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Apiou, Esther
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-- Esther Apiou --

My grandfather was an animist.  An animist believes that natural objects, natural phenomena, and the universe itself possess souls.  It is a belief that natural objects have souls that may exist apart from their material bodies.  My grandfather prayed to his ancestors and would perform incantation rituals before he would go hunting; for example, he would put powder himself on before going out on a hunt so that nothing would harm him while he was out killing lions and other wild beasts.  

My father wanted to be a powerful animist like my grandfather.  One day, he asked my grandfather when he would be trained in animism.  My grandfather told him that he would never be trained in animism.  My father was very upset, and cried and cried; but he was never trained. 

My father attended a Catholic high school.  It was there that he became interested in learning more about the Bible.  My father asked one of the school teachers for a Bible.  He was so happy when they gave him one.  He would read the Bible, but didn't understand it.  He married my mother, who was born into a Catholic family.  (My mother remains a Catholic to this day.)  One day, my father saw a boy selling brochures from the United Church of Christ of California that talked about the Sabbath.  My father bought one of the brochures, read it, and discovered the truth about the Sabbath.  Since there wasn't a United Church of Christ in our country (Burkina-Faso), he began to search for churches in other areas and found many in Ghana.  Upon finding the church, my father traveled there and was baptized. 

My parents have 10 children -- 7 girls and 3 boys.  (Today, they have 13 grandsons.)  My father taught us the Bible every Friday and Saturday.  That's how we learned about the Bible.  Every Sabbath we would pray and worship.  In 1996, my father discovered that there was a Seventh-day Adventist Church not far from our home.  He asked us kids to come and see if there was any truth in that church.  So we went there and began attending.  I evetually was baptized there.  It was there that I met my husband, Marcellin.  Marcellin's father was Catholic and his mother is a Seventh-day Adventist.  In 2001, we were married, and God has blessed us with two sons -- Josias and Deryl.  Marcellin worked in a bank, and I was a teacher.  In 2005, we came to the United States to begin a new experience in our lives.  God is so awesome!

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