“No matter the price, I
will follow Jesus…” Many people all down through the ages have said these words
when faced with challenging circumstances because of their decision to do what
they learned God wanted them to do.
One of our students,
Jeezrel found that out as he did his one month seminar on the island of Luzon.
This
was the 4th seminar to take place in that particular city and he was
told that the hearts of the people were very hard, yet God had sent him there
to show the people that He loves and cares for them.
When the opening day of
his seminar (Friday) arrived, the rain poured from morning to evening. It had
even started raining the previous day, too. At 6:30 the opening night, many
children showed up, but he didn’t see any adult visitors. Because he was doing
an adult seminar, he began to be concerned and at 6:40 went into the side room
and prayed.
Describing the
situation, he said, “I asked God if He will give us just 5 adults, I will
continue the meeting. Then I asked a nearby youth to check how many
non-Adventist adults had come. After that I texted Pastor Hargreaves and asked
if I could continue with just 5 adults. [Of course he could!] Just after I had
sent the message, the youth returned and told me there were 10 non-Adventists! This
was more than double that I had asked for!
I just smiled and told them that we would start in 2 minutes. God is
always there to uplift us, especially when we feel down! He really answered my
prayer! I really didn’t think we could start that day because we had some real
challenges!”
Two days before the
starting date, he was told that the public hall they had planned for would not
be available. So the whole duration of the seminar was to be held in the
church. That church was just an old house that had been converted into a church
and had about 30 regular attendees. All their advertising was for the public
plaza and most people would have no idea where the new place was.
But that night, they
started in the local church and God brought the people! Jeezrel described his
projector like this: “We used an old model of a projector which was so blurry
and just one step away from “retirement” – literally ready to “die.” But with
God’s grace, it worked! I learned that only as we are willing to be used by God
for His work is when He works for us through the challenges we face.”
Telling about the
following week, he said, “Sabbath afternoon it rained so hard, yet we prepared
everything as usual to have our meeting. During the storm, the electricity went
off. After the rain stopped at around 6 pm, the people and children started
coming to the meeting, even though everywhere was dark because of the
power-outage. We waited until 6:45 and even 7:00, hoping the power would come
back on, but it didn’t that night and we had to cancel our meeting. Though
everyone knew the great possibility that the electricity would probably not be
on again soon, yet they came. We learned later that the main line was damaged
from a fallen tree. That night, our topic was ‘When the devil goes on
vacation,’ but thankfully we were able to cover it the following night. Once a person is touched with the Holy
Spirit, electricity and rain can’t stop him to know what the truth is. They
don’t want to miss anything and were so thankful we could do that topic the
next night.”
Of course, as in any of
the OJT sites, there were challenges and trials, but Jeezrel found a great
solution to some of them! He said, “God will not forsake those who want to be
used for His work. He showed me that to sing in the midst of the busy day while
doing my work helps me a lot!”
Near the end of his
program, Jeezrel was told that because there had been only few people attending
the meeting and many of those few were children, he couldn’t expect to have too
many people baptized – probably not more than 3. But God really worked in the
lives of the people there and instead of just 3, there were 8 who were
baptized! Praise God!
Jeezrel described an
experience came after the baptism on Sabbath: “After the baptism, we heard a
scream from one of our newly baptized members. Her house was near the church
and suddenly the window opened and we saw that the mother of the newly baptized
girl was beating her child with a bamboo stick that was 3 feet long, 2 inches
wide and 1 inch thick. She was being beaten by her own mother because she got
been baptized and joined the Seventh-Day Adventists – because she had decided
to follow Jesus. Her mother beat her for
about 10 minutes just like someone would beat a dog. Then she was disowned by her mother and sent
away from home. As she was walking by the church, she passed us and I couldn’t
hold my tears to see this young girl, full of bruises all over her body. Her lips
were cut, too. She was only 11 years old. Thankfully her grandparents were
Seventh-Day Adventists, and she went to live with them.”
Oh, the faith of the
children – willing to pay whatever price it takes to follow Jesus! What a price
that 11 year old girl paid to follow the Master.
Commenting on his time
on OJT, Jeezrel said, “My friend, you are not in your site on your own. You are
there with God to work for His lost sheep and you are God’s partner for His
work in that particular place. Don’t feel discouraged. God is with you.
Remember it is not you who is doing the work, but it is God through you. The
seeds God has planted through you will grow up (maybe not at this time) and
bear fruit.”
Keep watching for more
stories to be posted soon!
