“Today we commit ourselves to God until the time that he calls us to our eternal home. We are happy that our names are in the Book of Life. Today we are among the disciples of Jesus, and we pray that many of you will also choose to follow God.”

Tenny said, “I want to thank God for the wonderful opportunity I have had to come into his love and eternal life. Before I allowed God to change my life I was a difficult, violent man. I had little tolerance for anyone. When someone did me wrong I instantly took revenge. I gave evil for evil. I drank palm wine. I chased women. I worshipped idols and went to the sorcerers. I wore fetishes, and was a priest at a sacred tree.

“Before I came to Jesus I had terrible dreams almost every night. Now I pray to God every night and those bad dreams are a thing of the past.

“When I started studying the Bible, I learned that the idols we create will come back to condemn us. We had wooden idols all around our house, and they were always demanding payment from us. If we did not satisfy them they had the power to kill us.

“I told the person responsible for the sacred tree that I didn’t want to have anything to do with idol worship any more because now I am a follower of Jesus. Now when my children are sick I pray to God for healing.

“We are among the first to be converted here, but I hope to see the members of my family and my friends and neighbors join us as part of the new people of God in Guinea Bissau.”

Dauda said, “Today I am a new person. Some months ago when I began to study the Bible I started to see the bad things I was doing -- stealing, lying, and participating in demonic ceremonies. Today I have left all those evil things behind, and I am following the new way of Jesus. I am learning how to be his disciple. I want to share the good news of Jesus with everyone.

“I used to drink a lot of palm and cashew wine. When I was drunk I had dreams and visions of dead bodies, sexual sin, and lots of money. Now Jesus has taken the place of all those evil things. I have given my life to Jesus, asking him to transform me. I want to invite all my friends here in the village to join us in leaving the bad things of the world and come to follow Jesus.”