BLOOD
IN THE RIVER

Topics: Atonement; Changed Heart; Evangelism; Ministry; Missions; Obedience; Outreach; Rewards; Sacrifice; Vision

References: Matthew 6:19–20; 25:14–30; John 12:24; Romans 8:28; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Philippians 2:17; 2 Timothy 4:6

Assemblies of God missionary J. W. Tucker knew he was at risk when anarchy broke out in the Belgian Congo in 1964, but he stayed where God had placed him. One day a mob attacked and killed him with sticks, clubs, fists, and broken bottles. They took his body, threw it in the back of a truck, then tossed his corpse to the crocodiles in the Bomokande River, in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

J. W. Tucker had risked everything, yet he seemingly had nothing to show for it. But thirty years later, John Weidman, a close friend of Tucker, was in the country (by then known as Zaire) and learned how God had used that missionary’s sacrifice.

The Bomokande River flows through the middle of the Mangbeto tribe, a people virtually without the gospel. During a civil war, the Mangbeto king appealed to the central government in Kinshasa for help. The government sent the brigadier, a policeman of strong stature and reputation who came from Isiro. Tucker had led the brigadier to the Lord two months before Tucker was killed.

As a new Christian, the brigadier had done his best to witness to others but had no response. Then one day he heard of a Mangbeto tradition that said, “If the blood of any man flows in the Bomokande River, you must listen to his message.”

The brigadier called for the king and the village elders. They gathered in full assembly to hear the brigadier say, “Some time ago, a man was killed, and his body was thrown into your Bomokande River. The crocodiles in this river ate him up. His blood flowed in your river. But before he died, he left me a message. This message concerns God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to this world to save people who were sinners. He died for the sins of the world; he died for my sins. I received this message, and it changed my life.”

As the brigadier preached, the Spirit of God descended, and people began to fall on their knees and cry out to the Lord. Many were converted. Since that day, thousands of Mangbetos have come to Christ and dozens of Assemblies of God churches have opened.

—Marshall Shelley, “A Missionary’s Sacrifice Was Worth the Cost,” PreachingToday.com