This story is being reprinted with permission from Seedcompany’s website:
God uses divine connections—placing us in the right place at the right time to point others to him.
Amy and Darcie were shopping in a local grocery store near Arlington, Texas when a woman approached them. “As soon as she spoke, I knew she was Nigerian,” Amy says. She held up a Brussels sprout as she came toward Amy. The look on her face said I need your help. I’m desperate. She said, “How do I cook this? How do I prepare it? What do I cook it with? What do you serve it with?”
As their conversation continued, Amy found out she was an Igbo woman, originally from a people group with roots in south-central and southeastern Nigeria. She told Amy and Darcie she lives in the area and goes to a church in Grand Prairie, Texas. Then she said she and her husband frequently return to their home villages in Nigeria and hold evangelism meetings, share the gospel, and help with material needs. “She said they give away fabric and food, and just talk with the people,” Amy continues.
“Our conversation began over a Brussels sprout—something I just started eating in December. It’s so interesting how the Lord prepares us for things,” Amy says, adding that before December, she would have just said, “Oh no, don’t eat that. That’s gross!” That would have ended the conversation.
Amy and Darcie are not just good friends, but coworkers; both serve at Seed Company. Amy is the field project manager for the Anglophone West Africa region, and Darcie is a field technology specialist.
“Igbo is a very big language,” Amy explains, noting that it represents about 45 million people. Through conversation, Amy and Darcie realized the two villages their new friend and her husband frequently visit are without God’s Word. No one has a copy of the Scriptures.
As they inquired deeper, they learned no one in these villages has it on audio or video. But Amy and Darcie knew Scripture has been available in Igbo since 2006.
Translation work can be distributed through a number of digital platforms. Darcie whipped out her smartphone and immediately pulled up the “JESUS” film, and the Bible App (YouVersion) in Igbo.
The woman was so excited. She asked, “How do I get it?”
Darcie said, “Here, let’s just download it on your phone.” The woman pulled open her phone and started downloading the “JESUS” film App. She found the videos, and Darcie showed her how to save them to her phone so she can share them without using data when she goes back to Nigeria.
This woman had no idea God’s Word was available in her first language in digital form. She didn’t know she could read the Igbo Bible in her U.S. home not far from Seed Company’s headquarters. Because of a divinely orchestrated conversation about Brussels sprouts, she can read God’s Word in the Igbo language when she goes to church. She doesn’t have to read it in English.
So the woman asked Amy and Darcie, “When are you going to Nigeria next?” Emphatically she insisted, “You have to come! You have to come!”
Amy says, “We’re going to keep talking. We’ve exchanged contact information, and we’ll keep talking about the next trip to Nigeria, because we told her, ‘We could show you how to do oral Bible studies or listening groups around Scripture. So when you go to the village, you can lead Igbo people in a study of the Scripture, not just simply sitting and listening to the Scripture.’ And most of them can’t read and write, so they’re going to have to do it all orally.”
Amy smiles and says, “How cool is that … all over a Brussels sprout?”
This isn’t the end of the story. It’s truly just the beginning. This is Brussels Sprouts Part 1. We will have to wait on the Lord to see what happens in Brussels Sprouts Part 2.