TBC student Bosco Soajoro a fruit of Southwestern’s work in Madagascar

About a decade after a short-term missions team from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary led him to Christ, Texas Baptist College student Bosco Soajoro now looks forward to completing his studies and returning to his home country of Madagascar to bring the Gospel and theological training to others.

Raised as a Roman Catholic in the southern part of the island nation located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa, one of the 10 poorest countries of the world, Soajoro considered himself a Christian because of that upbringing.

Southwesterner and International Mission Board (IMB) missionary Adam Hailes (’07, ‘23) met Soajoro in Fort Dauphin when he was about 12 or 13 years old and would come play basketball at a fellow missionary’s home. But often, Soajoro would disappear when they transitioned to a Bible study with the young men. Hailes, who was team leader for the south of Madagascar, also interacted with Soajoro over a few years at an English center, where he developed a relationship with him and continued to try to share the Gospel with him.

Hailes and other teams in Madagascar began to partner with Southwestern Seminary to reach the Antandroy people of Madagascar, which today includes more than 1.4 million people but with less than 2 percent professing to be Evangelical Christians. About once a year, teams from Southwestern would go to Madagascar, including faculty members such as Dean Sieberhagen, current dean of the Roy J. Fish School of Evangelism and Missions, and Keith Eitel, former dean and professor of missions.

About 10 years ago, Sieberhagen went on his second trip to Madagascar with a team from Southwestern and recalled being asked to take part in a Bible study during an English language program. Sieberhagen agreed, even though he said it was not part of their agenda for the short-term trip.

The members of the visiting team shared from John 3, the truth of being born again, and Romans 10:9: “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Sieberhagen said he and the students told their young listeners that they had two birthdays, a physical one and again when they were born again in Christ.

Sieberhagen said Soajoro, who is an Antandroy and was then in his later teens, told them he was ready to be born again and prayed with the team, then immediately led another Bible study attendee in a prayer of salvation. Soajoro said he had come to the realization that salvation is through faith in Jesus and not works.

“Growing up Christian doesn’t make me Christian; growing up in a Christian family doesn’t make me a Christian,” Soajoro said of the moment he understood the Gospel. “Attending the masses and everything, and no work I do, would make me Christian.”

“That was the day that we really rejoiced,” Hailes recalled, “because we had all gotten to know Bosco quite a bit better, and he totally surrendered to the Lord. … He never looked back after that moment.”

Soajoro said he instantly felt a passion for evangelism, starting with leading the Friday Bible study the very next week even though Romans 10:9 was the only verse he knew. Sieberhagen said he was grateful for the Hailes and other believers who were there from the start to disciple Soajoro, who displayed fruit of his conversion as he abandoned sinful habits.

“His whole spiritual life just took off,” Sieberhagen said of when he worked with Soajoro again as a translator on his next trip to Madagascar the following year, saying Soajoro would carry Bibles in his backpack to villages where he would share the Gospel.

Soajoro had begun attending the Hailes’ church, traveling with Hailes on trips into the bush country and villages of Madagascar, which provided him not just the opportunity to participate in evangelism, but also a chance for him to be further discipled. Hailes said they trained him, meeting with him at least weekly for the first few years after his conversion, teaching him Bible stories that he would then share with others.

“You look for the faithfulness in people, and he was somebody that was faithful and reproducing himself by starting to disciple others in his area of influence,” Hailes said of Soajoro, even though he was still a teenager.

After those early years of personal discipleship and working with the missionaries, Soajoro then began to plant churches in the city of Bekily, a difficult area the team had made a focus of prayer. Soajoro said during his time of planting and visiting Madagascar churches he developed a desire to pursue theological training so he could teach others as he started to become aware of how biblically illiterate many believers and even pastors were.

“I realized that the believers and just those churches didn’t have enough resources and just didn’t have what they needed to grow,” Bosco further explained while sharing his testimony at a recent Southwestern Advisory Council meeting. “And so, since then, I have been burdened to teach, to just see that those churches and the believers and the pastors have more resources so that they can learn the Bible, learn how to read the Bible, and learn how to just get closer to God through that and equip also the churches that they lead.”

Soajoro started taking an online theological course, but technological limitations forced him to stop those studies, leading to a time of waiting and searching as he felt a strong desire to study on a university or seminary campus.

Because of what Hailes described as an open channel between Madagascar and Southwestern, Sieberhagen heard of Soajoro’s desire to study and that he was a good candidate to be a professor in a Bible school that was planned to be opened in Madagascar. Sieberhagen extended an invitation to him in 2021 to come to study at TBC, the undergraduate school of Southwestern.

“I’ve taken a really personal interest in him because God allowed me to be part of his salvation story,” Sieberhagen said, adding he worked diligently to clear the way for Soajoro to become a student.

Soajoro applied for a scholarship and continued to serve where he was until he received word five months later that he had been awarded the scholarship. But still, Soajoro said he had to fundraise for a plane ticket and go through the visa process, all while his country was still experiencing shutdowns because of the Covid pandemic.

“The fact that I’m here is just God’s grace and God’s blessing,” Soajoro said, saying God opened door after door to make a way for him to come to Southwestern, including the borders of the country reopening in time for him to fly out.

“God protected me through it all,” Soajoro said. “I was like, ‘If He wants me to be in the U.S. for my school, He will take me through it.’ He did.”

Soajoro arrived in the U.S. and was enrolled as a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities student in the Texas Baptist College at the beginning of 2022. A year later he returned to Madagascar to marry and bring his wife Sophia back with him. They now have two young daughters.

“The Southwestern family took him in,” Hailes said, saying he would occasionally visit with him and even had him preach at his church when the Hailes moved back to Texas in 2023.

Soajoro said courses such as hermeneutics, Old and New Testament, critical thinking, and evangelism have encouraged him to study and understand the Bible rightly, at the same time being challenged by his professors to be more like Christ.

“I’ve been blessed,” Soajoro said of his time at Southwestern and TBC. “I’ve had just God-fearing professors, … Jesus-loving professors,” he said.

Calling the professors “world class,” he said they are “brilliant, know their stuff, and I’ve been inspired by that to grow more, to lean deep in my faith, and to know the Word, but at the same time not be ignorant of ideas in the world out there.”

Soajoro expects to complete his degree this December, and after that he plans to return to Madagascar with his family with the goal of sharing the knowledge he gained with students and churches in Madagascar.

“We have seminaries that need teachers, and so I’ll go back and help with that … because pastors in those churches that were planted, they need training, and we can’t go to every one of them,” Soajoro said. “Instead, we should just have them [at the seminary] and give them either a few months training, or others can get a few years training, and then they go back and train others, and so be able to lead those churches faithfully with robust theological training, just to be able to read their Bible and read theological books as well.”

But just as Southwestern professors challenged him to be transformed into a godly man, Soajoro said he wants the “people that I teach to be more like Christ first, that the content that they receive is content that will make them more like Christ and not just fill their heads.”

Hailes said he is grateful for how God guided Soajoro in his journey so far and looks forward to seeing how he continues to remain faithful in following God’s calling for him in Madagascar.

“He had a wisdom that God had put in him to be able to make right decisions in hard situations, and he stayed the course even in the difficult times,” Hailes reflected on Soajoro’s growth over the years. “Bosco always remained committed, even whenever it seemed hard. … And seeing him grow up in that faith, and even what he’s been doing here at Southwestern, seeing him grow into a good preacher that is more polished, better handles the word of God, but eager to go and teach others, is something that we’re really excited for.”

Soajoro said he is grateful for his time at Southwestern that was so transformative for him and his family, adding he was equipped so he can be launched back into the world.

“[I’m] just thankful for God’s grace,” Soajoro said. “And I’m thankful for Southwestern’s involvement in Madagascar, as well. I just wanted to be thankful that they committed the resources, committed the time to engage Madagascar particularly, and Africa in general, and work with the IMB to see the Gospel spread and involved in missions. I wouldn’t have made it here without SWBTS resources being spent. I don’t want to take it for granted.”

Those interested in partnering with Soajoro and his family financially as they prepare to move back to Madagascar after his graduation, can visit here.