evangelical 360°
A timely and relevant new podcast that dives into the contemporary issues which are impacting Christian life and witness around the world. Guests include leaders, writers, and influencers, all exploring faith from different perspectives and persuasions. Inviting lively discussion and asking tough questions, evangelical 360° is hosted by Brian Stiller, Global Ambassador for the World Evangelical Alliance. Our hope is that each person listening will come away informed, encouraged, challenged and inspired!
evangelical 360°
Ep. 21 / From Mali to Missions: A Journey of Faith ► Nouhoum Coulibaly
Join us for a captivating episode with Nouhoum Coulibaly as he shares his journey of faith, resilience, and God’s provision. Growing up in Mali, he faced both hardship and deep spiritual growth within a Christian family. Despite financial struggles, his strong faith laid the foundation for a life of service. Through trials and unexpected challenges, Nouhoum’s story reveals the transformative power of perseverance, community, and unwavering trust in God’s calling.
As he discusses the shift in contemporary missions, Nouhoum reveals how the roles have evolved. It's no longer a one-way street; it now involves a rich exchange of cultures and ideas. His insights are both poignant and motivating, especially as he illuminates the misconceptions surrounding poverty and wealth within a faith context. Not only does he offer a window into the burdens of being a missionary, but he also underscores the power of collaboration and mutual respect in current mission frameworks.
The discussion delves into how Nouhoum now serves as a bridge between two worlds, emphasizing the importance of education in combating both intellectual and spiritual poverty. Through his work in establishing a Christian school in Mali that welcomes students from all backgrounds, he demonstrates a commitment to holistic ministry that merges faith with practical needs.
This episode not only inspires but challenges us to rethink our approach to missions in a multicultural society. Nouhoum invites pastors and church communities to actively engage in missions that honor partnerships over paternalism, fostering relationships that empower rather than impose. Don't miss this opportunity to gain valuable perspectives on faith and service across borders.
Be sure to subscribe, share, and explore together how we can all contribute to a mission that serves everyone, everywhere.
Zion Alliance Church - https://zioncma.ca/
Grace Between Nations - https://www.gracebetweennations.org/
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Hello and welcome to Evangelical 360. My name is Brian Stiller, global Ambassador for the World Evangelical Alliance and host of this new podcast series. On Evangelical 360, I interview leaders, writers and influencers about contemporary issues which are important to Christian life around the world. My hope is that it will not only be a global meeting place where faith is explored from different perspectives, but that each person listening will come away informed, encouraged, challenged and inspired. Today, our focus is on missions.
Brian Stiller:I don't know about you, but I grew up in a time where the church defined Christian missions as sending people around the world. That age has changed. Instead of ascending, often, we now are the receivers, as people from Africa and elsewhere land on our shores and, in life and ministry, become missionaries in our own backyard. is one such person. His story is fascinating and seemingly improbable. A student working in Mali, africa, he was able to travel to Canada, where his life took on a surprising turn. I can't wait for you to hear his amazing story. , thanks for joining me today and talking about the way that God led you out of Africa to North America. An intriguing story. I happen to be president of Tyndale University, the school that you arrived at, and your story as it unfolded was a remarkable reminder of how God moves in our own lives. But take us back to Molly. Tell me a bit about your childhood and how you came to faith and ministry.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:Thank you so much, president, Brian. It's so beautiful to see you again after so many years. Yes, my name is Nohum Kulibali.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:I was born in the country of Mali, where the famous Timbuktu is located. It's a real place. I was born to a pastoral family. My dad passed away with the Alliance, my mom helping at home as a really great woman at home, prayer and cooking. So Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world, financially, economically speaking, and I grew up in that country and in a pastoral home. By the time I was growing up, my father ministered mainly in the countryside farmers. When he's pastoring, nobody could read and write, so nobody had been to school. So just give you an idea how poor people were at that time, I would say financially, physically speaking. That's the context in which I was born and grew up, defined by poverty. And yet in that context, amazing thing happened.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:And what happened? What happened was my father being a preacher, a pastor. On an Easter day, when I was seven years old, he preached on the passion, the resurrection, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ and challenged us to give our lives to Jesus. Although we had not made that decision, I was touched by God's word by the Spirit. On that day, after the service, I went to him and said Dad, I want to give my life to Jesus. He led me through prayer. I gave my life to Jesus on that day. The same day nighttime I got beaten by a viper at home. When that happened we were all in tears because this was a very venomous snake. The problem was again because of the poverty. The nearest health center was at 12 kilometers. My father, mother said we have no money to take you there. We can only pray for you. They prayed. Seven days later I was completely healed with the medicine that started the journey of prayer and the spiritual wealth in a financial poverty context. And then, because of that, you know, I was in grade one at that time, continued my education until I reached university college.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:In the meantime, in 1985, my parents sent me to a youth camp organized by the Christian Mission Alliance Church. There we were challenged to say yes to Jesus for his mission in Mali. Mali being a Muslim country, 90% at that time, evangelical being less than 1%. They challenged us, the young generation, to consider giving our life to Jesus and for his ministry. I said, lord, I would like to do that one day for you, three years later. I say no because of poverty. I don't want to end in poverty, like my father not able to buy shoes for his children. I can't do that because of a lack of shoes, that I got bitten by a viper at home. But you know what?
Nouhoum Coulibaly:Grade 12, I got insomnia, took all kinds of medicine. It didn't work until they sent me to a gentleman called Nuhum, like my name. He prayed for me for healing. As soon as he said amen, he said you know what, nuhum? You're running away from God. He's calling you to his ministry. Don't be afraid to trust him. One day, if you obey him, this work, this ministry, will take you outside Mali, 1989. President Bryan, I'm speaking to you right here, not in Mali, but outside Mali. What the Lord said to me through this man is what I'm living today.
Brian Stiller:So what was the next stage? So you're finishing high school. You want to avoid poverty, that's right. What decisions do you make and where do you go?
Nouhoum Coulibaly:Then that's where I would pick up from the story of my healing through the prayer of Nuhum. As soon as he said you're running away from God, I said you know what, you obey him and you will see what happens. That's when I said God, I surrender to you. Up to that point I had made it like a Jonah running away from God to another direction, knowing very well that you know what this call was there. When this man said, no, you just go there. I said okay, god, I need one thing I would like to study learn English. Mali is a French-speaking country because we're colonized by France. I said if you want me to do this ministry, help me to acquire the English language in Mali so that one day I can go to study in a Bible school in the English language.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:Three months later I was in teacher college. They sent me to do geography and history, but knowing that this call is real, I went to my school, led by Muslim in general. This is a university public school. In my application I told them I need the English language because one day I would like to study God's Word in English. I was supposed to write a test to shift from geography to English. They let me go for the writing test.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:And this is where I finished my studies three years later, four years later, I mean, and you know what? After that, four jobs were thrown at me, at a time when many of my fellow students were begging for jobs all over the place. But you know what? Satan has a way of humor, trying to trap me again. Hey, here's a job for you. I said no, and you know what? That's how I joined Campus for Christ. I said, lord, money or not money, the most important thing for me is to be in your will. And that's how I joined Campus for Christ in Mali two years, and after that they sent me to Senegal as a missionary.
Brian Stiller:But the next stage is interesting because you do the Make the Move out of Africa. Yeah, and that came about in a most remarkable way. Absolutely Unwrap that for us.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:Well, we'll speak up from Senegal. Now, as I'm in Senegal, I happened to be invited by an American family I met back in Mali. This American family had their son as a missionary with Campus for Christ, power to Change, now in Canada, in Mali. So I happened to meet the mother of this missionary American missionary in Mali. Many years later they invited me to come and visit them in the US 98, I went to the US, spent one month there and then I said you know what, god? I think it's about time for me to pick up my vision that you gave me to study your world in the English language, and I thought it would be in the US. It did not happen.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:In the end, as I'm in Senegal, a short mission team came from Canada to Senegal, among whom was a young lady called Darlene McLean. She happened to graduate from Tyndale. I didn't know, and then one day I had invited Darlene and the leadership that she was on to come and have supper lunch with me at home, and it was during that time. As they asked me we know you from Mali, what's next for you? I said no, I have been praying to go to study God, we're in an English-speaking country. She said do you know Tyndale? I said no, I never heard of it. She said it's in Toronto, in Canada. When I go back to Canada, I'll send you the information kit about it. That's what she did. And we start going from there. So, and we start going from there. So you applied.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:And what happened? I applied, and when I read the line of the financial commitment to say I can pay for my tuition, president Bryant, I couldn't sign it. I said I don't have it. By faith. I sent it there, knowing I didn't fill that part. Guess what. Two months later, tyndale replied back to me. I remember receiving the mail from Tyndale on January 8, 2001. When I opened up, I was trembling. Like this they said , you satisfy all the requirements except one thing Tell us how you're going to finance your studies. Your case is not closed. Your application form is still open. As soon as you give us proof that you can finance studies, your case is not closed. Your application form is still open. As soon as you give us proof that you can finance it, we'll let you come. And that's where I say Laurel, what a disappointment.
Brian Stiller:Okay, let's move forward to how this resolves.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:The solution came from the death of disappointment, if I can put it that way, because at that time I had fasted myself three days. When I went back to Malito, as a blessing from my parents, I said Dad, mom, I would like to go to Canada, but the finances are asking you don't have it, I don't have it, would you please give me the blessing? I fasted and prayed three days myself. My parents fasted and prayed for 40 days. This is where I went to my dining room on that day. I remember three days. Four days later it was on a Sunday morning. I'd be 20 days later Sunday morning. It was really two weeks, I would say, of 20 days of disappointment and struggling. Two weeks, I'll say, of 20 days of disappointment and struggling. The 28th of January 2001,. I'm in my dining room with my Bible because this disappointment can take me away from God and His ministry. I said God, you know what, tyndale or not Tyndale, I'll remain faithful to you with the small knowledge I have, the ministry you have me. While I'm going through that, my telephone rang. For the first time in seven years in that country I never received a phone call on a Sunday morning. Guess what the phone was? From one of my local pastors no, could you help me? I said what can I do to help you, pastor? We have many American guests in our church service today. I notice you understanding that he is a pastor. I do. Would you mind being a tourist guide for five Americans who are attending our church service today? You would take them to an island after a service, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in Senegal, where Africans leave you to give their final goodbye. I say, pastor, all, all my heart, I'll do it. Before we went there, this five American told me no, let's go for lunch first. We went downtown Dakar, the capital city, having lunch. One of them asked me your pastor told me that you're from Mali. Tell us about your story. I went through my long story. I won't repeat here. In the end I said I'm praying to go to study in Canada, tyndale, and after that I'd like to come back to do ministry in Africa, knowing that 20 days ago I have a male that can't go. But it was not appropriate for me to tell them oh, I need money. I didn't. No, no, no, we just met. It's not appropriate to do that. You know what, president Brian? God is working. He was working. He's still working.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:One of the quiet gentlemen quiet gentleman sitting by my right hand, one of the five Americans. He touched on my shoulder Are you going to Canada? I said yes, but let me give you a little bit of full story. 20 days ago I received a mail that I can't go there. He said why not? I said I have no money. He said don't worry, I'll pay for you.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:God's faithfulness in his timing, in his way of choosing, was so overwhelming Because, remember, my parents fasted, prayed for 40 days. I prayed and fasted three days, not praying to this man but praying to God. When he talked to me and said I'll pay for you. This is the sentence coming from his mouth that I will never forget. He said the Lord, jesus Christ, has blessed me in the US. I would like to share that blessing with you. Think about it. Many business people think I made money, I work hard, I did this, I did that. No, he recognized that whatever blessing he had, whatever form it is, it came from the Lord, that he wanted to share that with me. And I say thank you, lord, to clearly hear from him. That is not him, it's the Lord. That will stay with me the rest of my life to be thankful to the Lord and to be grateful to the Lord for the agent, that he has been used.
Brian Stiller:Now, whom I recall. When Carl came to visit us at Tyndale and I had lunch with him because I wanted to know his side of the story. I heard your side of the story and I thought maybe you're pushing it a bit. So I asked Carl, who was a financial accountant, and I asked Carl, is this the normal thing you do Go to another country and promise you're going to put out thousands of dollars to help somebody without doing due diligence? He said I'm a due diligence guy, I never do that. But he said as I sat there that day I heard the Spirit say to me help him go.
Brian Stiller:And it's interesting, as I have followed your story from that point and we'll talk more about what you learned in coming to North America and about ministry but it's interesting to see in your life how God touched somebody who had the ability to help you and they opened the door. The same thing happened to me years ago here in Toronto when God touched the heart of a businessman who opened a door for me, for my wife and I, that forever changed our lives. I look to this Carl and his wife as door openers and as people listen to your story. One of my hopes is that people will say what doors can I open to help others? Yes, you're in this multicultural city. How did you feel? How did your life begin in this new setting?
Nouhoum Coulibaly:My life began in this new setting with an open heart, open mind from the community of Tyndale. I remember very well when I landed here in Toronto on January the 8th 2002, I was welcomed by the Tyndale student representative. I remember her name to this day Sarah. I came out of the bus. Here is Sarah, downtown Toronto. I said, wow, sarah gave me a car, no home. I know you're new in the country. You might be calling your parents. Here's a car you can use. I will ever be thankful to God for Tyndale for the way they smoothly welcomed me and, as I arrived the same day, carl has come actually from the US to meet me here in a hotel for three days.
Brian Stiller:And Carl Carl, he was the one that was sponsoring you.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:Not only he gave me money, but he flew down to meet me here and he's the one who brought me to Tyndale for the first day, put my luggage on the car. Pushy has already booked a bedroom for me at Tyndale. As we walk in there Tyndale, the old building of Tyndale, on Valley Corner Court people welcome me as if they have known me for centuries. And, carl, this is the part I never told you before as we went in my bedroom, carl put his jacket on the side and started making my bed. President Bryan, that's where I lost it.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:I started to weep like a baby. This man started to make my bed and I had a neighbor, a Canadian gentleman named David Cross. He was there. He came and greeted me. Finally, david Cross became someone who trained me how to run on the trail and then, as we walked in the classroom, three days, four days later, I was welcomed by everybody as if they had known me for a long time. All this to say, the Christian community, the Christian family at both years, was real for me and that made my time, my beginning and to this day, smooth in a way that I had never expected.
Brian Stiller:For you, coming into a different world, a world that's generally made up of a European heritage, did you feel the racism that many describe they experience?
Nouhoum Coulibaly:Yes, so coming from Africa, racism has always been a real thing. We have studied and we have lived every day in a certain way. But for myself, by God's grace, I never personally experienced racism myself, as I just described to you the way I was welcomed by Americans, by Canadians, you know what, and in the end, my professor of Asian, european, african. By God's grace, I will say I might be unaware of it but personally, openly, never experienced it. You know, the clue for me has been like this you know, when you go in the book of Genesis, every human being you meet is created in the image of God, regardless of your skin color, and to see Christ dying for a Jew, a Gentile, everybody, the big family of God.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:Yes, in an imperfect world, you're not going to expect every Malian to love you. While I was in Mali, I can tell you stories of how people hate me there, but you know what? I never jumped on the roof. I thought they were hating me in Mali because I'm black. The clue I took from that when I come to Canada, I have some disagreements with Brian because his skin color is different. Don't jump to the conclusion right away that Brian does not like me because I'm black. Give him the benefit of doubt, understanding that you know what.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:Even God himself. He created this whole world. There are people, to this day, saying that he does not even exist. If, that being said, about this God, who has given us everything, who am I to expect the anonymity that people will love me everywhere I go? This is how I function. Respect everybody you meet, because he or she is created in the image of God. Love everybody with the love of Christ. And if people who might disagree with you, for whatever reason, they know what is theirs. But how do you respond to it yourself? That's the key. My response is not everybody loves you. You have enough people like Sarah would come to welcome you, carl would make my bed, professor would welcome me. These are enough people for me to continue to function and not to focus on cynicism.
Brian Stiller:Nouhoum, your story in Africa, in Mali, comes out of the missionary enterprise, generally from North America. So here you are, the product, if you like, of that missionary enterprise. There's conversation, of course, about the colonial impact of missions and the missional impact of colonialism, how the two interrelate. As you look back on your family, your father, the rise of the church in Mali, and now your experience as you continue to work in Mali, To what degree does that colonial enterprise affect the way the church is built and is managed and responds to the needs today?
Nouhoum Coulibaly:Thank, you so much. Thank you so much. My connection to mission goes back to 1936, when my great-grandfather, who was a chief in our village, commanding more than 20 villages, one day welcomed a Canadian couple yes, true story Mr and Mrs Bell from Canada. Yes, true story, mr and Mrs Bell from Canada. When Mrs Bell and Mr Bell, mr and Mrs Bell, were looking for a place to put their mission station in 1936, my great grandfather said you know what this was? A time of colonization in Mali. Mali became independent from France in 1960. So think about it we became independent in 1960, and now we're talking about 1936.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:A Canadian couple, my great-grandfather told them. I heard that you were trying to build a mission station in that village over there. That village is under my control. You know, you were colonizers. When you sit in a village, eventually you take the power and move to that village. For the sake of protecting my power, you had to put your mission station here in my village. My great-grandfather gave them a plot of land in the village of Junju. Mr and Mrs Bell put their mission station there.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:My great-grandfather never accepted the law because they just wanted to protect their kingdom. My grandfather never accepted the law. It was one of my great-uncle who was studying in a town called San, where my parents are living, now that he accepted the law, and through whom my own father became a Christian. What I'm trying to say is this yes, the effect of the colonization came at a time when we're looking at it. They're taking away our power, whatever power we have.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:But in that context, doing mission was never easy for the evangelical missionaries like Mr and Mrs Bell. I'll tell you this If you go in my village today no electricity, no running water, no internet and to say there was a Canadian couple living here in 1936, 1936. You have nothing but gratitude to that man and his wife for what they did and endured in Mali In their patience. In the end, my uncle, my father, became a pastor and I just told you it was through the preaching of my own father. I became a Christian. The whole point is this they worked with what they had in their time, many sacrifices, but God in His faithfulness. The whole point is this they worked with what they had in their time, many sacrifices, but God in his faithfulness did not make a vain because I'm here, because they went.
Brian Stiller:Now we are here today and your life, your family, as you've expressed, come out of that missionary encounter. The church would be very indigenous, very much a Mali church, that's it. But now you're in Canada and you are a pastor in a Chinese church here, yeah, so when you bring that mix together, what does contemporary missions look like to you?
Nouhoum Coulibaly:Yes, Contemporary mission today is mission from everywhere to everywhere. It used to be many years ago. As I just told you, mr and Mrs Bell would leave Canada to go to Mali. Today I'm a pastor here, god, the church has been growing both in Mali and here, and I told you, I will tell you that you know people like Mr Bell. Mrs Bell, they were praying to see this happening, that one day we, the national, will be taking our role in the mission over there and, god willing, overseas. And I believe that that's what God is doing. And therefore it's gratitude to God for his faithfulness, how, in his own movement, he had been using this part of the world to bless this other part of the world, in the end, to put all of them together to say you know what we are in the era of partnership.
Brian Stiller:So speak to a pastor, to a church who's interested in mission but maybe caught in an old paradigm. What would shape the missions agenda of a congregation, say in North America? How might they see missions different to what I was raised in in the 1950s?
Nouhoum Coulibaly:Yeah. So for North America today, my advice or my suggestion or my prayer for North American churches, in the context of very multicultural and multi-religious context in which we are today, because of multiculturalism and multi-religious context in North America, even in churches we have a tendency to think you know what, they have their God already, don't bother, you don't need to do evangelism here, because you know he's a Muslim, he's a Buddhist, they don't. Or there, you don't need to go because we have a tendency to believe in that. In many cases we still believe in the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. Jesus is still the only one who died for the sin of the world, nobody else. The uniqueness and the love of Christ, the forgiveness of Christ, is still unique. Let our churches, pastors, mission leaders, church leaders still believe in that, based on the word of God, and bring that reality that you know what Jesus Christ is still needed and that the fuel for mission. So churches, north America yes, we're blessed to have multiculturalism, to have multi-faith, but gently, patiently, lovingly, still believe that Christ is the only.
Brian Stiller:Savior. How, then, does a church engage in missions in a way that doesn't smack of paternalism but what you said earlier operates within a partnership context? How do you go about doing that? What should a church be doing in affecting the mission that you talked about, but in a way that is freeing to those that they work with?
Nouhoum Coulibaly:Yeah. So, as you know, mission is vast, as we say, from everywhere to everywhere, certainly, individually, collectively, we can be at the same time everywhere this way, prayerfully, prayerfully understand what are the areas of the world that you should be focused on and what are some of the areas of task that is maybe based on your giftedness, and build relationship. Mission is about relationship. Build that relationship with that part of the world and in that relationship, based on love and mutual respect, you find out what are the needed areas. I'll give you an example. We have many, many young people.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:The church is very young in Africa because life expectancy is so low. In Mali, for example, life expectancy for men is 58. For women it's 61. And that's why when you go there, you'll find the church is so full of young people. Between zero and 30 years old will be above 80% of the church and most of them don't have the training, will be about 80% of the church and most of them don't have the training. So if you're a North American church wanting to do mission, you can go and do teaching. You can go and help these young people with skill training trade, carpentry, farming and blend that in the gospel.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:So the whole point is, as North American church, in the spirit of partnership, what are, individually and collectively, your gifted area and what are the part of the world you think as a church? You might say, well, we'll be interested in Haiti based on what's happening there. Oh, we can focus in Mali. Or other people say, we can be focused on Myanmar. The whole point is don't try to spread yourself too thin. And then relationship, relationship. Now, however, you can build that relationship. In the wake of relationship, you'll be able to spot some of the needed area that you can fill in in partnership. So these are some of the ideas I think should be done.
Brian Stiller:Let's carry on the story of your own life. Yes, you go to a Christian medical community here. Yes, you meet a white doctor, karen, who had already been to Mali. Yes, and you marry her. Yes, and you now have six children. Six children and you're pastoring a, and you now have six children, six children and you're pastoring a Chinese church. Yes, yes, yes, yes. What a combination.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:No again. What reminds me of is this the family of God is so real. I'll take you back to where I met Christ. Christ met me. I told you when I gave my life to Jesus I was seven years old. I love the fancy church building in which I'm invited to preach many times in this beautiful country, including Tyndale Chapel. I came to know the Lord under a tree in a small village that you will barely find on a map on your world. Yet Christ's presence under that tree. Physically you look at that day. It's so small there's no place to go. And yet in Christ, you've discovered that the family of God is universal families as vast as you can ever imagine and as high as you can imagine. And in that vastness and blessing of the family of God, wow, you can go from a tree to places you have never imagined with Jesus Christ.
Brian Stiller:Tell us a bit about what you are doing now in Mali in education.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:This is where we go back to. So what? After receiving all this blessing from the Lord, someone was running away from poverty, so-called poverty, thinking with cry, you'll be so poor. And this is where I want to encourage every young man and woman to know that you know what. In Christ, we have everything.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:Sometimes our problem is how we define wealth. That can be the trap for us. What is true wealth? Is it the money in your bank account? That's what we're counting on. These are tiny blessings. The true blessing is in Christ and what he can do, that money and gold and diamond cannot buy.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:President Brian, that's what I discovered as I was running away from so-called poverty in Christ, christ, through all this process, from so-called poverty in Christ, christ, through all this process, there's a blessing. There's a poverty that you think is poverty, but it's more wealthy than what you can imagine. And this is where, in the end, I said Lord, as you have blessed me, what can I give you back? Not a way to be saved, but to give you thanks. And one of the first thing was you know what? Help me to build a Christian school in Mali, where education is still a needed area. As Christian, what can we do in that domain? What you do, you help them fight against intellectual poverty, fight against physical poverty and hopefully, through the gospel being preached today, fight against spiritual poverty. Today, since 2016 to 2024, today, from kindergarten to grade nine, we have over 1,200 students studying there in the school, pastor, 20 school Guess what?
Nouhoum Coulibaly:The vast majority of them are Muslim and they're all thankful to the Lord for the work we're doing. And therefore my American family, carl and Marcia, who has really invested in me, thinking, oh, what is next? I always tell them, I say no, I'm thankful that you know what. Maybe physically you can't make it in Africa anymore. Carl, I met him in Senegal. I don't ever think because of terrorism going back and going on in Mali, it's not safe for anybody to be there. Even this morning there was a terrorist attack in the capital city of Bamako. But I say, in heaven you will be able to see the scope of the blessing you have invested in me and it's a challenge for all of us to let it go, to let Christ give us his blessing, because we think we'll do better, but when you do, you'll be surprised.
Brian Stiller:Nouhoum, as you look in your life, you're still young, with a family. What do you say to somebody who's looking for what God has for them in life?
Nouhoum Coulibaly:What I would say is number one. I call them four C's, four C's, c no letter C, c, a, B, c. The first C be in Christ. It was a blessing to give my life to Jesus when I was seven years old. Yes, in the process you will always have up and down, you will have your Jonah moment, you will have your prodigal son moment, but the love of Christ is so huge and powerful, he will guide you.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:The second C be a man or woman of character, the character of Christ. I will talk about the fruit of the Spirit Love, joy, peace, gentleness. Let them be in you. A man of character is a man or woman of character. It's what people can depend on. God's work and the work in this world cannot be done without being you. Are you a reliable person? That's what characters matter. And then, number three be a person of, I'll say, competency. That's where you have to discover your natural talent through education, whether it's formal or informal education. Through all your education you'll find that, oh, I think I'll be a doctor, I'll be a teacher. Discover that Now, if those of you have never been to school, through trade we see that in Africa Many people have never been to.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:And then the last C is compassion, because I will tell you this Give me a man or woman of Christ's character, competency. It might take a long time, but you're seeing a man or woman of success, and I always tell people when you're a so-called successful person, one danger still remains. It's the danger of pride, pride. You're so proud of yourself. You know how you fight pride. Be a servant, and that's where compassion comes in, where you focus on the need of others, as God used a Darlene, an American family and many more people to bless me, a darling, an American family and many more people to bless me. Therefore, as you succeed, by God's grace, be the compassionate person. As you receive the compassion of Christ in your own life through people, so Christ, character, competency, compassion to fight the ego of your success.
Brian Stiller:Nouhoum, thank you so much for being with us today.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:You're welcome. God bless you.
Brian Stiller:Thank you so much for being with us today. If you found this valuable, please take a moment to subscribe and give it a like. We would appreciate it if you would share it with your friends and colleagues as well. You'll find links in the show notes of this episode for anything we've discussed today, and if you haven't signed up yet to receive my free dispatches from the Global Village, it's an opportunity to join me and meet leaders in many different countries around the world. It's also a wonderful way to stay in touch with upcoming episodes and guests. Just go to brianstillercom. Thank you for listening. Until next time.
Nouhoum Coulibaly:Don't miss the next interview.
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