Shalom to all!

I am Sister Binta Amadou, from the Fulani Muslim community. Among the Fulani, Islam is like a cultural heritage. This is why it is rare to find a Fulani who is not Muslim. My uncle Bouraïma is the grand imam of our family. He is the most respected and honored member of our family for his knowledge of Islamic maraboutism. Religion was therefore imposed on me by birth, and I had no choice but to practice it with all my zeal. As I grew up, I began to develop a passion for my religion because of the outward purity of dress, solidarity during Ramadan and other events such as various Islamic holidays, and the pilgrimage to Mecca etc. Everything struck me as the best religion in the world that could exist. I could not conceive that there could be another way to salvation besides Islam. My mother was more respected by the Islamic authorities of Porga (a border town of Benin and Burkina Faso). In fact, she was so zealous for Islam that she never missed any of her daily prayers. Even in illness, she remained faithful to her prayers. My mother was my perfect model of a religious woman that I wanted to imitate. She had taken religion very seriously despite being illiterate. I gave myself completely to religion because of my mother. I began by being noticed and very loved by the central imam of the town and several other Muslim authorities because of my dress and my Islamic devotions. From time to time, I received advice from high dignitaries of Islam who encouraged me to become more attached to Islam. While I was in 9th grade, after returning from a trip to Burkina Faso, I learned with astonishment that someone wanted to give me in marriage to a Muslim. This was a common practice in Islam. Especially among the Fulani, where one can give a little girl to an old man who could be her grandfather. I was very categorical in my refusal without any pressure from my parents because I wanted to continue my studies. But I was afraid that this marriage issue would arise again. So I decided to emigrate to Parakou, another city in Benin, to easily continue my studies. I had no one in the city I was going to. That’s when I met a man who offered to help me continue my studies in the new city. This man helped me a lot. But later it became a contract. He helped me in the hope that I would become his wife after my baccalaureate. We were engaging in sexual immorality and I saw that I owed my whole life to him. It was in Parakou that I first came into contact with Christians who harassed me with the gospel. First, in the house where I rented and almost everyone I met spoke to me about Jesus. But I paid no attention and their message did not penetrate me at all. Under pressure from my landlord, I went once to their church just to please him. That day, I knelt down in my room upon my return to implore Allah’s forgiveness for this great sin that I had just committed. I resolved never to attend it again. But some time later, this remorse of considering it a sin to have set foot in the church left me, and I accepted the invitation of another Christian. I began by attending this church a few Sundays ago. But I understood nothing of what they did in the church. I was a stranger to this cult. So I returned to the village to learn more about Christians from one of my uncles who was advanced in the religion. When I told him about my experience in churches, he knew that the Christians wanted to turn me away from the Muslim faith. So from about 8 p.m. until 1 a.m. or 2 a.m., he gave me a real brainwashing about Islam and the Christian faith. He first started by explaining to me that at the end of his ministry, Jesus announced to the Christians that Muhammad would come and that in his time, everyone would have to follow Muhammad. But since Muhammad was from the Arab tribe, the Christians rejected him. It was difficult for me to understand that God allowed there to be two contradictory religions. But he reassured me that it was not God’s plan but the revolt of the Christians. To convince me, he gave me the example of a former president who had finished his term and a person who refused to submit to the new president. I was truly convinced that the Christians had rebelled against God’s order from this example. Then he started telling me false stories about Muhammad to show me the supremacy of Muhammad over all other prophets. These were many made-up stories that are not written anywhere in the Quran, nor in the Sunnah of Muhammad. Among the things he told me, there was one that I could not forget and that convinced me the most. He told me that Muhammad had predicted that to the ends of the earth where day and night rise, a Muslim will be found everywhere on earth. This was to prove to me the truth of Islam by the number of Muslims that exist everywhere on the earth today. After this meeting of about 6 hours, I was convinced that Islam is the only truth for the salvation of every man. I don’t know how to explain it, but I began by immediately feeling a deep hatred for everything related to the Christian faith, especially Christians. I saw them as wicked rebels who work to lead others to go astray like them. So I returned to Islam with this time a dose of antidote against the gospel and I had become like a ferocious beast that a Christian could not approach at the risk of being devoured. To give myself the assurance that I was on the right path, I celebrated Ramadan with my sister in our Islamic attire. There were people at the feast of breaking the fast. So I said to my sister: look at this crowd and they are all Muslims and the Christians wanted to seduce us to lead us to perdition. But the more I sought support to assure myself of my salvation in Islam, other Christians approached me with the gospel. It was as if I was the only one to whom they should preach Jesus. One day, while I was reading a small brochure that a Christian had given me, doubt about Islam was sown in me. I became dejected and sad. My quest for the truth began that day because I had started by following the testimonies of former Arab Muslims and many other testimonies. Each time, I asked my imams questions about my discoveries without a satisfactory answer. I shared my state of confusion with a Christian friend who led me to his sister so that we could discuss it. I was still in my state of confusion after my meeting with his sister. Indeed, nothing she said was an answer to my worries. But we remained friends nonetheless. One day, while the sister and I were talking, a former Muslim who was one of Brother Bernadin’s disciples visited the sister. As I understood that he was a former Muslim, I asked him the fate of all Muslims in Islam. He confirmed that it was hell and told me about his experience to prove to me that Islam is an invention of the demons. It was a shock for me. The next day, I asked the sister to take me to her church so that I could meet her pastor. And on Sunday morning, the Sister took me to her church. At the end of the service, I met the pastor. It was Brother Bernadin. It was as if he had already been waiting for me. In fact, he spoke with me for about three hours, demonstrating the falsehood of Islam and the truth of the gospel. I heard things that I I have never known about Islam and Muhammad since I was born. The difference between this interview and the one I had with my uncle is that Pastor Bernadin supported his arguments with biblical references, passages from the Quran and the Sunnah. It was as if my eyes had been blindfolded since birth and the blindfold had just been removed. Everything became clear to me. I looked at the pastor, I looked at the Muslim community and I realized how many times we have been deceived, how many times Islam has led billions of people to hell. I was convicted of sin, I thought about my soul and I told the pastor that I am ready to receive the Lord Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior. Pastor Bernadin led me to the Lord through the prayer of repentance. Since that day I have not known a single doubt; I had the assurance of my salvation. An assurance that I could not explain to anyone. I simply knew that I was saved. After being convinced that there is no salvation in any other name besides the name of Jesus, another phase of my life stood before me. I should choose to live the true Christian life which consists of renouncing my idols. I had many idols in my heart. It was a mother’s love. My mother was my idol. Also there was a man whom I claimed to love, my ambitions and my plans. When my mother learned of my conversion, she disowned me as her daughter, and forbade me to come to her funeral after her death. She said that I was a shame to her. She was sure that I would renounce my faith for her. But I was firm. So, she calmed down a little, and gently, she began by reminding me of the promises she had made to me when I would be ready to get married, and the promises I myself had made to make her happy and how I swore to unfailing obedience to her will etc. But all this could not harm my faith. As my mother tried in vain to bring me back to Islam, she went to entrust me to the alpha marabouts so that they would turn me away from the Christian faith by a spell. Headaches were excruciating to the point where even in church, I could not follow the program. I had lain down in church because of the pain. At the end of the program; I informed Pastor Bernadin that I had unbearable headaches. With authority, he asked me to kneel. I only saw where he placed his hand on my head to pray. It was after that that I found myself lying on the ground, not knowing how I ended up on the ground. But as soon as I got up, the headaches disappeared and never came back. When I got home that same day, my mom called me to ask if I had finally renounced my faith or not. I told her that it is now that she has completely strengthened herself, so she told me openly that there is nothing more to do to win me back and she hung up on me. A great idol has just been overthrown in my heart. Then comes the man who had supported me for 3 years and to whom I had promised marriage, and who took all his time to wait for me after my baccalaureate so that we could get married. It was really difficult for me to tell him that the marriage plan no longer holds. The shock was too strong on both sides. I had the constant remorse of betraying someone who supported me. My conscience condemned me as if I owed him something if I did not marry him. He also blackmailed me a lot under the pretext that he had helped me with his property and in turn, I was ungrateful to him. I was almost seduced. But one day, Pastor Bernadin instructed me again. It was a phrase from the pastor that delivered me. He told me that what I call help is actually just a contract and another form of prostitution. That if the man had helped me without knowing me as a woman in return, we can talk about help. But pretending to help someone and in return enjoying their body is not help but a contract. It was a great deliverance for me. I realized that I owe nothing to this man. He helped me but in return, he had sex with me. It was just prostitution in another form and I should repent of it. That is how I ended up with the second idol. Then came the turn of my plans. My intention after the baccalaureate was that I should get married and go to Ghana to study English with my uncle but right after my baccalaureate, I was seized by Jesus. Thus, all these idols crumbled one after the other to give way to love for the Lord and for His work. The adventure in Christ began with new challenges. Who will take care of me? Who will take care of my university studies? How will I live? It was truly a worry since I had renounced all the unjust sources that helped me. It was in this worry that I experienced the goodness and faithfulness of God. Pastor Bernadin took me with him and granted me hospitality. He treated me like his own daughter, he taught me about a book he wrote himself entitled “Influenced the Invisible Universe” along with many other treatises he wrote on the Islamic faith and the Christian faith, and I was strengthened day after day in the faith. I read his treatises and the spiritual books of Brother Zach that I found at the sisters because I wanted to understand everything about Islam and the Christian faith. What has most strengthened my faith was the courses I followed in the training school of the missionaries of Brother Bernardin, ARRC (Academy of Research in Comparative Religion). These courses really edified me. Through these courses, I understood that with Muslims, we do not worship the same God and that the god of Islam is the god of the Kaaba, it is Satan himself in person and that Muslims are lost forever if we Christians do nothing for their salvation. With all that I understood through the broadcasts and treatises of Pastor Bernardin, a Muslim can no longer stay in front of me and can never contradict me on the Christian or Islamic faith. I truly bless the Lord for the life of Brother Bernadin who gave himself body, mind and soul for my salvation. Today, I am one of his co-workers for the conquest of Muslims and the Fulani in particular. May all the glory go to the Lord Jesus.