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My Testimony
My name is Christopher Vaghi. I was born on 10 November 1980 in a town called Uitenhage in South Africa. My wife's name is Catherine and we were married on 18 December 2004. We have 2 children, David, 11 years old and Christine, 8 years old. We currently live in East London for the last 12 years.
Growing up I went to the Methodist church which I attended until finishing school. One day, in grade 10, after an English class, I saw a few children entering the class at break, so I stayed to see what they were coming in for. They started talking about the Bible with the English teacher, so I stayed to listen. Over the next few days, I started coming at break times as well, to ask questions, to find out more. (I only found out, years later, that my English teacher was a message believer, though during our conversations at school, he never mentioned William Branham, he always answered me from the Bible.) I realised that I needed to be saved and decided to ask my teacher one day, what I must do to be saved. He told me to go and read Acts 2:38. So I went and read it. I then told myself I needed to be baptised. Unfortunately, very shortly after, the school told my teacher that he no longer was allowed to talk to the children regarding Bible topics as he was not associated with any denomination, and they threatened to fire him. He told me he could no longer talk to us, and what the school had said to him, so I no longer went to ask questions. Yet there was something about what he spoke about that attracted me, and I said to myself that I won’t believe anything till I hear that again.
I knew Acts 2:38 and thought to myself that I must be baptised again. (Though the only baptism I knew was the Methodist one, as it was not explained to me yet about the right way.) I went to my Methodist pastor and asked him about being baptised again. He asked if I was baptised as a baby and I told him my parents had brought me to that. He then said that there was no need for me to be baptised again. I thanked him and left but I did not accept his answer because as a baby I had no choice. I did not know who to speak to or where to go about being baptised again, seeing that the one who told me about it, is one I could not speak to, and the church told me that I did not need to.
Once I left school, I stopped going to church because I felt that I could not trust in their teachings. I went on with my life, but I always felt like there was something missing. I got a job doing electronics with a company and worked with them for about a year, and then at the beginning of 2002 I left to go live and work in England. That was a very difficult year for me. Many times during that year I would ask God if I was His, and would He please let me know as I don’t know what purpose my life has. It was during my time there that I also developed a breathing problem where I would suddenly not be able to breathe properly. Towards the end of my year there, I was working 2 jobs to make extra money.
At the end 2002, I returned to South Africa for a short holiday and decided to visit my previous employer to see how things were going. I managed to get a job with the company again but this time as a programmer. But the programming job I was given was not one I had studied. So I had to learn quickly to do my job properly. I was traveling to various places to install equipment and program them, and I enjoyed the challenge. Life started looking better after having returned home, but it was not long that I again felt like something was missing in my life.
In August 2003, I was sitting at home and thinking that there had to be more to life than being born, going to school, getting a job, getting married, growing old and then dying. I could not accept that that was all to it. There had to be a greater meaning to life. Later that day, a guy that was in school with me, who I hadn't seen for a few years, phoned me and asked if he could come by and visit. I said, it’s fine, seeing as my other plans I had that day had been cancelled earlier. When he came by we were chatted, and eventually got on the topic of the Bible. He explained to me some of the things he believed. I stopped him after a while, and said that his explanation was the same as what our English teacher had explained when I was in school (which by this time was 7 years later). He said that teacher of ours was now the pastor of the church he was going to. I said that I will go to the church the coming Sunday.
I gave my life to the Lord and was baptised in Jesus’ name a few weeks later. I heard about William Branham and who he was. I was so happy that God had been so gracious to me. My prayers over that last year had been answered. I also met my wife not long after going to church, someone whom God had confirmed to me was the one for me, and we got married just over a year later.
In early 2004, I travelled to Pretoria for work for a few months and met some of the Message believers that lived in that area. But what stood out to me was that they had some different beliefs in certain things than we had in our assembly. As time went on, I started to wonder how that God had sent someone to call us out from the confusion in the denominational world, yet there seemed to be the same confusion amongst believers, arguments regarding what William Branham said, causing a lot of confusion, even for message believers. When I asked questions regarding what was taught, the answer was to “Say what the tapes say” and “If you don’t understand it, believe it anyway”. Because of this, my understanding of the Word of God came by listening to the sermons of William Branham and not much reading of Scripture and the studying of It.
In 2008, I got a job in East London (which God had allowed circumstances to make me accept the job). After a few months there, my wife had gone down to visit her parents in Uitenhage for a few days and I could not go because I had to work. I still had the breathing problem which I had gotten a few years earlier. I had been to the doctor about it and I was given a type of inhaler to address the breathing problem whenever it would come up. Now, I had forgotten my inhaler in Uitenhage during our last visit, and my wife was going to bring it back when she returned. One night, while lying in bed (before my wife returned), I suddenly had the breathing problem again. But now there was no inhaler to help. I cried to God saying “Oh Lord, take this problem away as it is such a terrible thing”. It was then that something within me said, “Why cry, speak and go”. I thought maybe it was my imagination. It came again, “Why cry, speak and go”. I said, “I claim my healing in Jesus Christ’s name.” That very instant my breathing returned to normal, and it never happened again since that day. I thank God that he healed me of it.
At the start of 2015, I started wondering to myself if I really knew what the Truth was, because my life was not what it should be. I had 3 questions in my heart which I asked of the Lord God. My first question was, “What is the truth because I don’t know”. Secondly, “How does one walk righteously before Him”, and thirdly, “I see what God had done in His prophet 50 years ago, but what is He doing now, because I have no idea”. For a few months I asked these questions of God, and waiting for an answer. Then in April 2015, an Australian message believer’s site that I had started reading in 2011 (which also was adding to the pool of wrong doctrines that I was believing) had problems, and I stopped going to the site to read anymore. There were a few other things that also happened before and after this as God was dealing with me.
At the end of June 2015, I was sitting at home one afternoon, as my wife took our children to a friend’s house to go play, so I was home alone. I was listening to William Branham preaching on the fourth seal. After the sermon, I decided to go watch videos of William Branham on YouTube. I watched a few videos here and there, and came to a User called End-time Youth. I scrolled through some of the videos they had posted. I found a sermon I thought about listening to and it was by Brother Gan. (This was the first time that I had heard about him.) I started listening to it and stopped it after about twenty minutes in, thinking to myself that this is not what Brother Branham taught. So I left that User, and while looking for other videos, but something said to me, “Go back there”. I thought that maybe it was just me and continued, but it came again, “Go back there”. I went back to that User and started to scroll through the list of videos again. There was a sermon that caught my attention and it was titled 'Seducing spirits and doctrines of devils' by Raymond Jackson. I started listening to it and watched the entire sermon. Afterward, I started thinking about what was said and how there are all these strange doctrines floating about the message, and people believing them; and something said to me “That is what you have been doing”. After this, I needed to know where I had gone wrong. I did not want to live this way anymore and I repented to God for what I had been doing. I also had a desire now in my heart to know the Scripture and who it is that I am serving.
I also started to read Raymond Jacksons Contender from his website. It was also not long after, that I came across the website of Brother Gan and read the books there. I realised that all these different opinions in the Message was not because of Brother Branham, but people having their own ideas about what he taught and teaching these ideas. I myself had been putting God’s servant above His Word because I would not really read the Bible but just read sermons, and not just that but believing in strange doctrines, and using statements of Brother Branham to do my own things. As I read the Bible, I realised just how little I had actually known and that there was so much that I had misunderstood or that was just completely wrong. So, a lot of what I thought I knew, I had to get rid of in light of the Scripture. It was through this experience that I learnt that “It is back to the Word”. I had asked God earlier “What is the Truth”, and the answer came, “Thy Word is Truth”.
I don’t
deserve what God has done for me in opening my eyes and showing me such
grace and mercy when my life was one failure after another. I thank Him
so much for His goodness to me and my family. I still have a lot to
learn and I desire to know as much as He will teach me. To God be all
the glory. |
