Led by God - by Marc Cools (Paperback)

About the Book

Discover Pastor and Mrs. Cools' captivating true-life story as they follow God's calling to take His message to the African mission field. Be reminded that God will provide all that we need when we trust and follow Him.

Book Synopsis

Discover the captivating true-life story of Pastor and Mrs. Cools as they follow God's calling to take His message to the most forgotten places in the world. Called to the African mission field, they trusted His leading to share the Gospel to lost places. Find inspiration in the heart-changing stories of those finding and accept the Gospel, even one government official. Marc also recounts two miraculous ways that his wife was saved during her travels. Be reminded that God will provide all that we need when we follow Him.

Review Quotes

For those who have not known the time of the heroic missions in Africa-which is my case-this testimony is fascinating. The time of the missions where a simple trip is an adventure, without insurance and without much comfort, where hours can become days or months, where the encounters are intense and sometimes blessed forever. A time when the missionary has to build everything on his own, when the relationship with God is experienced at every moment. A time when missionaries had neither mobile phones nor internet. A missionary remains a missionary forever. Reading his book will help you to discover this in turn. -Christian Sabot, Treasurer of the Belgo-Luxembourg, Belgian-Luxembourg Federation

Marc Cools reminds me of the hymn "Under the African sun, the pagan dies in the night," an aphorism that made me smile when I was wearing my first Sabbath pants in the church pews.

But in the meantime, my childish cynicism has turned into admiration, because Africa, so dynamic and fantastic, has conquered my missionary soul. It is therefore a pleasure to read this story written in a language that makes the charm of a polyglot author (using here and there a Dutch, English or Flemish turn of phrase). A book without length or embellishments, - thanks to the selective memory which, with the passing decades, allows one to concentrate on the essential.

More than his memoirs, the author reveals how God opens and closes doors at the right time and whose hand protects as long as He wishes to accomplish His purposes for us.

Led by God: the equivocation of the title is successful, Marc Cools having been as much "guided" as "piloted" by the Almighty. His testimony begins with a brief description of his call to ministry, followed by one miracle after another (we will not forget how the author was exempted from the Vietnam War).

Who is this author? A humble man concerned about the good of the "Work", and by his side, a woman whose consecration marked their children and countless African couples for eternity. We will note in passing the names of other missionaries; and then of course the Africans as we know them: heroes of the faith.

Pages that move you: the friendship of the Muslims with the Adventists, the baptism of a minister of finance; but also the lack of water and the torrential rains, the breakdowns and jams, or even getting lost in the bush where the missionary could well have died in the night. And to say that sweat and malaria are more the order of the day than electricity is not a cliché, but an everyday reality.

The new Africa is tarred and the airports repatriate you at the first emergency. Internet, cell phone, GPS: The new generation is well equipped. All the more reason to rekindle the spirit of sacrifice in us, because even if "the worries of the century and the seduction of riches" easily suffocate our zeal, this book upheaval testifies that there is still room for many harvesters.

All the more reason to see in this book a call that resounds in the tropical jungle (where corrugated iron still exists!) and in the concrete jungle of the metro poles of all continents: Let no one rest on laurels sown with the tears of the pioneers! Those who left their traces in the mud of the end of the world invite us to take over from the already beaten paths of the savannah to, in our turn, carry the torch to the confines of the darkness.

The story avoids sensationalism and heroism, and for those who are frightened by the bandits and other snakes on the lookout, it will be good to meditate on the magnificent biblical promises that embellish this book and put the weight of renunciation in the background to make the joy of being "led by God" sparkle.

-Sylvain Romain, Researcher in Islamology