Fruit among the Fulani

Excerpt from our Friend in West Africa:

We are very grateful to God for the growing number of Fulani who are responding to the call of God to be witnesses of Christ among their own people. We have longed to see this for years, and we are privileged that in our generation we are seeing it happen.

H & J are new believers. Here is H’s testimony …

From a very young age I assisted my father, a Fulani Muslim traditional healer, in black magic. My father was well known and even was consulted by political leaders. When I was a young man and active in political circles, I was poisoned by a political opponent who in fact was my uncle. My whole body was swollen and I found it hard to walk. Medical exams did not reveal any disease, and I was convinced that I would soon die, so I left home and travelled five hours by bus to stay with my older sister. One day a visitor came to my sister’s house. The woman was not a believer but encouraged my sister to take me to a protestant church to be prayed for healing. My sister eventually took me, early one morning so as not to be seen. At the church the service started, then before the time of prayer for healing someone prophesied about me ‘God has chosen this man to do His work!’ I received prayer on several occasions at this church, and noticed I was getting steadily better. It was during this time that I decided to follow Christ, and from then on I didn’t practice Quranic magic anymore.

When my father learnt that I had become a Christian, he sent people to make me recant, but they couldn’t force me; I had received my healing from the Lord and there was no way that I could turn back to Islam. As I still feared my father’s magic power, a pastor of the church sent me to another area. Here I was not among my ethnic people group, so no one opposed my faith. After nine months in that hiding place I had met a lady who I wished to marry, but the pastor who I was staying with advised me to fast and pray before making a decision. During this time of fasting I had a dream where I saw my wife, who I had left at home, riding a bicycle to come to see me, so I realized that I should go to get her rather than marrying a different one.

When I went back home, I had a heated discussion with my father, but in the end he said I should take my wife with me. My wife, meanwhile, had planned to run away with another man. My wife returned with me, but did not come to church with me and was still planning to run away. However after overhearing a pastor who was visiting me at home, my wife was convicted by the Holy Spirit and accepted Christ.

Eventually H trained as a pastor and spent several years leading a church, but not among his own people. Then God opened the door for H and his wife to start a new chapter in their lives.

H and J and their three children spent four months training at Jam Tan last year. Their children attended Jam Tan Primary school and preschool. H learnt to run a grain mill and mastered the trade well, and J learnt tailoring. We praise God for His generous provision of a grinding machine for H and a sewing machine for J as tools for their trade. At the end of their training Jam Tan sent them to a village in the South of Burkina that they had previously explored to look for people of peace. When H set up his mill the people in the village were very grateful as previously they had to go far to get their grain milled. His wife started to get some business making clothes for the ladies in the community. We thank God that they were able to identify a person of peace within two months, and they started a Discovery Bible Study with his family. They have seen people coming to Christ at the home of the person of peace. Now, by the grace of God, after ten months of ministry, there is a community of believers for the first time in this village.

For more news visit: https://fulnet.org/may-news#