Faith Still Comes By Hearing

And if the righteous is saved with difficulty, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? - 1 Peter 4:18

Salif is an artist (painter) who lives in a hovel along a three-foot-wide alley surrounded by goat skins, flies, family, and friends. It is shaded and dark where he lives, in so many senses of that term. When I asked him how he learned to paint, he said that it was just something he knew, un cadeaux, a gift. Salif relies heavily on days with a "good sun" to dry his paintings in a timely fashion and it would appear that he rarely gets it. His materials are canvas, pencil, paintbrush, acrylic paint, hand, glue, Styrofoam, and gasoline. When I first met Salif, he made three-dimensional paintings of African life, some of which were well, graphic.

As we (several faithful) shared many stories over many months from God's Word, the light of truth was brought to Salif. Would he, could he, be saved? Sometimes we wondered, but we also knew that God's truth could shine just as easily into his world and heart as it had ours. You see, no matter your story, faith still comes by hearing.

And for Salif, it eventually did, and now he paints different scenes for an eternal purpose!

Only in a world where faith is difficult can faith exist. - Peter Kreeft