Testimony - Genesis Tinshu, Pastor - Buea , Cameroon

" As a Pastor, I ought rather to serve the people. "

I had heard so much about Pastor Miki and the apostolic ministry. I was longing for an opportunity to be able to meet him and hear him speak. When I heard about this conference I started praying. I didn't have the money, but the Lord performed a great miracle to help me attend this conference.

What I have experienced in being here with the CTMI Family has been beyond my expectations. It is amazing how God is uniting hearts and people around the same gospel. It's something that I have not seen before; it doesn't exist in my country. I am so challenged for my own life, in my ministry.

Often, in conferences, you have reserved seating for apostles, bishops and pastors. Here everyone is the same; if you come first, you sit in front, and if you come late, you sit at the back.

One thing that is quite unique here is the fact that the visitors are lodged in homes of Mauritian brothers and sisters. They see the lives that these elders, brothers and sisters are living; their hospitality in opening their homes. It's not that they have much but the little that they have they share. In the same way, I should be able to open my home and receive brothers and sisters and just have this kind of wonderful fellowship with them. I stayed with one of the elders, Lindsay. Since I got married, I have never washed dishes. Every night, after dinner, Lindsay took the plates and started washing them. I could really see the heart of a servant in him.

We also spent a wonderful time with Brother Miki at his home. It was different from most cases today. When a man has been raised by God, you need to book for audiences with him and wait for days in hotels or receptions. But his simplicity is amazing. In Africa , titles and offices are being misused. Sometimes, when someone has the office of an apostle and you don't add apostle to his name he feels that you look down on him. In all these things we have to see ourselves as brothers and sisters, begotten by the same gospel, and living the same life for the glory of our Father.

As Christians, we must allow the cross to work in our lives. We must be ready to accept hardships and difficulties as a normal part of life. We must patiently endure because it is only as we do this that we can truly attain maturity. I think that is the foundation of the message; allowing the cross to work, break, mould, and fashion us.

Sometimes as leaders, there is a tendency, to think that others are there to serve us. As a pastor, I ought rather to serve the people, and I should to listen to their difficulties, asking the Lord for the grace to help them get through those problems, instead of trying to escape them.

At times, instead of humbling myself to accept my own faults, I try to justify myself: " I am the leader; I have this thing from God. We most work in this direction." That's the kind of attitude which I think will be different in me as I go back home.

The message of the cross has brought restoration to my wife and I. The cross of Jesus restores relationships between husband and wife, parents and children. I thank God, because I know now that my family has hope. He has shown us the way to go.

Through the messages of this conference the Lord truly changed my life. In my preaching, I will now seek to preach the cross and call people to live for the Lord, to ask Him to x-ray their lives; remove whatever is not of Him and fill them with His spirit

I have discovered that growth is not measured by how much scripture we can recite, by how much we pray, or how much we fast. Growth is measured by how much we lay down our lives and allow the cross to transform us .

It's really exciting. It's going to be fantastic to hold the first CTMI National Apostolic Conference in Cameroon in October. We are praying that the Lord would touch pastors and leaders all over the country, that they will come and humble their hearts; that the Lord will deal with all of us, deal with our hearts and submit us to his voice.