In the Beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth...
It all started long, long ago. God, who is entirely perfect, utterly holy, awesomely almighty and incredibly loving created this cosmic system that we live in. He did that not because he needed it, but because he wanted to create someone whom He knew would need it... and that someone was us!
Then God took a bit of dust and with it He created the first man. Again, it was not because He, God, had a need ... but just because He wanted to. We were created for God's pleasure. And God's pleasure was to give us all that was good, and for us in return to worship Him and to depend upon Him to supply all of our needs.
That's my summary of the first two chapters of the Bible. But in chapter 3 you can read how our forefather, Adam, rebelled against God and disobeyed his command to not eat the fruit of a particular tree. Rather than trusting God's judgment of what was good for him, our father Adam opted for independence from God and made up his own mind. That act of defiance made Adam a sinner. And as a sinner, Adam could no longer enjoy fellowship with a holy God.
God says in the Bible that the penalty for sin is death. That is physical death (the body dies), spiritual death (all who are sinful must be separated from God because He is holy) and eternal death (separation from God forever). God, who is completely just in his dealings with man, had no option but to condemn Adam and all his race to death and separation from God.
As descendants of the sinner Adam we are all born sinners—just like all the descendants of a dog are dogs, or all the descendants of a cat are cats. And not only are we all born as sinners, but the Bible says (and our experience affirms) that we have all disobeyed God in our own right. Therefore God is just in condemning every one of us to death. But God, who is also Love, desires (and this is incomprehensible) to have fellowship with us. Because of who we are and because of what we have done we deserve eternal punishment, but because He loves us God has provided a way for us to avoid paying the death penalty for our sins. He sent Jesus Christ to die on a cross to pay that penalty for us. And God is offering us, free of charge, the removal of our sins and eternal bliss with Him in heaven if only we believe Him.
If this is news to you and you want more information on the subject, please contact us and we'll be glad to correspond with you.
So, what does all that have to do with Jim and Carol Sheffield living and working with the Landuma tribal people in Guinea, West Africa???
There are millions of people in this world who have no idea that God has offered mankind this wonderful gift of eternal life with Him. And in the Bible He commands those of us who possess this knowledge to share it with everyone in the world. In the United States there are thousands of churches and millions of Christians who have this knowledge and who can share it with their neighbors. But in many other parts of the world there are vast regions where no one at all knows of God's gift. My wife and children and I, in obedience to God's command to go and spread this Good News, have teamed up with New Tribes Mission and chosen one of those regions. That region is the Landuma tribe of Guinea, West Africa.
More information on the Landuma tribe, Jim and Carol Sheffield and how you can get involved in helping in this ministry is available on this web site. If you have an interest in going to the unreached people of the world yourself as a missionary, here are links to get you started on either a short term missions trip or a career in missions.