Fetish Ring Burning

Well,  I am still so very behind on blogging.  I am so sorry!  We shared this story in one of our last prayer letters but I wanted to put it here as well.  How the Lord works will never cease to amaze me.  And we are completely humbled that can be just a small part of how Christ is changing hearts and lives of the people here in Togo.

Several weeks ago John and the kids were able to attend a very special baptism service.  Ansley was still just a few days old, so I kept her and Aiden home.  They left around 7am and did not return until 4pm!  It was hot season and when they got home they were hot and exhausted but the girls were overflowing with excitement about what they saw.
  

One of the baptisms

Inside the bamboo walled church

Some of the church people

Some of the children. Aren't they beautiful!?

Listening to the service.

  

At  this service, one young man stood and shared his testimony.  After seeing an evangelistic film at church and hearing a Gospel presentation, he gave his heart to Christ. As he spoke, he shared how he as a young man had been given a ring by a charlatan (a fetish witchdoctor) who told him if he ever took the ring off that he would die, or be killed by spirits. 

As a testimony to his new faith in Christ, he brought the ring to church to be publicly removed and burned.

He removed his ring.

Burning the fetish ring outside of the church.

 

To many Americans, Fetishism and Animism seems like something of the past, but it is very much a part of so many people lives here in Africa.  Many times people go to "church" but then leave to practice fetishism out of fear of displeasing the spirits. This young man was publicly saying, "I am not afraid of the spirits anymore. I serve a mighty God."

What a step of faith for someone who was so deeply rooted in fetishism, what an example of how the Lord can change a heart, and what a testimony of the verse “Greater is HE that is in me, than he that is in the world”.