Divine Bud: Testimonies of God�s intervention

3. Miraculous Recoveries

19 Chapter 3 Miraculous Recoveries Why speak about God’s intervention? If you look at the jungle, when some animals eat others, is it God who wanted it that way? Think about the malnourished children in Ethiopia that you might have seen on TV. Or the massacres in Rwanda, is it God who willed it? Think about the earthquakes and other natural catastrophes that kill thousands of people. Think mostly about the Muslims and the Christians. Most wars are done in the name of God. Do the Christians and the Muslims have the same God? If he is the true God, why doesn’t he let us live in peace? Take the Christians. There are among them several sects. Each sect says that its God is the true God. The Protestants sometimes do not consider Catholics as true Christians. Catholics sometimes suspect Protestants. For example, when talking about saints, only Catholics have saints. Does it mean that Protestants do not have saints? What about the Muslims? What about the Jews? So many people believe in God. So many people believe that they have been praying the right God. Because we are in Cameroon, there is this problem of ancestors. The problem is mostly acute among the Bamileke who are very much attached to their traditions. They believe that the ancestors are the intermediary between them and God. Is this still the same God? In what follows, I will be reporting stories written by my sociolinguistics students about what they believe has been God’s intervention either in their lives or in the lives of their 20 closest friends. Most of those stories will reveal that God is present among us. God is not an administrative God as the way he seems to be presented in the Catholic religion. For the Catholics, you have to abide by certain rules, created by theologians, in order to be heeded by God. Priests see themselves as closer to God, and they sometimes scare us if we disobey them because they think they are closer to God. In their minds, and as human beings, they know that they are not. God is God. We will never reduce him into what we want him to be. Although we had been praying him for Georgina, the way he responded was to call Georgina back to him. That was the very best decision. We do not know what would have happened to Georgina in terms of suffering or to us as her parents. God is almighty. He knows our past, our future and he knows what is best for us. Even when we are in the most difficult situations, God is never absent. But God wants us to call on him, to pray him in order for him to intervene in our lives. The stories you will hear are testimonies where God continues to make miracles just as he did during the time of Christ. While I was pondering these issues in my mind, Margaret entered my office. She had heard that I had lost my daughter and she wanted to present her condolences. As I had told the students that I would prepare something to celebrate Georgina’s recovery when she would return from Ghana, she reminded me that I do not have to feel sad. In fact, she was pleased to see that I was not that sad and that she could easily talk to me. “You know what! I have always wanted to give you a personal testimony to show you that God does intervene in our lives. But, I have not had time to write it down. I have 21 even started, but somehow, I succeeded to only write one page,” said Margaret. “I hope it is a real testimony, the kind of testimony that can really bring people to change their lives,” I answered her. “You will never find that kind of testimony. What do you mean the kind of testimony that can change people’s lives?” “Well, take our political authorities for example. Most of them claim that they are Christians. I see many of them at Mont Febe. I know some of them have even been asking 100 masses at Mont Febe for a relative of theirs who died. And yet, they are still the same people through whom a lot of injustice is perpetuated. I know that they are sometimes the agents of corruption. I have always wanted...