My birthplace was in the Republic of Benin. When I came to the Apostolic Faith Church in September of 1967, I was ill with chronic anemia. I was fifteen years old, but could not attend school because I was too weak. My skin became very pale and everyone who saw me thought I was going to die soon. Yet, when I went to church, the people of God told me to forget about my illness and pray to Jesus for salvation. I did that, and Jesus saved me from my sins! Later, He also healed me. Though I cannot say exactly when the illness left, in time I saw that it was gone and I was able to start attending school. The God who raised Lazarus is still alive today!

That was only the beginning of what God has done for me. He also sanctified me and baptized me with the Holy Spirit. Then, several years after I had been saved, I experienced another severe illness. This time, it was caused by influenza. I was living at the parsonage with my pastor and became so weak that I went into a comatose state, but ministers prayed for me and God woke me up.

Because of the way God had spared my life, I always knew He had a plan for my future. He started to lead and guide my path, and He never left me. After I finished school, He gave me a job through a brother at church, and from there my career slowly developed.

In 1986, God undertook for me when I was in a terrible car accident. There were three of us in the vehicle traveling from the city of Cotonou in Benin to Lome, a city in Togo. The person sitting next to me died from his injuries. I survived but was left unconscious and had a broken femur. When I woke up, I was in a hospital and was asking, “Where am I? What happened?” Then I was taken back to Cotonou and my leg was set in a cast.

At a follow-up appointment a month later, the doctors found that my bones were not properly aligned, and because of that, I would never be able to walk again. However, God did another miracle in my life. My pastor visited me and I spoke to him about my prognosis. He asked me if I had faith in God, and I told him I did. Then, he told me to go home, and that he would send brothers from the church who minister to the sick to treat me at home. When they came, they removed my cast and reset the bone. Jesus caused it to heal perfectly, and today, I am still walking and even traveling, glory to God! His plan for me has not stopped yet.

In time I married and had children. I worked as a sales representative for an office equipment company in Cotonou and my work was going well. However, things changed and suddenly my work was not going well. That was a very difficult time for me. I felt like I had no future—it seemed there was no way for my family to survive. I later realized that was also part of God’s plan. Through those circumstances, He brought our family to Paris, France, where He had work for me. There, I started a private security business, and it thrived! When God has a plan, the devil cannot stop it.

My wife and I have three sons and two daughters. One of the girls was born in 1984 and contracted polio as a baby. By 1986 was left completely bedridden. When our family arrived in France in 2002, she took all her meals in her bed and could not go anywhere on her own. But God helped her to the point that she has some ability to walk, and today she is a mother herself. Our God is a God of miracles!

Another answer to prayer happened after I attended the camp meeting in Norway one year. After departing Norway, I stopped over in Cotonou on my way to a wedding in Ivory Coast. I didn’t know it at the time, but all the long flights had caused me to develop a blood clot in my leg. I went to a check-up at a hospital in Cotonou, and the doctor admitted me immediately. The blood clot was already traveling through my body—if it had gotten to my brain, I could have been seriously impaired or even died, but God spared me again.

The Lord not only provided for my business in France, but I found out that He also had a mission for me there. After living in Paris for a few years, we established the first Apostolic Faith group in the country. Though there were very few of us, the Lord was with us and blessed us. In 2014, I was ordained as the first pastor in Paris, and the Lord helped me fill that role until I retired last year. Since my first visit to our headquarters church in Portland, Oregon, I have been touched to know that the labor of faithful Gospel workers from past generations reached me, all the way on the other side of the world. My hope is that as I benefited from them, future generations will also benefit from our labor in France, and will give glory to God.

God has resurrected my life in every way—my soul, my health, my finances, my emotions, and my family were all raised up through His power. God is so good! He has been with me in the valleys and on the mountaintops. I know He has a purpose for my life, and I want to be worthy of His calling and worthy to see Him in Heaven someday.