My name is Joe Reynolds. I am a husband and father of four children. I was born and raised in an animist family in the Republic of Guinea, West Africa. My father was a priest in the village secret society, and my mother a priestess. In the middle of our compound was a hut believed to house the spirits of the ancestors but was, in reality, a house of demons.

Every year, the wise men of the village came to this hut to offer sacrifices and to ask the spirits to have favor on the village. As animists, we believed the spirits needed blood and wine. The hut was painted with lime. As children, we were forbidden to touch this house on pain of death. I was part of the children’s choir for the wise men. Together, we were responsible for eating all the village sacrifices. When I was initiated, it was with the aim of becoming my father’s successor.

For several years, Guinea had housed refugees of the Liberian and Sierra Leonian civil wars. In late 2000, Guinean rebels began attacking the refugees and any Guinean civilians who got in the way. In January 2001, the attacks entered my village, forcing us to flee to the capital as refugees. In July 2001, when I was 17, my parents sent me to live with one of my brothers in order to continue my studies. In this city, I endured many hardships.

In 2004, I met AFM missionaries, and after two years of Bible studies, I accepted Jesus Christ and was baptized. In 2009, I left for Cameroon to study pastoral ministry. After four years of training, I returned to my country to help evangelize animists and Muslims. Glory be to God the Father through Jesus our Lord and Savior, for the Lord has used me mightily to deliver souls bound by evil spirits in my town and abroad.

In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus told His disciples that our Father had given Him all authority in heaven and on earth and that we were to go and make disciples of all nations, teaching and baptizing them. I am convinced that the Lord has called me and my family to preach the good news to the animist people of Central Africa and to share my faith and testimony of a new life in Jesus Christ to a people in need of His salvation.

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