The Muslim community of Étoudi in Yaoundé.
11/07/2024Hello!
I abundantly thank our Lord Jesus Christ for the privilege he gives us to be counted among the living. My message is very long, thus I beseech your indulgence and ask you to read me to the end.
I am Emmanuel Fékou, by the grace of God, I have been an Internet Evangelist and online missionary for a little more than 20 years. I am not a robot, nor a scammer.
I stepped on the Internet in the late 1999’s and early 2000’s; I am known more virtually than physically. There are numerous articles about me and the ministry I am in charge of both on the Internet and in magazines, books and physical newspapers. You can see this by searching on Google with my common name -Emmanuel Fékou-. You can equally visit my personal website at http://fekoume.
Long before the advent of social media, I received a direct order from the Lord: to use the Internet for evangelisation, discipleship and prayer. Thus, since the early 2000s, I have been using digital strategy to spread the message of the gospel, winning souls to Christ, discipling them and mobilising the church in prayer for the nation, acting as a pioneer of online evangelism in Cameroon. I also have a call in the teaching of the Word, which I strive to do being convinced that only a combined action of the word of God and prayer under the action of the Holy Spirit can change the hearts of men.
To accomplish the vision and fulfil the missions assigned to me by the Lord, I published at the beginning of the 21st century the very first Christian Internet Web portal of Cameroon on the Internet, which I called http://CameroonforJesus.net – The Christian Gateway to Cameroon. It has been online all this time, although a bit abandoned.
Between 2010 and 2015, I had (through the association ‘Objectif Cameroun’ whose activities I coordinate) a content aggregation and strategy agreement with MTN Cameroon for the production and distribution of Christian’s contents on their network via the service I called BibleSms.
From 2010 to 2012, I put in place the PrayerSms service, which consisted on sending prayer topics for the nation to mobile phone users.
From 2012 to 2015, I coordinated the online evangelisation and follow-up activities of Top Chrétien (http://TopChretien.com) for French-speaking Africa with an office in Yaounde, which allowed me to take part in the Jesus.net conference at the headquarters of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Centre at Charlotte, North Carolina and missionary trips to both Congo and Nigeria to train churches on online evangelism and discipleship.
Those who have been following me since the beginning of my online ministry have undoubtedly noticed a slackening in my activities over the past 7 years. There is a reason for that. I went through very difficult times that I cannot explain in detail here.
However, I will try to give few points.
I have gone through tough times since 2016, which has caused a slackening in my active service to, for, and with the Lord. Most of the services and resources I used in my online work got missing. I even doubted that I ever heard the Lord’s call. If he really called me, why am I going through so much trouble? I had the clear impression that I no longer have anything to do in the Lord’s field, especially with regard to digital strategy. Technology has evolved so much, I have not updated myself in the meantime, and as I was no longer in active service, I “lost” many ministry partners.
From 2017 to 2020, I took care of my dad who had a road accident that resulted in his death in 2022 at the age of 86.
I have been a full-time dad between May and December 2020 for my wife had an internship opportunity in an NGO in the far north of Cameroon while we were living in Yaoundé. I acted as a stay-at-home dad with the children for 7 months.
In 2021, I registered through T-Net International into a theological training with Teleo University of Minneapolis where I graduated with a Master of Divinity in June 2023, thanks to the support of many donors.
I seized the opportunity of this situation to refine my relationship with God and receive new orientations for the ministry. I spent time in fasting, prayer and supplications to God… What should I do Lord? What is the next step to take? Relaunching the digital ministry? But from which end to take and where to start again?
I prayed to God either for a new beginning in the ministry, or if He feels He is done with me as far as the ministry is concerned, to open doors for a well-paid job so that I may not only occupy myself but have a source of income to take care of my family. At least I have some academic and technical qualifications that would allow me to find a job and work even as a driver or janitor. I spreaded my resume all over the place and responded to numerous job vacancies in various organisations to no avail.
One day, one of my resumes was successful. I was «short listed» for a vacancy I had applied at the US Embassy in Yaounde. I passed the written test (French, English, IT), practical test (driving) and oral test. Then, I was never called back. I was not even notified if my test were successful or not. I had started to rejoice at the idea of having a position at the United States Embassy.
I hoped to have a follow-up, especially because among the people conducting the tests was a woman who recognised me, for she had been following my online activities for a while and I was very close to her husband pastor who often tells her about me. I had an assurance… However, the Lord had decided otherwise. I have never received even a negative response from this test. All things working for the good of those who love God and God doing all things for a purpose, I learned the lesson behind this situation. It is not giving me a job position outside of the ministry he called me to which is difficult to him. He only has other plans for me and I have to trust him.
O Lord, this has been going on for 7 years. I have a stay-at-home wife who had abandoned her projects to engage with me in the ministry and four children to take care of and the daily life to manage after all. Imagine the position and psychological state of a man who brings nothing home as money, what state of mind he might be in. However, I have no other recourse but to look up to the Lord. At least I have to keep myself busy with something even if the occupation is not giving money. Being idle is worse than lacking money.
The Lord moved his little finger. We wanted to take advantage of our proximity to schools to carry out an income-generating activity. Some of my wife’s friends offer us a brand new ice-cream machine. For the past three years, my wife and I have been selling ice cream at a crossroads, but even being there, I keep on asking the Lord. “Is this what my life is reduced to? Selling ice cream? That is ONLY what I have to do for the moment, even if I do not understand what I am doing here; at least it allows us to manage the daily despite frequent blackouts.
However, I kept praying to the Lord to know what would be next. My crossing of the desert (my period of hardship) having already lasted enough like that from my point of view. I have tried to relaunch my evangelistic activities online telling myself that without any particular direction or instructions from the Lord, I can at least do what I have always been doing. In that attempt, I published a newsletter in 2021 titled: I never left my position…
In 2023, I said, Lord, I have been taught that in biblical numerology, the number 7 talk of perfection and the number 8 of new beginnings. I just spent seven good years of hardship and 2024 will mark the 8th year. Father, I am getting older and heading to 50. Have I dedicated all my teenage and youth to your service in vain? I remembered that it was at the age of 80 that Moses entered into God’s plan for him.
As the year 2023 unfolded and I was completing my theological training, something happened to me. Like Moses whose attention was attracted by the burning bush which burned without being consumed, while I was idle at home one day, reviewing the Christian channels of the free satellite set, my attention was caught by one particular channel called “Voie TV – The Way of the Gospel” and the program on air was entitled “The Time of God – Knowing Islam and its Prophet.” I wondered what this supposed Christian channel dealing with Islam and its prophet could be.
Just like Moses who approached the burning bush that was not been consumed to see what this phenomenon could be, I arrange myself on my seat to better see what this program dedicated to Islam and its prophet on a Christian channel was really about.
It is important to notice that, since I was born again, I never had a particular interest in Islam. Like many Christians, all I knew in general about Islam is what from my elementary school history class in addition to the religion overview course during my theological training. I knew too little of their doctrine and teachings.
Since the beginning of my Christian walk and my evangelism actions, both online and offline, I never dared to face Muslims. What was I going to tell them? I know many in churches are in the same situation as me. Some are even ignorant of the fact that Christians and Muslims do not address the same God in their prayers and that Allah, far from being the equivalent of God in Arabic language is more the name of a divinity, not to mention the fact that the advent of Islam was even foretold in Bible prophecy.
While watching this program that fascinated me more and more, I remembered that I have had a Koran in my library for nearly 20 years, I have often tried to read without understanding and some pamphlets on Islam of which I did not have much interest. I started watching these programs every day to the point that I nearly monopolised the only TV set in the house, which caused tensions with the children, for they too had their TV programs to watch on other channels. It even reached to the point that, at the time of these programs, the children were almost praying that I should not be at home, for they used to say when I came. “Here again is Dad who comes to put his Allah!”
I eagerly awaited each broadcast of these programs which I literally swallowed each content. I was taking notes, going through the Koran… At the same time, a burden, empathy and compassion were rising in my heart for Muslims.
I actually have a room in the house that I use as my office but I moved to the living room in front of the television. I finally figured out why I did not understand anything in my readings of the Koran. To understand the Koran, it is compulsory to have the Sunnah. I understood that even in the collections of the Sunnah, there are some that are authentic (authoritative) and others that are not. It was therefore necessary for me to get the Sunnah, which is a set of books in several volumes.
The collections of the Sunnah being overpriced and those available online and in French not being very reliable, because sometimes not complete, I found some in English that I downloaded to learn more.
I quickly became a subject of murmuring for children for my presence in the living room prevented them from watching their favourite programs. I prayed to the Lord to have an extra TV set to put in my office to work in peace. I picked up one somewhere that was broken down, made it fixed and placed it in my office. I now had my training laboratory on the Islamic question.
The burden and the thirst to know more rose in my heart every day not only to reach Muslims, but also above all to inform and train the Lord’s church on the question of Islam so that they would not only know more, but be equipped to be able to face Muslims from their books of faith.
I had to acquire the complete printed version of the authentic collection of the Sunnahthe authentic collection of the Sunnah in French, which cost from purchasing and shipping included close to one million CFA francs as seen on Amazon.
I said, “Lord, if what I feel in my heart is from you, if it is in this work field that you are calling me, please by the ways that are yours get me these books.”
I shared my burden with an elder pastor having a congregation in an Islamic environment in Yaounde where I was invited to speak on the issue of Islam. Reminding them of the need for an assembly like theirs in an Islamic environment to have an intentional evangelism strategy primarily focused on its immediate neighbourhood. “You are in an Islamic milieu. What strategy do you have to reach the Muslims around you? If one day one of them just step into the church to confront you on your faith in relation to his… What will you answer him?”
The church saw the need to know Islam and its prophet and raised funds to allow me to start buying some of the authentic books of the Islamic Sunnah.
Here I am again as in the early 2000s wanting to run in the church with something else that they do not pay special attention to. As I said before the popularisation of the Internet and the advent of social networks that the church must have a digital strategy, which was not understood at that time, I must now make it clear to the church that they must have an intentional strategy on the issue of Islam.
You, reading me now, do you ever have any interest in Islam? Does your Christian assembly or church community have a strategy towards Muslims?
I extend my hand to you that together we may be involved in this work so that many Muslims may join the fold of the Lord Jesus. I have the clear conviction that the time has come for the Lord’s sheep, who have been enlisted by Islam, to return to his fold before his next return.
Will you join me in this new season of my evangelistic adventures?
The immediate strategy will consist of holding conferences and training seminars on the issue of Islam both online and in churches that are willing. It will be talking about Islam in biblical prophecy and bringing Christians to understand Islam and its prophet, to detect their mistakes in order to present the truth to Muslims using their books of faith.
Can you be of any help in this awareness campaign to mobilise ministry partners (both for spiritual and financial support) and, on the other hand, talk to communities wishing to set up a strategy in this direction?
Some of the books have been already brought. We have to be able to acquire them entirely.
I need to equip myself with shooting equipment to produce videos and publish them online.
I need to have a permanent high-speed Internet connection and I also want to start writing and producing a documentary film about my adventures as an Internet Evangelist which I am sure will be a motivation for many young people to respond to the call of the Lord.
I need the necessary resources to face these new challenges.
Above all, I need to register in a PhD program in Philosophy of Religions and Cultures with an Islamology option to have a voice that counts on the issue of Islam and possibly teach in biblical schools and theological faculties.
I cannot do it without you. The resources to do God’s work on this earth are in our pockets. Thanks for seizing my outstretched hand.
You can join my team of ministry partners by contacting me by any means available on my website or by filling out the partnership form on my website.
We are already almost halfway through 2024 and I want to resume all my activities and relaunch as much as possible all the services I had online all this time.
This message is intended for those whom the Holy Spirit has chosen to act on it. If you do not care, that is okay.
You can also relay this message around you.
A reminder: “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to serve as witness to all nations, and then shall the end comes.”
Together for transformed and restored lives.
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Follow this link to join my channel telegramme and to stay in contact with me. https://t.me/FekouMe
2 Comments
Magnifique et Gloire à YHWH Dieu Notre Père
Merci beaucoup Encore une fois de plus Emman.
I have been there from the beginning of this story and I understand how hard it has been and I want to say cheerup and stand strong, “the rest of your days are the best of your days, it doesn’t really matter what the enemy has done, the rest of your days are the best of your days! I fully and strongly believe in your new beginning and my prayers are with you daily as I ask God for an extraordinary establishment in Jesus Christ mighty Name Amen 🙏