A Modern
Day Martyr
The Story of Jay Tucker
Jay W. Tucker loved a people
not his own enough to go among those people to raise his family, to
give twenty-five of the best years of his life for their salvation.
His life was dedicated to carrying out the Great Commission. Until
his last breath he was proclaiming the message of eternal life to
the Congolese people. His was a life of determination to fulfill God's
will and purpose.
The
Sequel to the Story
Twenty-one years after Jay Tucker laid down
his life in Zaire in 1964, one of his successors, Derrill Sturgeon,
fully aware of the enormous and apparently futile price that Tucker
and his family had paid to carry on their ministry, published an unexpected
sequel to the account:
| 'Commitment
may appear to have a high price tag, but only eternity will tell
the rest of the story' |
"Yes, many thought
his death was a waste, but now, twenty-one years later, the rest
of the story must be told. The Mangbetu tribe in the |
Nganga area had been resistant to the gospel. In
the early days the Belgians had assigned this area to a pioneer missionary,
C.T. Studd, who was never able to win even one convert. He eventually
turned the area over to another mission, which through the decades
never had converts among these Mangbetu. As the Congo rebellion subsided,
the chief at Nganga persuaded a very competent police-man called 'the
Brigadier' to move to Nganga and become the chief of his police department.
The Brigadier had lived in the city of Isiro, where Jay Tucker had
lived and was killed, and had accepted Christ under Tucker's ministry.
An active witness, the Brigadier began sharing with the Mangbetus
about the Savior he had found through the missionary whose body had
been thrown into 'their' river and whose blood had flowed through
'their' waters. The Holy Spirit used this belief in the Mangbetu culture
which considered the land and the rivers where they lived to be theirs
personally. Now they must listen to the message of the one who had
been thrown into their water. This proved to be the key to their hearts.
Individuals began to accept that message and receive Christ. Soon
the Brigadier was sending messages back to the national church in
Isiro, requesting pastors and evangelists to come and minister to
those who were saved and to witness to others.
Lasting
Fruit
Today, Nganga has thirty Assemblies
of God churches among the Mangbetu tribe, and thousands of people
in this area have come to the Lord. Many of their young people have
gone to Bible school and gone out to minister. A waste? Hardly! Commitment
may appear to have a high price tag, but only eternity will tell the
rest of the story."
