Missionary profile – Zack and Ruth Joshua

By Mercy Kambura

Zack and Ruth Joshua

Missionaries from Nigeria to Niger

We are missionaries in Niger, involved in community development to transform people’s lives and perspectives with the gospel.

Ruth is a psychologist, and so we’re also doing post-marital counselling to help save marriages and show how godly marriages should look. There is no pre-marital counselling here. We now interact with six families. We also engage with the youth through sports.

In addition, we help young girls, who rarely go out of their homes because of the culture. Ruth teaches them skills to help build self-reliance in their lives.

Our first major task has been language learning. We were initially in the area where they primarily speak Hausa, which we also speak fluently. We are now in the capital learning French.

Ruth grew up in a Christian family. Her dad held daily devotions at home, and she accepted the Lord during one of them.

I, Zach, got saved at age ten during an evangelism outreach. I watched the movie “Pilgrims Progress, Born in Hell.”

We have known each other almost all our lives. We lived in the same area, but we weren’t dating. Then we met again in our thirties, and within less than a year, we got married.

One time, SIM was celebrating their centenary anniversary, and I was acting in a play. I loved their story; it was implanted in my head. People kept referring to me in my stage name. That story was very inspiring, and I desired to join missions like the people in the story.

When I was younger, my sister was brutally murdered and dumped in a forest. She died a Muslim, and that pained me deeply. I didn’t want anyone else dying without knowing Christ.

After we married, Ruth and I got an opportunity to train for missions in the Philippines. After that, we wanted to go to Burkina Faso. However, it wasn’t safe at that time. So, we prayed to move to a different culture and language. Then the SIM office in Niger had an opening for us.

World missions is the heart of God; it’s what makes God happy. Anybody who wants to do something that will touch the heart of God is doing something extraordinary.

No profession is as noble as understanding and obeying God’s calling for your life. The African church needs to step in, break from syncretism, and see mission as God intended it to be.

We have over-depended on resources from the West. We have what it takes to for missions in God’s way. We must rise up and do that.

Please #pray:

For God to help us learn French fluently.
For God to help our daughter so she doesn’t get confused by the change in language and country.
For God to direct our paths as we transition.