A Testimony From Bruno

I grew up, like most young people in my village, with a certain amount of ignorance. In my area, people have the habit of blowing off sin as "what everybody does".  Even if it is bad, "everyone does it" and it's not serious. 

As kids, we were in a group called "Boys for Christ", directed by Samuel, the son of missionaries who translated the New Testament into our mother tongue. I can assure you that the basis of my biblical knowledge comes from what I learned in this group. Samuel created BFC when we were still small. In this group, our principal activity was prayer.  We prayed one for another, each one with his prayer partner.  We fasted, we shared simple meals like the first Christians, and sometimes had all-night prayer meetings. All of this was enriching, and helped us grow in our faith.  Quite a number of kids were members of BFC.  The influence of this group is still perceptible in the lives of its (former) members.  Some of the kids are already married.

When Samuel left for high school, the group disbanded.  The result is that in my village, there are people who know the Word of God – but they mix knowledge of God with traditional religion, and even worse than that, worldliness.  This is syncretism. 

For young people, it is difficult to overcome sexual desires, and there is no longer the fear of punishment that the Kwanja traditions threatened.  The thing that encourages sexual liberty for young people around here is "The Ball" (these are all-night parties). I was, like most others, obsessed by "The Ball", and I didn't know how I could break free of it.  But in 2005, I had a conversation with a missionary. After that, I knew that when I went to a ball, I was exposing myself to sin.  The phrase that grabbed my attention was "Just because everybody does something doesn't make it to be not a sin."  That really got me, because I went to balls to drink and dance because everybody did it, and if I didn't do it too, I wouldn't be a real man.   After that conversation, by the grace of God, I never again went to a ball.  And I am very happy about it! 

Now I help others who, like me, would like to break free of this habit.  I just give them practical advice.  I don't want my words to condemn them, or cause them to avoid me. As everyone knows, adolescence is a difficult time of life. I often converse with many young people who are serious about their lives when I am there (in the village), but when I go back to school (Bible College) their behavior changes.  There are, however, a few who live their lives respecting God's ways, like Anatole, Marshall, and Roger.  I do thank God that all who were part of BFC are still alive and well. Please pray for a life of faith for the following young men:  Jida, Alexander, Amasumu, Delmas, Désiré, Bernard, Bosco, Edward, Apollinaire.

And pray for me, that I will be an instrument that God will use to help young people in my village, in neighboring villages, and places where I went to school.  It is difficult to work with youth – but it is absolutely essential that we do it! 

Sammy Weber - A Summary of My Life - God's Power in My Weakness (2 Cor. 12:9)

One of my earliest memories is of my mother reading to me from a children’s Bible.  My mom read the Bible to me every night as I went to sleep, beginning even before I was born.  When I was three, I began to comprehend what these Bible stories meant. I heard the story of Jesus and how he died on the cross for me to save me from hell, the place I deserved to go because of all the bad things I did.  As I understood this story, it touched my heart. Then when I heard of Jesus rising from the dead, I was excited. By the compelling of the Holy Spirit, I decided there in my three year-old mind that since Jesus loved me so much, I would love Him too. I would live my life for Him and tell other people about Him. A few months later, my mother read me the story of St. Paul. I somehow knew in my heart that God wanted me to be like him, and tell people about Jesus who had not yet heard.  I also knew from that point on that I will someday suffer for Jesus too.

When I was about seven is when I first started to actively share my faith with my peers.  I was growing up in a small village called Yimbere, in the Adamouwa province of Cameroon.  I started a children's choir and taught my friends many of the Bible stories that I had learned.

When I was twelve I started a young men's discipleship group called "Fils Pour Christ", in English "Boys for Christ".  There were about 30 members of this group.  We did all sorts of fun things together.  We held all-night prayer meetings, went on evangelism trips to nearby villages, and studied the Bible together.  Since most of my friends were not yet literate, and since my Dad had not yet finished the Kwanja New Testament, I usually told Bible stories to them in Kwanja from memory, rather than reading to them.  I got to see many of them mature in the Lord.

When I was fourteen I left home for boarding school in Yaounde, the capital city of Cameroon.  I was there for most of high school.  Yaounde is about a day's drive from Yimbere, so I only saw my parents on breaks.  Let me share with you something that God did in my life my 9th grade year.

In eighth grade I had been praying time and time again, "Lord, make me humble before you.  Do whatever it takes to make me humble".  In 9th grade God began to answer that prayer.  You see, I had grown up knowing that someday I was going to be an evangelist and tell many people about Jesus.  I had grown up knowing that God's hand was upon me, and that His blessing was with me.  Unfortunately though, I had not grown up always realizing that this had absolutely nothing to do with me, my merit, or my "giftedness".

Now don't get me wrong.  I did know that everything is by grace, and that if I ever accomplished anything for God it would only be by His enablement.  However, I often thought that he would enable me partly because I was a good tool, because I was a well fitted instrument, a gifted vessel.  God needed to show me how very wrong I was.                                             When I entered 9th grade, there were a number of things that I thought I was gifted at.  I considered myself to be a good singer, a good actor, a good public speaker, a good soccer player, and very good at anything involving Bible knowledge.  Up to that point, those things had been fairly true. 

During all of 9th grade I was unable to sing without my voice cracking because my voice was changing, and when I auditioned for the drama group, I got put on stage crew.  When I tried to share a devotional in front of the student body my hand was shaking so badly I couldn't even read my notes.  I spent most of the soccer season on the bench, and my grade in Bible class left much to be desired!  In the end, when all of these things hit home, I looked up to God and cried, "Lord, if I am not gifted in all these things, then what is the gift that you have specially given me?"  His reply came in a still small voice, louder than a thought but softer than a voice.  "I give you your weakness".

It took me almost a year to really understand what God meant by that.  You see, most people have been given certain gifts that they can use whenever they want.  They can use them for themselves, or they can use them for God, and at the end of time they will be judged accordingly.  But for me, God did something special.  He gave me weakness.  If I try to do anything in my own strength, I fail.  To this day, if I try to stand in front of a group of people without first praying for grace, I get insanely nervous.  However, if I pray first for God's enablement, I feel calm and look as though I've been speaking publicly all my life.  The same is true with nearly every other area of my life where I consider myself "gifted".  You see, God gave me my gifts in such a way that I have to hold them up to Him constantly in an open palm.  He did this as a safeguard for me, to keep me from relying on myself or thinking in some way that His using me is because of me, rather than being a pure act of His unfathomable grace.

Since that time God has graciously used me in many ways.  I started and led a prayer meeting at my high school for the last two years that I was there.  The year after I graduated from high school I worked as a full-time missionary in Cameroon, completing a summary-paraphrase translation of the Old Testament into Kwanja, and recording it onto cassette tapes in dramatized fashion.  I also did a lot of life-on-life discipleship during this time.

By God's grace my four years at Moody were also very fruitful for me both academically and in ministry that He allowed me to do among the Moody student body and in Chicago.  And now, God continues to be very gracious to me as I prepare to go to unreached peoples in Cameroon with the message of Christ, and to mobilize Cameroonian churches to do the same.