With a humble spirit, yet powerful conviction, Moïse Toumoudagou, the district superintendent of Bénin, stood before the leaders of the Africa West Field in Accra, Ghana. With his usual smiling demeanor, he began to share from his heart.  His formal French introduction, giving God thanks for life and health and safety, took on deeper meaning this day. In his hospital room just days before he shared a testimony of how God has been protecting his life.

A man from northern Bénin had called him and told him he desperately needed to see him.  Moïse explained to the man that he was in the hospital, but the man insisted he should come and Moïse agreed to see him. 

The work in the Sahel Corridor, the border area between the Sahara Desert and the savannah to the south, has had miraculous growth in the last year.  Churches of the Nazarene have been multiplying across this region in rapid fashion but not without resistance or sacrifice.  The man confessed that when he had first met Moïse, he and his friends had opposed his ministry in their villages. 

The first time the church planting team visited their area, the word of its effectiveness spread.  He and his friends were going to make sure the team did not affect their village.  They were members of other religions in that village, and so they plotted against him.

They decided to poison his water during the several days that Moïse and his pastors were teaching and preaching. Moïse worked hard alongside the pastors, and many new people came to Christ. A church was planted that week, so they went home leaving the new believers with assigned leaders who would disciple them over the next few months. 

The man said they were surprised that their poison had not worked.  Neither Moïse nor any of his team had died or even become sick.

The second time Moïse visited that area in follow up to the growing faithful believers, the disgruntled men decided that they would invoke the spirits against Moïse. The man and his friends went through their voodoo incantations, throwing the forces of evil against him. They planned that the bus would crash and kill Moïse on his return trip.  They were confident that they would hear of his demise. Instead the news came that Moïse had arrived safely home.  Once again they were surprised that their plans had failed.

The third time they heard Moïse was returning, they went to the most powerful spiritual elder in the village and paid 500,000 CFA (about $1,200 USD) for a strong fetish that would destroy this man and his influence on their village.  In a village where the average person might only make $2 a day in wages, this represented a huge sacrifice of resources among these men to try and stop the gospel from spreading in their village.  What a surprise they faced when Moïse was not even fazed by their third scheme against him, and the small band of believers in their village seemed to be growing in number and faith.

This man then confessed to Moïse that it was this final test that convinced him that he was fighting against a true man of God; that the things he had put his trust and faith in were useless and ineffective.  The man abandoned his group, came to watch the JESUS Film, gave his life to Christ, and is now among the believers working to disciple others and to open another church in the a nearby village.  The same men that he used to walk with are now plotting against him, too. The man wanted Moïse to pray for him that God would protect his life in the same way that God had protected Moïse.

Moïse testified that he never knew about these plots to kill him.  He prayed with the man and sent him back to the village with confidence that God would protect him and that he should not be afraid but should trust God.  Moïse said with a beaming smile, “I praise God for sending his angels to protect me even when I didn’t know my life was in danger.”  It is hard not to be moved in your spirit when you hear of such miraculous faith or the power of one radically obedient servant of God carrying out the great commission in a place that desperately needs the gospel.



I praise God today for our gentle giant Moïse.  Every part of his testimony represents the power of one radically obedient partner with God.  Would you pray for the men of faith who battle against the very gates of hell for the souls of men?  

-- Timothy R. Eby is the field partnership coordinator for the Africa West Field.