Reverse missionary trend: 3rd World sends missionaries to 1st World

By Abdul Masih —

There’s a little known trend in the world of missions where Third World countries are sending missionaries to America and the rest of the First World. This is a significant reversal: For centuries now, it was always Europe and American that sent missionaries to developing countries.

Of course, some of the “missionaries” are simply seeking the prosperity and security as much as any other immigrant.

That’s not the case of Desmond Bell, missionary from West Africa to Marseille, France. When his family, without his knowledge or wish, applied for him to immigrate to the UK as a refugee (he had almost gotten killed by rebels in Wilberforce, Sierra Leone), it was Desmond who stopped the asylum application.

“If I would have gone to England, I think I would abandoned God altogether. What would happen to his fledgling church in Wilberforce?” he says. “Sometimes it seems like God’s will is very difficult. It’s hard to swallow. Every logic was to go to England. But God told me to stay in Sierra Leone.”

After pioneering the Wilberforce church, Bell planted a church in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002. He planted churches in Nigeria and Angola.

Then Desmond got the strangest, weirdest, most bizarre phone call of his life.

Pastor Harold Warner, from America, wanted to send him to France.

The African pastors, Desmond says, are accustomed to say only “Yes, Sir,” to their authority. They don’t give “ifs,” “buts,” “let me check with my wife” or “let me pray about it.”

In a low voice, he answered, “Yes, pastor.”

But everything in side of him screamed, “Nooooooo!”

“I can’t imagine a boy from Sierra Leone being a missionary to France,” Desmond says. “I asked God, ‘Why are you sending me?’ I struggled. I resisted.”

He was not just intimidated by the “promotion.” He also had a pragmatic sense that preaching in France would be scattered the seeds of God’s word on stony ground. “In Africa, we are used to revival,” he says. “After outreach at our first service, we had 168 people come to church.”

For two years in France, the self-doubting and self-questioning continued. “Is it going to worked?” he asked himself constantly.

Ultimately, the same God who poured out revival in Africa would do it in Marseille for Desmond. “France humbled me. You must depend on God,” he says. “I’ve learned to trust in the Lord in France.”

Somewhat ironically, the breakthrough came with Covid. Forced to close doors and stay home, he looked for new ways to reach people. Fortunately, his kids were teens and started uploading testimonies to TikTok and other social media. They posted a testimony of a girl who was suicidal until Jesus came into her heart.

Responses started flooding in. People called Pastor Desmond and asked for prayer.

The thriving church is full of youth with a vision to take the Gospel to the entire nation, he says.

Today, the Le Phare church of Marseille has 15 nationalities

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