Stephanie and Dan live in San Diego and love to travel. A few years ago they saved up until they could afford a safari in Tanzania. Here is how their trip turned out:

After being cooped up during the pandemic, Stephanie and Dan decided to book a safari trip for their family of five for Christmas 2022. Dan's Dad, Ken, could not resist this call for fresh air and adventure in the jungles of Africa. He hopped on the band wagon!

They ultimately decided on the Serengeti in Tanzania. In the process of packing, Stephanie remembered a Chick newsletter challenge to "take Chick tracts on vacation with you!" They struggled a little bit with taking no-nonsense Christian tracts to a heavily Muslim country but decided to trust God and take a small sampling —20 tracts of various titles, including This Was Your Life in Swahili and Evil Eyes in English to share as the Lord led.

Their first stop was a couple nights in a Maasai village with a host family. They left them with a tract and a tip when they said their goodbyes!

Then started the Safari. They checked into their American chain hotel with all the comforts of home. Stephanie booked an opportunity for her and Dan to relax in the hotel's spa pool.

The hotel had an established "wellness spa" that included a Yogi spiritualist "guide." The hotel heavily upsold this "Spiritual Guru." In fact, he was the “director of the spa department.”

On the day of their spa, they were introduced to "Mary" by this Yogi. Mary was tasked with managing their relaxation experience. She was quiet and soft spoken and gave them a warm smile. As they relaxed in the spa water with chilled fruit water, Mary dimmed the lights. She then turned on instrumental piano music. Dan soon recognized the music as "How Great Thou Art." He asked a tired Stephanie if she recognized the song. She did! Dan encouraged Stephanie to share the tracts with Mary right away!

Dan and Stephanie managed to hold their excitement about the soothing hymn filling their spa room and decided to wait and add a tract to Mary’s tip. It came as no surprise that Mary was a born-again Christian, connected to a small, growing church in Arusha, Tanzania. This church has a growing ministry in street evangelism.

Mary was excited to see the tracts and later shared them with her church family. She was so elated that she asked Dan and Stephanie to speak to a little church comprised of some of the hotel staff on Christmas Day. Dan and Stephanie were able to worship with the staff of approximately 40 people and share from Psalm 34, a message of hope for the righteous in Jesus Christ.

Mary was drawn to the message of the Swahili "This Was Your Life," and especially "Evil Eyes," because it deals with the voodoo pagan religion found throughout Africa. "This is what Africa needs!" she beamed.

Upon their return home, they communicated with Mary, had "Evil Eyes" translated and printed, and with the church's approval, shipped 12,000 “Evil Eyes” and Swahili “This Was your Life” to Tanzania through Chick Publications!

Stephanie reports: “The tracts have had an impact. According to Mary, they are ‘changing people.’ On the other hand, the tracts have also stirred up persecution in the form of angry phone calls and threats to the church.”

“The WhatsApp message to Chick Publications from the Tanzanian Church is: ‘Our gratitude goes to you very much. We have really seen the Spirit of God continuing to serve his people. With great humility, thank you for making this service perfect. God is touching his people to knowing Jesus [with these tracts]’

“They have been evangelizing in the city and villages. To think...This entire gospel transaction took place right under the nose of a Yogi Spiritualist “

Dan and Stephanie have lasting memories of the Serengeti, but the ongoing bonus of a permanent connection to Mary and their fellow believers on another continent turned out to be the greatest joy from their “vacation.”

This illustrates the fact that we are never far from an opportunity to share the gospel. And if there is not time for a conversation, we can always leave a powerful little paper preacher. And remember, the results are all recorded in heaven for our soon review.