As a pastor’s wife, I always felt challenged when my husband returned home after an evangelistic crusade with a report of many baptisms and decisions for Christ. I would feel the same challenge when I saw people coming forward to accept Christ as my husband preached. I wanted to win souls for my Lord, but I knew that this was impossible for me. I am not a public speaker, and the worst thing that can happen to me is to stand before a crowd!
I decided to pray for a soul-winning ministry that would accommodate my personality. The Lord showed me the Voice of Prophecy (VOP) approach, and I determined in my heart to try it.
At the time, I was working as the financial director of a furniture manufacturing firm in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. After much prayer I gathered up enough courage to enroll a few people in the VOP program. After a week or so, the few had grown into more than 20 with some strong decisions for Christ and baptism.
As the Lord would have it, in less than a month almost all the factory employees had enrolled as VOP students and had agreed for us to have a preaching service three times a week during our lunch break. We asked the local conference to provide pastors for this assignment.
Forty people completed the first series of lessons and were ready for graduation. I was ecstatic. I could not believe that I too could be used by the Lord to bring 40 people to Christ. We proceeded to organize a graduation Sabbath for them. On graduation day, as I saw them marching into the sanctuary, a voice in my mind asked, “Who are these clothed in black who are marching into the Lord’s sanctuary today?” The answer came back, “These are they whose sins have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, and today they walk into the Lord’s sanctuary as forgiven sinners, candidates for eternal life.”
This was the first of many graduations to follow.
After some time, I moved to another company. After I had enrolled all my new workmates into the program, the Lord gave me a revelation: to go to those companies that provided services to our company and enroll them in the program.
With much fear and trepidation, I prayerfully approached the first company. To my surprise, the Lord had already been there and opened all the doors. The welcome was unbelievable, and many people enrolled, including senior personnel. We did the same with our other service providers, and the work spread like wild fire. We almost experienced a repeat of what happened in the Apostolic Church where the Lord added daily to the number of those being saved.
In this large group that was being prepared for graduation was a marketing manager who also served as a pastor for a Pentecostal Church. He was strongly opposed to Adventists and particularly to the Sabbath. He attacked Adventism and the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath at every opportunity. On many occasions, he made it abundantly clear that the last thing he would be on this earth would be an Adventist. In plain language, he was a self-proclaimed enemy of the Adventists. But despite his stance against Adventists, he agreed to complete the VOP program and go through all the lessons.
As we went through the papers submitted by students in preparation for graduation, it was mypleasant surprise to find a request not only for graduation but for baptism from this marketing manager. As I write this article, he is a baptized member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church!
When my husband was called to serve at the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division (SID) in Harare, Zimbabwe, I quit my job and we moved to Harare. The church offered me a job, which I graciously accepted.
When I started working for the division, the same witnessing opportunities presented themselves, and the only thing for me to do was to go after them with gusto. The target again was the service providers. I started with my hair salon. I enrolled all the ladies and from there went on to companies the SID does business with.
As I write this article, 142 people have graduated from this program. The graduates include people in top management (chief executive officers). Some of these highly placed individuals have requested baptism. Of those who have completed the program, 30 have been baptized, and some are in the baptismal class.
We are currently working with more than 100 students who are at various stages of the program. A big graduation ceremony is being planned by a local church.
Evangelism opportunities continue to appear. The top management of a security company that provides services to the division office have enrolled as students. On one of our visits, they told us that the office now begins the day with prayer. In addition, they invited us to visit their company every Wednesday to study the Bible with their staff.
It is my sincere belief that when we surrender ourselves to the Lord and ask Him to use us in His service, He will shock us by what He is able to do through us. Try it and see for yourself.
