by Carl and Sharlene Pilkinton, Burkina Faso
19 January 2006

The second time we found the bag of human excrement outside our door we knew someone was doing magic against us.

I went to a moodibo (Muslim religious teacher) for help. He said I had to pay him 500 cfa (NZ$1.30) to help. I paid him. He handed me a pen and instructed me to think hard of the thing that was troubling me and then to spit on the pen, hand it to him and he would reveal the problem to me. I did as he said. He then told me that I was very sick. I said "No, that's not the problem." He then said that for him to further help I needed to bring him 24 white kola nuts and 24 red kola nuts. Kola nuts were very expensive; I could not afford it.

I decided to try the God of my late husband. He was from the Mossi tribe and a Christian. He prayed every morning and evening and read the Bible. He'd get me to read the Bible, too. I did it just to please him, not because I believed. After my husband died, I went back to live with my family, and I went back to praying my Muslim prayers five times a day. But now I was desperate. I prayed to my husband's God for three days, morning and night. The only Scripture from the Bible that I remembered was from Proverbs 2:4-5 which says to "seek after God like you seek after money." I prayed to God to show me if Jesus really is His Son.

On the third night, a bright light, brighter than the light of a kerosene lamp, flooded my room. I knew Jesus was real. The next morning, my daughter and I were outside the house preparing to go to my work at the local high-school. I tried to move, but my feet were stuck in place. And then a woman came and dropped a bag in front of the door to our yard. I knew she was the one.

I went to work and came home at lunch time. At 2 o'clock I went to that woman's house. I said, "Why have you been putting excrement in front of our gate?" She denied it. I said, "I know it was you. God held me in place and made me see that it was you." The woman started to cry. I said I forgave her, and I went home. Since then, I have followed Jesus Christ. Almost a year later, on a Sunday, I tried to go to the Djibo AOG church. Up to this point I was not attending church. I got to the gates, but I was scared . . . scared of what my family and other Fulani would say. I turned around and came home. I didn't go back.

The next year God sent a Fulani believer to me. I had never met another Fulani who believed in Jesus. Her name was Haoua. One morning she came to my school to pay for her relative's school fees. She saw me reading a Christian book and asked me, "Do you believe?" I said, "Yes, I believe." She said, "I believe, too." My heart was filled with joy because I had thought I was the only Fulani who believed in Jesus.

The next Sunday, she took me to the Fulani church in Djibo. I have been going there ever since. I was baptised in Djibo, and my life has changed. I now seek God through the Word of God. In the past I was always tired and dissatisfied because I desired money and clothes and was angry when I couldn't get them. I said bad things about people. Now I'm not angry like before.

I know God is protecting me. One night as I slept I heard a knock at the door. I went outside but no one was there. I looked around my bed with a torch (flashlight) and found a scorpion. I got my shoe and crushed it. I believe God woke me up to protect me.

I pray that God will bless all who hear my story and your families and that you will believe in Jesus his Son.