stand. He raised both his hands and shouted, “Lord, I am here, please use me as a worker.”

After the sermon, Pastor Otavio Marques told him that the Lord wanted both him and his wife to do His work in Guinea Bissau. But they were reluctant – at the time, they worked every week, enjoyed worldly pleasures, went to the bar with friends, ate feasts, held youth gospel ministries on Sunday, guided their children, mowed the grass, and lived a very mundane life.  They wondered, their current life was satisfactory, was it not? Why would they abandon this and go to Africa instead? But in response to their questions, they felt a burning passion in their hearts – it was God urging them to go to Africa and fully devote themselves to the cause. In prayer, they decided that they would respond to God’s call. They were going to Africa.

Their hearts were set, but it was tough to make the move. Anderson had no father, and his mother had no source of income. He needed to look after his mother and raise his siblings. And the couple also needed the support of their family and friends, and after asking around for support, not one person agreed.

Andressa was also filled with reluctance. She looked at her beautiful home that she had worked so hard to buy, as well as her trendy furniture and two new cars. They lived the content lives of white-collar workers in São Paulo. How could they just desert such a glorious life? Together, both of them looked to the Lord for guidance, and His revelation resounded like thunder in their hearts. “Very truly I tell you, when you were younger, you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go” (John 21:18-19), God told them. They confessed their sins to God, and Andressa prayed, “Oh, my Lord! I abandoned everything to follow you, and I pray that you will look after my husband and me.” The couple then sold their house and cars. Following the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they headed to Guinea Bissau.

When they reached Guinea Bissau, however, they quickly realized why they were called by the Lord. Guinea Bissau was a state that was devastated by disease and poverty. And the couple wasn’t immune to the rampant disease – in just three weeks, Anderson suddenly developed a high fever and became very sick. The local doctor suspected that he was infected with malaria and prescribed him an anti-malaria medication called Quinine. But it did not help. His fever continued to worsen, causing him to become unconscious. The doctor then deduced that it was most likely dengue fever and prescribed intravenous antibiotics, but the medicines still did not do anything. As a last resort, the doctor told Andressa that he had an effective but very toxic antibiotic. Would they take the chance? Andressa didn’t know, and she was extremely distraught – she would’ve never thought that they would face the threat of death after arriving in Bissau. But to save her husband, she took the chance and agreed to the antibiotic. But this antibiotic still did nothing. At this news, Andressa and her co-workers knelt to the ground; they entrusted Anderson’s life to God and prayed for his recovery. At this critical moment, God stretched out his hands and saved Anderson’s life.

Fig 4. Pastor Anderson Serves the Lord in Guinea-Bissau

After recovering from his illness, Anderson and Andressa were not afraid, for they had already experienced the closeness of death together. They bought a house and a car with the money they brought from São Paulo. They traveled through remote jungles and valleys, preached the gospel, and delivered food and clothes. Filled with joy, they were determined to settle down in Bissau.

The Call of the Leprosy Village

Two and a half years after they came to Guinea Bissau, they visited an evangelical base in Senegal and passed through a leprosy village called Fatiga in Kedougu province.  They saw the miserable sight of the leprosy villagers and felt the urging of God’s Holy Spirit. They wanted to dedicate their lives to this leprosy village. The only problem was that their ministry in Guinea-Bissau had just made great progress, and they couldn’t let go of their previous work – with a handful of friends and the love of the Lord, they had already established several churches in Guinea Bissau. So, they decided to continue to spread the Lord’s word in Guinea Bissau.

However, two years later, Pastor Otavio Marques told them that the Senegal base needed their time and dedication, and again they felt the urging of the Holy Spirit. However, they were unfamiliar with the lifestyle there, and were unable to speak French. But they also knew that Pastor Otavio Marques was persecuted in Guinea-Bissau and had to leave and go to Senegal in 1977. By now, they had already established more than 30 churches in Senegal. But how could they refuse this call from God?

They didn’t hesitate at all to sell the house they had just bought. Due to the severe inflation in Africa and the sharp depreciation of their currency, they were only able to sell it for $6,000 and subsequently lost more than half of their initial investment. They wondered how Pastor Otavio Marques dedicated his life to Africa without any savings, pension, medical insurance, or fixed source of income –  he only lived by faith and was 82 years old! They came to the conclusion that God never lets his loyal servants go hungry or cold. They felt that money was very material, and as long as it was for the Lord, they could give it up.

Fig 5. Pastor Anderson baptizes Christians at the base

Anderson and Andressa went to Senegal in 2016. Because of the country’s financial destitution, the couple could no longer afford a house and had to live in the basement of their evangelical base. At this time, God had a further request. The base needed a pickup truck, and they did not hesitate to use their only $6,000 to buy a car. Pastor Anderson said that apart from his own bed, his house was completely bare.

Fig  6. The only property of the Andersons

Despite their initial hardships, they were dedicated to the work of God. Soon they learned French, walked to villages, preached the gospel, baptized people, and participated in the management of technical schools and hospitals in their evangelical base. When they thought that the base needed to provide poultry farming training, they did not hesitate to use their little money to purchase training equipment.

Occasionally, they went to the leprosy village Fatiga to work for the Lord with Pastor Anna. They saw the patients’ eyes, which were full of pain and want, and felt inspired to help and follow the Lord’s words.

Two years later, while they were working in the leprosy villages, they found that Andressa was pregnant. This was their first child. They had to postpone helping at the leprosy villages. Soon, Andressa gave birth to her lovely daughter Elana. When their daughter was one and a half years old, they planned to go back to the leprosy villages again, but they discovered that Andressa was pregnant again. They had to stay in the capital, Dakar, for the necessary check-ups. Unfortunately, Andressa had a miscarriage. The couple was devastated, as they desperately wanted Elana to have a playmate. Once more, Andressa became pregnant again, she miscarried only 15 days later. But these misfortunes did not change their ambitions. They prayed to God to give them another child, and promised that they would take him or her to Leprosy Village. By the glory of the Lord, Andressa is now 16 weeks pregnant.

Fig 7. Pastor Anderson, Ms. Andressa and their daughter Elana.

Although they are now penniless, they decided to live to God’s calling and went to their leprosy village. They are now living in a small house next to the Leprosy Village Hospital and the church. Outside is a playground covered with yellow sand. Leprosy patients can find them at any time, and they are always happy to help. And their child Elana will grow up with the children in Leprosy Village.

I asked them: You gave up your wonderful job in São Paulo, your luxurious residences and your cars, and donated your only $6,000 to the base to buy a car. You miscarried twice because you did not have a stable living, and you are now going to the Leprosy Village with your children to dedicate everything to the Lord. Why did you give up so much?

They answered with a well-known Bible passage: “Jesus said to him, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’ But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” (Matthew 19:16-22).” They said: “We are not perfect people, our possessions are not much, but we are willing to leave everything behind to follow the Lord, our family is willing to be dedicated to the Lord, and we are willing to lay up treasures in heaven. ”

I felt moved by their words. When I saw Elana’s smiling face, she didn’t know that she was going to endure the sandy wind and the miasma of sweat and sickness that filled this land. She did not know she was going to endure extreme poverty. But she was still happy – by being poor, one learns to look up to the Lord from an early age. And when I saw the firm expressions of Pastor Anderson and Ms. Andressa, I knew that they had heard God’s words calling and were willing to leave everything behind to follow the Lord. They are warriors, walking towards the battlefield of the gospel, asking the Lord to take care of them.

Conclusion

“People fail not because they don’t have faith, but because they cannot turn their faith into action and stick to it to the end.”

——Dale Carnegie, “The Weakness of Human Nature”

My brothers and sisters, act like Pastor Anderson and Ms. Andressa, and support missionaries to send the love of the Lord Jesus to all of the world.

Fig  8. At the entrance of the first church built by Pastor Otavio Marques. Dr. Jun Xu, Pastor Anderson and pregnant Ms. Andressa stand together.

 

Author: Jun Xu, June 13th, 2021

Translated By Vivian Hor and Susanna Tang

Editor: Claire Luo