THE FIDELITY OF GOD

 

          One day after returning from the Fula village where I was evangelizing, I thought about God's faithfulness. He had said when I was still in Brazil. "I will break the bronze doors." And now looking back I could see how many doors the Lord had already broken.

 

 

           I remembered the first day I set foot on the Bafatense floor. He had gone there accompanied by some Guinean brothers who resided in the capital. We take with us pamphlets with biblical portions and messages in the dialects of Papel, Balanta, Fula and Mandinga. Our aim was just to "spy on the land".

            Some white colleagues had already tried to discourage us. One said, "Bafatá is a city completely dominated by witchcraft." “Only getting there feels the great oppression”. Another said: "There has already been an attempt to plant the church in that region twice, but without any success."

                  

          A brother told me that the word Bafatá means Great Iran and notable witchcrafts were practiced there both by the “Jambacosses” sorcerers of the animists and by the “Moors”, another category of sorcerers.

           Well, there we were with a bag full of pamphlets and our hearts overflowing with desire to gather many “fruits” in that land.

            Taking advantage of the movement of people at the fair, I risked an improvised speech trying to explain the reason for our visit. I spoke in Portuguese while the brothers translated into Creole and Balanta dialect.

           We then started distributing the literature. I was amazed to see the people's great interest in the tracts. Some tried to take it from the hands of others. Most of them, when they managed to pick up a pamphlet, would put it under their shirt and run away where they would lovingly crumple the paper and read it carefully.

             Thousands of tracts were distributed that day. I confess that I didn't really believe in what I had just seen. I thought that all that interest was just because it was distributed for free, as the country practically lived on donations. And that was another donation, I thought.

                 Only a year later, the church was already a living reality in Bafatá. The young people were witnessing how they had met Christ and why they considered themselves saved. At least three of them alluded to that day of the delivery of the leaflets. One of them was even more specific and said that that day he saw me talking at the fair and thought to himself: if this white man left his land full of comfort and beautiful things and came to this wilderness of the world, is it because this Jesus he speaks is true. And that very day he was converted to Christ.

           When I heard this, I cried and asked God's forgiveness for my unbelief.

             After delivering the literature that first day, we returned to the capital. We started to draw plans to invade the stronghold of the “famous sorcerers and their irans frightening people,” and deliver those people from the darkness in which they lived.               

            God spoke to us a lot at that time in Proverbs 24:11. "Deliver those who are destined for death, and those who are taken to the slaughter if you can remove them."

           We returned to Bafatá and rented a house. It was made of mud and covered with zinc sheets. With the landlord's permission, we started a small renovation and adaptations to make it more habitable.

             During the time that the renovation took place, I came from Bissau every week with three young believers to help with the housework. I cooked for us myself, as there was no restaurant there due to the post-war crisis the country was facing. There were several buildings with facades written on restaurants or a pasture house, showing certain perks from other times.

                One day I went down to the market to buy fish and tomatoes for lunch. Passing along a certain street I saw one of those restaurants with its doors open, several tables with white tablecloths and a movement of young men on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. I didn't ask anyone anything, nor did I buy the fish. I immediately returned to the house and told the brothers: take a shower, change your clothes, because today we are going to eat at the restaurant.

                They were a little scared, but they believed me. All ready then we left for lunch. When we stopped the car near the restaurant and started walking in that direction, we noticed a certain commotion among the young men who were there. One entered quickly, returning soon followed after a man who spoke Portuguese came to receive us.  I told him: we want to have lunch. He: no. He led us to a table that, from the look of it, seemed to be the main one. We take our places. Immediately all the boys also took the remaining seats at other tables and lunch was served.

            We had fish with mancarra broth, a very popular African food. Mancarra is translated as an archaic Portuguese peanut being used in the Creole language. The cook uses a fish, good species, cut into slices, spices to taste and takes to fire to cook with water covering the slices. When it is almost cooked, it adds the roasted peanut and ground made paste that transforms the water into a thick broth also seasoned with lemon juice. It’s served with white rice.

             Lunch was really great, but almost at the end one of the brothers unintentionally overheard the conversation at the other table and told me: - These guys are from the football team of the city and they are confusing you with a Portuguese coach coming from Lisbon to give a talk for them.

- Now it is too late to go back. We were lucky to get there before the Portuguese.

              I walked to the counter, asked to pay for four meals. You went back and forth, did some calculations, and finally we were able to pay and go home. On the way the brothers told me that restaurants only work under order!

             After the reform we moved to Bafatá. It was very difficult at first, but every day we went out to take the Word. "Psalm 126:6 - He who carries the precious seed, walking and weeping, will surely return with joy, bringing with him his sheaves".

           The church began to grow. There we found some converted brethren from other regions and began to congregate with us. Each day there were always new people attending the meetings. We started in a small room. At night it was almost impossible to be there because of the amount of hungry rats that all the time went up and down the walls. We used kerosene lamps to study the Word.

                     We then moved to a second hall where it was more airy and had electric lighting provided by a generator. Most of the members were boys. Five for each girl and ten young for each adult. The group of children was huge. We had believers from several different tribes, but the Alant race was prevalent.

   

                                        Evangelism on Sunday afternoons always worked well. We went out in groups of five people. A group for each place. We almost always returned bringing new listeners to the evening service.

               It was observed by the young people in the neighborhood where was the hall of the church that there were no conversions and the people there received the brothers with a certain coldness. Some promised to go to meetings and never went.

               A young brother, a fervent and dedicated believer, spent much time in prayer and never missed the services. She pleaded the blame to a lady known as Nhá X. This woman was a very respected sorceress for her witchcraft, heir to certain Irans feared by the people.

 

             We decided to put Mrs X as a target to be reached. The church bent the knee and prayed. One day we went in a group to visit her. The rest of the people prayed. We spoke of Jesus to her with translation into the Alant language. This woman accepted Jesus, prostrated herself before the King, asked forgiveness for her sins, promising never to engage in witchcraft.

              He destroyed many things related to the worship of the Irans. He went to church. He sang and prayed. He participated in everything in the life of the church. The brothers were all pleased with the transformation of Nhá X.

Three months later, Sister X fell ill. Despite constant visits and prayers, she continued to languish. Although she was quite old. I once asked him what year he was born. She told me: "It was when the earth shook the night, the birds flew from the trees in the dark and the jambacós Diouf came out of the house screaming, figa canhota, figa canhota".

              I didn’t understand anything, but the brothers who were with me, asked some more questions in Alanta and informed me that she was close to seventy years. And that the oldest people did not usually have to mark the number of the year in which they were born, but rather allude to the most important event of that year.

            The days were passing and Sister X was getting weaker and sicker. We were even hoping that God would take her at any time.

               One Sunday, the end of the service, I was preaching and when the closing I saw when someone came to the door of the hall spoke something to the deacon and he immediately came to where I was and told me in the ear: "Sister X sent word that she is going to make a sacrifice for Iran. Her family is all gathered in her house. She wants to see her brother before making the sacrifice".

 

            I left someone at the end of the meeting and with five other brothers we ran to the house of Sister X. Upon arriving we found the sister lying on a mat. On the table a lamp smoked next to a jug of capped cane wine with a piece of sabugo. At the table was a goat, white, tied and his whole family gathered around him.

 

            When I saw all that, I was really surprised. She explained that due to her illness one of her sons had consulted a known jambacós and he advised her to continue in the new religion in which she was now, but she had to make that last sacrifice to be free from her obligations to the Iranians.

            I told him: - This is a trap. If you sacrifice now, you will be confused. What is happening here is a struggle between darkness and light. If you stay with Jesus, He will honor your faith and you will be blessed, but if you sacrifice yourself you will be sinning against Christ.

 

           As Lady X’s son would not let me speak, for he spoke together all the time, while I advised him to go in the right way, he said: - You have to sacrifice. This white religion has only hindered your life. I suggested that while we prayed she would decide. As soon as we finished the prayer she would tell the path she had chosen. We prayed asking Jesus to heal that life and show all unbelievers that He was Lord for the honor and glory of His own name.

              Suddenly a scream was heard. Sister X rose from the ground quickly as if she were an eighteen-year-old girl. He started screaming, "Jesus healed me, Jesus healed me".

            She took the jug of cachaça and threw it in the yard. She untied the goat herself and kicked its ass. The animal without understanding anything ran away quickly through the darkness. The church had arrived there. Sister X said loudly:

     — It’s my fault. When I decided to be a believer I played only the simplest things I used in witchcraft. The most important ones I still have with me. I want in the presence of all to divest myself of all that is hidden and be only with Christ.

            He authorized the brothers to enter his room and under the bed to pick up the hidden objects and bring them to the yard to be burned. Many things have been found.         

It also said: "In Julian’s house there are more objects". The brothers went there and came back loaded.

                     "Now in the house of Bonn". The brothers went and fetched and brought. "In the house of Lamine is Iran such". Immediately someone went there and brought it. The fire became huge with bursts made of wood, straw, Patuás, amulets, the clay pots for the sacred food were broken with millstone.

    

                      The church took the occasion to sing in the Creole language the choir that says: "Di katiberasko, Jesus liberate, di katiberasko Jesus liberate". From bondage Jesus delivered me, from bondage Jesus delivered me.

            That woman was really blessed by God. She went down to a bathhouse on the banks of the Geba River. She prepared the land and planted many vegetables. He would get up at 5 o'clock in the morning. Daily he would water his garden. Then he would collect a huge basket and take it to the fair where he sold everything. All day he went to the service and took the daily tithe of everything he collected.

            He sent from Senegal plates of zinc. The masons removed the straw cover from his house. They erected the walls and covered with zinc. And daily God had a blessing for her. The church vibrated in the power of God. It opened the doors of conversion many people became believers by being born again and glorifying God.