The Faithful God

By an Alliance believer in Africa

I was born to a pagan family in Côte d’Ivoire, where I lived until high school. My family moved to Burkina Faso, and thoughts of suicide filled my mind during my final year of school. Knowing my parents lacked money to send me to college, I had no hope for the future. I was attending Bible classes at school, and a fellow student shared Christ with me. As a result, I accepted the Lord Jesus into my life. I began worshipping at a local Assemblies of God church and was baptized.

Later I moved to another village without a church, and I didn’t know of any Christian congregations nearby. That year an Alliance pastor came to my village, and I asked him if I could worship in his church. He assured me I could. Since Alliance believers in the village did not have a church building, I invited them to worship in my yard under a shelter I constructed. An Alliance missionary came alongside me to mentor me and help me grow in my faith. I began taking Theological Education by Extension courses with him every Sunday.

The village chief, who is a relative of mine, gave us land for a church. He also defended the local Christians from the villagers’ persecution, even though he is an animist. My personal life was not without hardships. My wife left me for another man. At first I was devastated, but God gave me a new wife who loves Jesus with all her heart.

In the early days of the village church, three local men prayed to the village gods, asking them to strike me dead. I wasn’t afraid because God had told me this was the way He would open the door for the gospel to take root in the village. During the following year, no harm came to me, and the three young men accepted the Lord. His protection had shown them the power of my God.

In 1998 a C&MA missionary told me that the Lord had need of me for His work; this confirmed a recurring dream I’d had. But I held off pursuing full-time ministry because I lacked funds to attend seminary and was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to support my family. Convinced that the Lord wanted to use me in ministry, the Alliance worker agreed to finance my studies, which I will complete this year.

Today, I praise God that the Alliance congregation in my village has a new church building through the help and financial support of Alliance believers in America. Pray that I will succeed in God’s work right up to the end of my life with a humble and submissive spirit.

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