Témoignages

“My name is Jacques, married and father of 07 children, a businessman in Bafoussam, an active member 1 of the Word of God Group. I come from a Christian family, but one that practiced little; because of that, I received only Baptism at the age of 2. And ever since then, because I was never guided by my godfather, I knew everyone except God, since those around me had plunged me into a spiritual slumber; and besides, it was known by all that going to Church meant becoming a Jehovah's Witness, which is nothing but a practice of witchcraft. I left my parents at the age of 6 to live with my grandmother, and I had the habit of fixing my eyes on something that pleased me so that it would disappear a short time later. A widow, my grandmother received from all sides the provisions for her upkeep, among which were: whisky, grenadine syrup, smoked or fresh meat, and many other irresistible things. Each time she swallowed her gulp of whisky, I would keep asking her what it was, and she would answer that it was a tonic for the bones, and as for the syrup, she told me that it was to increase the blood. As for me, knowing that I too had bones and blood, I kept doing the same as she did in her absence. Once in secondary school, this time living with one of my elder brothers, I would hear him open a safe in his wardrobe to take out money; in his absence, I too helped myself, but only in very small amounts so as not to attract his attention; sometimes I even came back to put the rest back, especially when I had taken up to 5,000 francs. It was difficult for him to notice my taking, because I was an obedient child and, according to him, intelligent at school. I sometimes used the greater part of this money to bribe the children of our teachers so that they would slip out my exam paper from among those of my classmates and give it to me, so that I could redo it more correctly and cleanly and get the best grade. Among other misdeeds in the same vein, I remember one of the probatoire examination where, because we were absorbed in copying out an exam paper bought in advance (contraband) in relation to the exam, we almost did not sit the exam, since we came late. In my professional life, I dealt with people selling food products such as powdered milk, powdered sugar, and many others. Here is the mixture I made to maximize my profit at extraordinary percentages: To obtain 4 kg of milk, I made a mixture of 3 kg of sugar, the kilo of which cost 400 francs, carefully ground at the mill, + 1 kg of milk, of which one kilo cost 2,500 francs (this mixture immediately gave me 4 kilos of milk, which I sold for 10,000 francs, and the customers appreciated it so much for their morning coffee). There is another pastry ingredient called Saccharin (resembling cooking salt); to obtain a large quantity, the mixture was made with salt, and truly there, that was the final stage of profit (1000% profit). As for rice in the sack, I used a probe to reduce each sack by at least 2 kg in order to reconstitute a new sack. Once, when I bought an electric machine for making ice cream cones, I noticed that it consumed an enormous amount of energy; I did not delay in making a new fraudulent installation with the complicity of an agent; the real bill that I should have paid, close to 200,000 francs, came to only 15,000 francs. After this agent left, I betrayed myself, because, not being at peace, I had to bribe the new meter reader. I was fined 6,000,000 francs and had several weeks of power cut-off, not to mention the 200,000 francs that night so that they would not handcuff me in front of my children. As a result of all this, I nearly lost my sight while trying to locate a fault in my installation; I had to short-circuit two phases of current, which caused very violent sparks to burst forth and threw me off my ladder; I only regained normal sight 30 minutes later. Another day again, I was very violently electrocuted and remained unconscious for a while. I sometimes kept watch around my meter when rumor announced an inspection in the neighborhood. Sometimes, a few steps from my house on the way to the market, seeing a company vehicle simply pass by, I would turn back, always believing that it was me they had come to find. This haunted me so much that, being at home, certain rumblings of vehicles made me believe they were there. So stressed, I had the impression that everyone around me was aware of my fraud. Always ready to give an incentive to an agent passing through the neighborhood. It must be noted that all this ill-gotten money pushed me to go to nightclubs, to sleep away from home. I had become proud, boastful. Once I joined the Word of God Group, I listened attentively to the unfortunate consequences of sins such as theft, adultery, etc. That day, the teaching demonstrated that every sin committed is a dagger in the heart of Jesus, and this gave me a certain image of that child who, at the age of reason, energetically denies his biological father. The testimony helped me understand that everything we do wrong on earth and do not confess ends up catching up with us. That what is built on the basis of falsehood is destined to harm us, to vanish, and obviously to distance us from God; this challenged me greatly, since I was a victim of it. Nowadays, I have experienced Jesus, and He is effective, for through prayer and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, I ask Him for everything I want and He answers my prayer, even if it takes a long time. When I face an opportunity that I could win by cheating, I picture to my mind the image of Jesus looking at me and shaking His head; I become afraid and I refrain; I now take pleasure in doing difficult, dirty work when it is necessary. For some time now I have avoided undertaking anything at all without praying. Ever since I accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, «nguémé» (hardship) plays tough with me, but I am spiritually rich, filled with many graces. My heart keeps its 75 beats per minute. I lead a peaceful life, although those who used to call me «PRESIDENT» have kept their distance. When I have an errand to run and I have nothing to transport in my car from there, I park it and take the motorbike. At home, there are no more leftovers of food littering the corners of the living room as in the past. The children no longer leave the lights on carelessly. My wife and I now operate with a budget drawn up beforehand at the beginning of each month. This «galaire» (hardship) that I face does not, however, mean that the opportunities for theft or cheating do not haunt me. In fact, to pay off the debt of 6,000,000 that I mentioned above, I had resorted to another technique of stealing energy that only God and I mastered, and the inspectors were no longer up to detecting it, until I renounced it. But today, although capable, I no longer want to do it. All this makes me a model at the market; many of my customers are satisfied (truly this time) with my products, and some sometimes call me to congratulate me. Many of my competitors imitate me in my way of working. It is since the day I decided to stop falsehood in my life that my smile came back, that I began to organize myself for my projects, that I had time to talk with my little family. I have become stricter with expenses. It must be admitted that making the resolution to throw off old habits is no easy thing, but as a saying goes, «Where there is a will, there is a way.» There is no point in cluttering one's mind with plans of theft that profit us nothing. Christian or pagan, stealing edifies you in nothing; on the contrary, on the level of physical and spiritual health, you are the loser. I realized that the life of cheating I was leading had instead held me back and sunk me down, and as the Word of God so rightly says, a house built on rock is more resistant to the slightest wind than one built on sand. Let us try to walk in uprightness, for in doing so, the happiness that God offers us is more eternal than that acquired through the easy life. Amen! Jacques”

November 21, 2016

“My name is Doriane Dongmo Awoupe, I am the eldest of a family of 6 children and have been an orphan for 11 years; wife of Joachim Paulin Choungmo since 2009 and mother of Christ Eythan Choungmo, who is currently 10 months old. I am in my second year of Biotechnology at the University of Fulda in Germany. I had the good fortune to be born into a Christian family, which is why at the age of 13 I received the sacraments of baptism and first communion, and 2 years later that of confirmation. Without always knowing what these sacraments were for, I kept growing up in my ignorance until 2008, when I took part for the first time in a retreat of the Word of God group; at that moment everything changed in my life. I became the person most trusted in the family. Until in 2009, after my premarital examinations, I realized that I was carrying within me a Myoma (a kind of ball that grows in the belly) which, for the doctors, posed no danger to me, but which became a source of problems after my delivery in 2011. Three months after giving birth I began to have severe pain in my belly at the hospital. The doctors asked me to stop breastfeeding and put me through certain therapies which revealed in the end that the Myoma had begun to grow and enlarge, which was not happening before the delivery, and at that point my belly began to swell. I went from doctor to doctor and no one told me what I should do. The last doctor I met in Germany told me that the Myoma was already 7.6 cm and that it was only growing, so I had to decide: either have surgery and lose a fallopian tube, or stop my studies to speed up the therapies and have a chance of being relieved one day, because for them a cure was almost impossible except through surgery. And there he transferred me to France because, as he said, the illness must be much more linked to skin color; and he did not have enough experience with Black women. So I went to France. On my first day of therapy in France the doctor was very scandalized when I told him that since I had stopped breastfeeding I had not had the return of my cycle. He told me that this was not normal and that I had to decide quickly: either have surgery or stay to follow special therapies to try to remove the Myoma. I was confused because I no longer even knew what to do. And since the Lourdes Word of God retreat was approaching, I asked the doctor to give me an appointment in 10 days, so that I could reflect and above all prepare myself financially. I had a great deal of difficulty getting to the retreat because I had already spent all my savings, and my husband had asked me to choose whether I wanted to be treated or to go to the great retreat. Seeing my determination to go to the retreat, he no longer wanted to say anything about it. I entrusted this to the Lord, asking him to guide me in my choice, and I decided to go to the retreat. My first concern was to give thanks to God for all he had done in my life; to entrust my family and my home to the Lord, and afterward to present my illness to the Virgin Mary later at Lourdes. But I was surprised that after the first teaching I felt touched, light, and I realized that my cycle had just resumed, exactly 9 months after the delivery. I was overjoyed! As if that were not enough, 2 days later, while we were doing the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, I felt pressures (3) at the exact spot where I had the Myoma in my belly. I had pain for a few moments but I rejoiced a few minutes later, for I understood that the Lord was there and that he had visited me at the place where I least expected it. The Lord is wonderful! Upon our arrival at Lourdes, at the place of Mary’s apparitions, I named the day ‘Day of thanksgiving’ and I therefore spent the day giving thanks to GOD through Mary that day. I left Belloc, the monastery where we were holding the retreat, with tears in my eyes in the hope of returning there one day. Back in France, where I was being followed by the doctors, I kept my appointment at the hospital, and according to the results of the scan I received under the escort of 2 head doctors and 2 gynecologists, the Myoma currently measures 1.7 cm, whereas 10 days earlier the same Myoma measured 7.6 cm. What a marvel, for it is smaller than before I gave birth 3 years ago! The gynecologist told me that this is not possible; that they could not explain this result. And that perhaps it must be due to my diet over these last 10 days. They even proposed that I explain to them the conditions in which I had been living these days. I simply answered that I had taken a trip to paradise, but when I began to explain, they refused to believe me. I will give infinite thanks to God for this healing. For my husband, I have become another person. He tells me that he has the impression that the Lord lives in me, and for that reason my wishes must be commands. He is filled with joy every day. He lives and shares the exercises of the sheet with me; he reminds me as soon as it is time for prayer, he who took so little interest in the Word of God just a few days ago. I requested a Mass of thanksgiving to thank the Lord for my healing, and I made a novena to Mary so that she might intercede with her son for all those who suffer from this illness. Thank you Lord! Doriane Choungmo (Germany)”

November 21, 2016

“I was baptised 5 days after my birth. I received first communion at 13 and I was confirmed at 20. After confirmation, I lost the zeal I had for the Church. I became very irregular at church and I lived on the margins of God's commandments. It was when I was about to celebrate my marriage in church that I reconnected with the Church, thanks to the marriage preparation doctrine that I had followed for 3 months. But curiously, after the wedding, I fell back into sin. I still lived like a bachelor. My behaviour did not at all reflect that of a married man. I spent wildly on alcohol, women and other frivolities. I got into debt at social gatherings to satisfy my personal desires. When I came home late, I tried to create a situation to justify myself: I would frown, I would grumble to keep my wife from questioning me, I did everything to change the subject. All the neighbours easily recognised the noise I made when I came in. I slept very late and I also woke up very late. As a result, I always arrived at work very late, and I put my patients ill at ease as they waited a long time on the bench, though they were suffering greatly. When the patients reproached me for my lateness, I would verbally abuse them and tell them not to pay my salary at the end of the month, or to write to the Ministry of Finance to have it suspended. At the time I earned 50,000 F. I had to tell my wife about this small salary, but when the salary underwent a slight increase of 30%, I went up to 95,000 F, yet I kept quiet so that she would not find out. Even though she had followed the journalists' comments about the salary increase, I did everything to deny it. Despite my wife's reproaches about my nocturnal outings and my late returns, nothing in me changed. I had already fixed it in my mind that a woman I had married could not dictate my conduct. I was a dictator at home, I never listened to my wife's advice. This is how a friend proposed a fraudulent deal to me, and I took out several hundred thousand to give to him, and the deal failed, and this against my wife's will. And I lost all that money. In my leisure time, I came to know some very bad companions, very unfaithful men, practically controlled by alcohol, and these men gave me very bad advice. I was almost seduced by these friends to the point of entering into their disorderly ways. I had become, at one point, unbearable. I pushed my disorderly conduct so far that Sundays became my favourite days for meeting up, completely forgetting Mass. I no longer fulfilled my duties at home, including the conjugal duty, and that is where the real problems began. My wife, in turn, became more and more stubborn. She no longer respected me. Sometimes we would even come to exchanging blows. Things went from bad to worse, and my lateness at home became chronic. One night, very late, I was assaulted near the house, but I hid this incident from my wife; it frightened me, and from then on I came home around 10 PM. Some time later, I lost a close friend, who died of AIDS; this cooled me down and somewhat broke my momentum of delinquency. One Sunday, a young sister who was passing by the house dragged me to church. It was on coming out of church that I met a friend, a member of the Word of God group, who told me about the group. He later came to find me at home with a prayer sheet to explain to me the charism of this movement, and at the same time invited me to the weekly meeting. I went to the group from time to time, and some friends around me discouraged me, including my wife, who continued to believe that I was a hypocrite. I followed the teachings somewhat indifferently, but over time, the teachings and the testimonies of some and others edified me. I tried to read the Bible and made efforts to do the exercises on the sheet daily, and I tried as much as possible to put these words into practice. Little by little, I took part in the various retreats organised by the group; I felt within me that I was changing some of my habits, and my wife had remarked on it. And to show how truly difficult it was to come back, I took part in two great retreats before really deciding to enter into the communion of the Church. I was able to break the chains of evil that bound me. I went to confess, rather to the bishop, for I was truly in a state of grave and mortal sin, and this after 7 years of estrangement. That gave me the strength to truly reconnect with Christ. I learned to stay at home, away from disorderly friends. I gave up alcohol. I no longer leave the house without saying where I am going. I am truly close to my family. I am proud to say that I have become a faithful husband. I no longer go to work late. I take very good care of my patients and their follow-up, so much so that some of them, when I am away, prefer to go home and come back at a time when I will be present. I give prayer sheets to my colleagues and sometimes to patients. With my wife, we have opened a bank account where each of us can carry out financial transactions and give an account to the other. On Sundays, we go out together for Mass with all the children. Some friends even take me as a model and have gone so far as to recommend to their wives at home to behave like mine. I give thanks to God today for all that He has done for me. However, one is often confronted with the problems of life, but through prayer, I lay my problems before the Lord and I let Him act. We hand them over to Him in the face of very difficult situations; He is the only consoler. I am more determined than ever to live as a child of God so as to benefit from eternal life. I would like to say to all my brothers and sisters: do not harden your hearts to God's call, for I find that everything I lost when I was in disorder and sin is enormous. But today, by striving to put the Word of God into practice and to please Jesus, I can tell you that I have found the path to happiness.”

November 21, 2016

“A few years ago Papa Henri and Mama Judith Bayemi met a woman who had suffered greatly. She had spent an unfulfilling childhood between a father who was a dentist, rarely at home, and a mother who coped badly with this situation. As a teenager, she went from one disappointment to another. Her heart had such a thirst to be loved that she was very susceptible to the advances that boys made to her. But at 40, none of them had asked her to marry him; and each time, she was merely an adventure that people quickly grew tired of. Yet she would have so wished to marry, to found a home. Whenever she thought about it, her heart was torn and she wept bitterly. Finally she met a man; he seemed to love her more than the others. She gave herself to him without reserve. She invited him to live with her. They lived like this for a whole year. He did not speak of marrying her, but in the secret of her heart she hoped. It was impossible for her that he should abandon her, for this time she truly believed she would die of it. She could no longer imagine her life alone; and then one day, without her being able to hold him back, he left her. She had pleaded, brought in friends to intervene, but the decision was irrevocable; he no longer loved her, he said. She truly thought she would die of it. She no longer wanted to eat, letting herself go. At her work she was given leave; everyone thought she would never regain her psychological balance. It was called a nervous breakdown. It was then that, in the chaos of her life, in the dark night where everything seems lost, she encountered a community. She learned to realise the presence of God at her side. She learned to speak to him, to make of him a confidant, a Friend. She also learned to listen to him speaking to her in the reading of the Bible; to make silence within her to hear his gentle voice in her heart. And so, the more she discovered him, the more she fell in love with him. She knew that the One for whom her heart had been longing for so long was the bridegroom of the Song of Songs: Jesus. Her life changed completely. Her outlook on life was wholly different. From then on she applied herself only to looking at the world with the gaze of Jesus, under the maternal guidance of Mary his Mother. More than ever she felt the desire to love; only this time, to love because Jesus is Love and she wanted to please Jesus. She decided to consecrate herself entirely to him in the living out of the word and in evangelisation. Today she is more than 60 years old and she continues to serve the Lord in this community with much greater fervour and is a living testimony for all those who meet her. THE FATHER IS HERE AND AWAITS YOU IN THIS YEAR OF MERCY! Henri Bayemi”

November 21, 2016

“I was born into a polygamous and pagan family. From my earliest childhood, I already saw the way my father behaved toward his wives. He was a head of the household who made decisions without consulting his wives. That is the image I had of marriage. When I got married, I lived with my wife like a master and his servant. She never had any say in my life or in the way I managed it. Thus she was not aware of anything that concerned me. I was a night owl, a drunkard, a smoker, an unfaithful man. She knew it, and I felt no remorse at seeing her suffer. When she travelled, I would even come to sleep at home with other women. It was impossible for us to sit together to talk, for my family meant little to me. My money was for me, and I alone had the right to decide on its management. This nightmare lasted four years, then I met the Word of God group and I began to go to church. It was then that my eyes were opened and I was able to realise all the harm I had done to my wife until then, and to myself as well. I understood, through various sharings and testimonies, that I had to love her as Jesus loved his Church. I then stopped my life of debauchery and truly drew close to her. Today we are partners, companions, confidants. We get along so well that our own parents are jealous, for each of us energetically defends the other before his or her family. Several times my brothers called me a coward, saying that it was my wife who commanded me. On the other side, her family says that I have bewitched her. Yet it is simply the love that God has placed in our hearts. When we realised that, despite our commitment, we were living in the sin of impurity, we decided to stop having relations until our marriage in the Church. We thus lived a life of abstinence for a year while living under the same roof and sleeping in the same bed. Our marriage in the Church took place in good conditions, with our parents. This allowed us to understand how much Jesus loves us and how he approved of our union. Since the marriage, love has grown even more between us, to the point where difficulties no longer shake us, for love is above all. Our children are more fulfilled, for joy, peace and love radiate through the house. We have decided to begin living our paradise in marriage. Testimony of X, gathered by Henri Bayemi”

November 12, 2016