Meet the Founder

The Journey

I am Victor Tsague. I’m a Bamiléké. I was born and raised in a small village called Bafou in the west province of Cameroon until I was 14 years old. I was then sent to a Public high school in the city where I lived along with a roommate of the same age. After few years, I was kicked out for low grades and absenteeism. I moved with my cousin to Douala, one of the biggest cities in Cameroon, to continue high school. My father died soon after. I spent four challenging years that ended with a scholarship for three years in Aviation school in Paris. Eight other Cameroonians had the same scholarship. When we got to Paris, we forgot what we were there for and we spent our time partying. By the end of the second year, everyone was fired but me. I should have been fired too, but by some miracle I was spared.

I returned to Cameroon at the end of the three years and started working for the national airlines. After four years, I cut my finger and had to change from the department. That change led me to discover some of my hidden potentials. I became the youngest aircraft inspector in the company. After five years as inspector, I had a terrible accident with the company vehicle. The car was totaled but we had only minor injuries. My boss decided to fire me. But because I was an inspector, the Board of Directors had to approve the decision. All the papers were signed and were just waiting for the approval of the Board of Directors. Everyone in the company knew that I was going to be fired, but me. Then another miracle happened. The employees threatened to stop working because the company was not paying the overtime they were forcing people to work. A commission was organized to solve the issue. The day I was to speak before the commission, it just so happened that the Chairman of the Board of Directors was presiding. When I finished speaking, she asked if I was the one who had an accident and asked me to meet with her the next day in her office. That was the first time somebody ever asked me what happened aside from the report I presented to my boss the day after the accident.  The next day, she listened to me and two weeks later the Board of Directors decided that I was not going to be fired.

Few years later, I move to Boston, Massachusetts, USA.  After four years of misfortunes and challenges with my immigration application, I decided to change and I found myself in Nashville, Tennessee where I found the purpose of my life: To serve God who made everything and give Him glory.

At the end of my second year in aviation school in Paris, I return to Cameroon for the summer. My mother decided that I would get married once I finished with school. By the end of the summer I was engaged and we were to be married the following August 1987 once I returned back from Paris. One year later I returned back from Paris and the wedding was going to be just as planned on August 1987. Two weeks before the wedding, I had a dream and my father appeared and told me that the young lady I was going to marry was not my chosen wife. The next day I did not know what to do. I asked to postpone the wedding until December 1987. Everyone was disappointed and  mad at me. A week later, my future wife wrote me a letter stating that she was three months pregnant with another man’s child, which happened while I was still in school in Paris. We broke up and not long after, I met my current wife. One year later we got married. We have been together for 20 years.

For years I believed the person in my dream to be my deceased father. My family is animist as is everyone in the village. It was only when I got saved that I understood the state of the dead. So it could not have been the spirit of my deceased father in the dream I had. Could it be that knowing the journey that was ahead of me, God wanted me to be married to a woman that would be suitable for when we crossed the valley of the shadow for 7 years? 

7 Years of Tribulation

In 2001, I left my country for the United States of America. I tough I would be uniting the family in a few months thereafter. But because of some unfortunate situations unrelated to me, my application to become permanent resident lasted for 4 years. The case was rescheduled three times: first time the judge was disbarred for making a Tarzan remark to an African applicant ; the second time my hearing coincided with the commemoration of President Ronald Reagan’s death ; and the third time was because of snow emergency. Each time the case was rescheduled after a few months.  Finally the case was approved in 2004 and I applied for my family to come over and it was approved. My wife and kids went to the embassy to apply for their visas but because of a clerical mistake on our marriage certificate, my wife’s visa was denied.  It took another miracle to unite my family after another 2 years of prayer. All together I was separated from my family for 7 years.

After five years of separation from my loves ones, I cried out to heaven, «What is wrong with me, God ?  Please help me!»  Soon after, I met a friend who invited me to his church. I must admit that it was the third time I had ever stepped foot in a church in my 41 years of life. My family was animist and we had never been to church. The first time I was in church, I was following a date. The second time was in Boston, and it was not a church service. My friends were looking for the pastor and I tagged along. The third time when my friend invited me to his church, it was different.  I felt different. I was on time and the pastor preached about “Peace”. I felt at peace for the first time in my life. Four days later I went to the church again and told the pastor how the message on Sunday change my life. I started the Bible study the next Saturday and was baptized two months later.
In the mean time my family’s visa applications were being processed at the USA embassy in Cameroon. The embassy gave my wife two weeks to process the application.  Five months later we still had not heard from them aside from the letter they sent to me informing me that my family’s visa applications were still being processed, in response to the letter I sent to the ambassador. After six months of waiting, my wife went back to the embassy for an answer. They told her that her visa was denied for fraudulent marriage certificate and as for the kids, DNA testing would be done prior to visas’ issuance.
During the same time, I was working for a valet company. Some time back, they asked for my information to do the background check so that I could work for events at the Governor’s office or house. One morning in the month of May 2006 my phone rang. My boss at the valet company asked me to be at a particular address before noon. Although I had not been late for work, he stressed that I make any effort to be on time. What a surprise: the guest of Honor at that party was the Vice President of the United States, Richard Cheney.

Two months after I was at that party where the guest of honor was Vice President Cheney, my wife called me from the USA embassy to say that her visa application that we had been waiting for had been denied because of a fraudulent marriage certificate. She was in tears. I was told that it would take ten years for her to apply again. We were now separated for six years, the thought of ten more years was unbearable. We were married legally at the city hall where our marriage certificate was issued. Why were they now stating that our marriage certificate was fraudulent? I took the opportunity of the party I had the privilege to work on two months earlier, to write to the U.S. Vice President, with copy to my congressman Jim Cooper. Congressman Jim Cooper’s office contacted the USA embassy by e-mail about my family’s case. They responded to them with detailed explanation of why they believed our marriage certificate to be fraudulent. The Embassy found that the marriage certificate on file with the same recording number was for somebody else. My wife went to the city hall for answers. She found that there was a clerical error on our marriage certificate recording number and our marriage certificate was in the wrong archive (the marriage certificate on file had a different file number than the one the mayor issued to us). In the mean time Vice President Cheney’s office sent my letter to the Department of State for consideration. The department of State sent me a letter that they were considering the case.

When I finally got the DNA test done, my wife returned to the embassy.  She was surprised when the embassy officer told her that the whole family’s application for visa was granted. It was nothing else but a miracle from God to reverse the embassy’s decision rejecting my wife’s visa application. At times it looked like the case was hopeless. It was when I cried out to God that the case was getting worse, He was already working things out in a mighty way. Although things seemed to be getting worse, I was for the first time at peace with confidence and faith that it will be all right.

I left my wife 7 months pregnant with 3 children to seek residence in the USA. She gave birth 3 months later to a baby girl. I was not there for her. The first word that came out of my daughter’s mouth was “Daddy,” pointing up to my picture on the wall. I was calling every week to keep the connection with my family. When my daughter was able to speak, one day as I was talking to her, she blurted out “Daddy. Why don’t you come home?” I realized how much I missed her and I didn’t know what to say. Tears started running down my cheek. I heard myself promising her that soon I would be home and I would have her in my arms, and nothing would separated us again.

When I hung up the phone, I looked up to heaven and cried out, “What is wrong with me?”  My application lingered for four years at the immigration due to unfortunate circumstances that no one could explain. Now the USA Embassy is holding my family’s visas application for several months with no answer.

Soon after, I met a guy who intrigued me with his behavior. I started to be friends with him. He invited me to his church the following Sunday. That day, the pastor talked about “Peace.” I felt at peace for the first time in my life. Four days later I went to the church again and told the pastor how the message on Sunday changed my life. I started Bible studies the next Saturday and was baptized two months later.

In the mean time, I moved to a new apartment. The previous resident had cable connection that I enjoyed for free for a few months. One day I came home and the cable was disconnected. I went and buy a two-horn antenna. As I plugged it and turned my TV set on, 3ABN came on. I sat and watched and was challenged by what they were preaching. But the more I watched 3ABN, the more it was conflicting with the preaching of my non-denominational church. But 3ABN couldn't’t be wrong because it referenced the Bible and I could confirm with my own Bible that my friend gave me the first day he invited me. E-mails went back and forth between my pastor and me. But all he could say was, “the Sabbath was nailed to the cross,” and  “read only the four gospel because the book of revelation cannot be understood.”  My young faith was now facing a challenge. I started searching on my own, read a lot of religious literature and visited different churches. I finally called 3ABN to connect me with one of their churches in Nashville. They sent me a book entitled “Ten Commandments Twice Remove” and a letter with the addresses of three Seventh-day Adventist churches, but for some reason I decided not to go. I knelt down in my living room and challenged God that there is so much confusion out there, but if this was the truth He wanted me to follow, He would connect me with a Seventh-day Adventist Himself.

Soon after I challenged God, I met a fellow Cameroonian who invited me to a restaurant.  I came back the next day to the same restaurant and the owner approached me and a friendship started between us. We talked about everything, but we never talked about religion - although it was boiling inside me. I challenged God and was waiting for any sign from Him.

I owned a carpet cleaning business then. One day, I had a job scheduled on Thursday and four other jobs were for Saturday. I went to my Thursday job and as usual I prayed to God that morning and told Him that I was still waiting for Him. I started my job as usual. I went to the first room. As I was moving the first box, it opened. It was full of the “Ten Commandments Twice Removed.” I drop the box, ran outside the room, and with broken English asked the owner, are you a Seventh-day Adventist?  She said yes. We forgot about carpet and talked about God for two hours. The owner of the house, a lady, invited me to her church the next Sabbath.

I went home that day happy. Now that God answered my prayer, I had no reason not to observe the Sabbath. I called the four jobs scheduled on Saturday and rescheduled. On that Sabbath morning I attended my first Sabbath school. At the end, as the teacher prayed and dismissed the class, I stood up and turn around. There in front of me stood my restaurant owner friend and her husband who gave me a big hug and welcomed me. That was the beginning of my journey as a Seventh-day Adventist.

During my struggle to unite my family, I found the light. For the first time I knew the purpose of my life. I knew from where I had come and where my destiny was. I shared my excitement with my wife who was a little reluctant.

My wife was born and raised in the Littoral province. Her family had been Catholic all their lives. After we got married, she stopped going to church but she never stopped being Catholic. She had a Bible that she almost never read but she would pray every night before bed with her “Holy Rosary.”
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With this background, when I told my wife that I was considering baptism into the Seventh-day Adventist Church, she tough I was losing my mind. The Bamiléké considers the Seventh-day Adventists a demonic sect.  I reassured my wife that with everything I did, I would give her a Biblical explanation. As we finished talking over the phone, I asked her to pray. She prayed to Holy Mary to intercede to her Son Jesus on our behalf. I then referred her to read Matthew 12: 46-50 and to tell me what she thought. From that point she was addressing her prayers directly to God and she started to soften up and to listen more.

During the same time I was studying the Bible more so I could prove my case to my wife. My church family told me that I was ready for baptism but I decided to wait until my family moved over to the United States. Soon after they came, I was baptized in front of my wife and kids. My baptism had a negative effect on my wife who thought I was lost forever. She became bitter, aggressive, and threatened to return back to Cameroon.

At the same time, my family was planning a funeral ceremony for my grandfather who died a few years earlier. I refused to participate as it conflicted the Biblical teaching about the state of the dead.  During funerals, elders are required to bring offerings, such as oil, salt, food, and drinks, to the spirits of the ancestors and the spirits of the gods. This helps ensure a smooth transition into the world of the ancestors for the person who died.

The more my wife threatened, the more I studied the Bible to prove my case. During all this time she agreed to go to church with me to find evidences against the church to prove that I was wrong. She soon realized that we were doing nothing else but praising God and giving Him glory. She soon realized that she knew nothing about the Bible, although she had been Catholic all her life and owned a Bible since she was a kid.

My family moved to the USA on June 22, 2007. Exactly six months later, on December 22, she responded to the pastor’s call after the sermon, and gave her life to Jesus. The very next day December 23, as she was cooking, heated oil in a pot caught fire. She panicked and threw the pot on the floor. Fire spread all over the kitchen with flames leaking up to the ceiling. My son tried to help his mother. My first daughter knelt by the door and started calling upon the name of Jesus. At the same time, my wife was pouring all the water she could lay hands on upon the fire. The fire just died out by a miracle. My wife had first and second degree burns on her face and right hand. After the fire, my wife was more than ever sure about her faith and a month later she was baptized.

During the time she accepted the message and started considering baptism, she sought to know the implication of her new belief with regard to the many Bamiléké traditional beliefs and practices. I consulted with my pastor for advice. He contacted the mission conference secretary in Cameroon to connect us with a pastor or believer in the Bamiléké tribe. For my deepest surprise, they connected us with a Bamiléké who was pastoring in the Caribbean. He did help us. After her baptism, my wife started asking a lot of questions that I couldn't’t answer: ‘Why didn’t I know about all this good news for I have been Christian (Catholic) all my life; do you know that people do not know about this truth back home? If Jesus were to come today, do you know that a lot of people would die because nobody is there now to tell them the truth ?’ As these questions were reasoning in my mind, my wife was buying a lot of phone cards to call everyone she knew back home to witness to them. I was moved by her compassion. As I look back and see the mighty hand of the Lord guiding my life, could it be that God brought me all the way here to Nashville, Tennessee to find the light so that I could bring it back to my people?

© Bantu Hope Ministries