Tears of joy were rolling down my cheeks as I stepped outside the banquet hall. As I recalled the events of that day leading up to this special moment, I could only but exclaim “It is the Lord!” (John 21:7).
It was the last week of May 2018 and all Software Engineering Researchers around the world were gathering in Gothenburg, Sweden for the 40th edition of the largest and most prestigious conference in that field—The International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE). About one thousand seven hundred participants from both academia and industry were in attendance and I was one of them! I had two roles at the conference: firstly, as one of the student volunteers, I was responsible for assisting conference attendees find their way to the various sessions as well as ensure that all presentations ran smoothly, e.g., that no microphone or projector was missing in a presentation room; and secondly, I was to present my own tool-demonstration paper at one of the sessions.
As always, before this conference, I prayed to God that He would provide an opportunity for me to preach the gospel to any one or more of the attendees, all of whom where unbeknown to me except very few from my University in Gothenburg. Since God knows everyone’s heart, I asked Him to show me my Nineveh just as he had sent Jonah, the son of Amittai, to the ancient Assyrian capital (Jonah 1:1–2). Nineveh to me meant any of the attendees who would be willing to listen to God’s word.
My paper presentation was scheduled for the morning of Thursday, May 31, 2018 and later that day, there would be a banquet to which all attendees had been invited. This was the first time I was attending a research conference and it was also the first time I was presenting anything at such a gathering; I was excited but mostly nervous. The presentation did not go very well for me since the computer program I was supposed to demonstrate from my computer did not work as intended. I was very disappointed, and my entire conference experience was ruined by that one moment.
Disappointment turns into an appointment
Later in the afternoon it was time for the attendees to be transferred, by bus, from the conference location to the banquet hall. As a student volunteer I was required to be among the first to go to the banquet hall so that I could assist other attendees in finding their seats and ensure order in the seating arrangements. The program began with a small musical party outside the hall before the commencement of the banquet. During this small party, I tried to find someone I knew, perhaps a colleague from my University, but none were within sight. This added to my sad morning experience and made me feel very, very lonely. I even contemplated excusing myself from the banquet to go home and perhaps silently mourn my disappointment. However, no sooner than I made this contemplation, were my services required. It was time for everyone to get seated and get on with the rest of the banquet program. All guests got seated and most of my student-volunteer colleagues also found seats. To palliate my loneliness and disappointment, I had initially intended to seat next to anyone of the student volunteers I knew, once we were done helping guests, but to my further disappointment and loneliness, there were no available seats next to any them! I was forced to walk around the hall looking for a seat and finally found one amidst attendees that I had never met heretofore.
As we all sat waiting for the program announcers, we began to introduce ourselves to our nearest neighbors (both adjacent and opposite); we gave our names, universities and the kind of research we were engaged in. After this round of introduction, what discussion we held next was random. As I sat there, I began to think to myself: “I may never again meet this person I’m seated next to. If I do not tell him about Jesus and the truth I hold, he may never know Jesus as I know Him.” So, I began to silently pray that God would give me an opportunity to start a discussion with my immediate neighbor to my right, on something related to religion and thereby introduce the gospel of Jesus Christ to him. During the self-introductions he had told me that he was from Germany, but I had no idea whether he believed in God or not. So, how could I start a conversation with him on religious matters? I asked God again to give me an opportunity and create a way for me to speak of Jesus.
As I looked around the banquet hall, I noticed that there were several screens around, placed on the wall, on which they were displaying several things including some old movie clips. At this moment when I looked at one of the screens opposite me, I saw a movie clip of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Predator movie. So, I said to my neighbor, “you know, it’s interesting how people’s beliefs or activities these days are largely influenced by movies!” Then he asked me to give him an example of what I meant by that statement, so I said, “for instance, many people today believe in Zombies—walking dead people”. Then he told me that he didn’t believe in Zombies and asked me if I did, to which I replied, “No, I do not.” Next, he asked me why I did not hold such a belief and I told him that the concept of a walking dead person contradicts what the Bible teaches about death. Next, he asked me If I was a Christian, to which I replied, “yes”. He then asked which church I belonged to and I responded that I am a member of the International Missionary Society of the Seventh-day Adventist Church Reform Movement. He told me that he belonged to the New Apostolic Church but personally he believed that the church to which one belonged did not matter! Immediately when I heard those words, I said to myself, “thank you LORD, this is the opportunity I was waiting for!”
I gave him the story of Paul’s conversion to Christianity and why it was necessary for Saul (Paul) to join the Christian church instead of returning to his Jewish church after his encounter with Christ (Acts 9:1–6). Within the Jewish church, Paul could neither teach nor practice his newly discovered faith because it was explicitly forbidden to do so by the religious leaders of his Church (Acts 4:18–19). I gave him several verses including 1 Timothy 3:16 that points to the Church being the support and stay of the truth in a revolted world and Acts 2:47 that shows that God added people who should be saved to the Christian church, and not the Jewish Church. I then asked him if it mattered which Church Paul and other Jews in his time would have joined, and he affirmed that indeed it mattered. I told him that it was no different in our time since the Church is God’s appointed agency for the salvation of men (The Acts of the Apostles, p. 9; Acts 2:47).
I told him how it was important that the Church of God teaches the truth as it is in Jesus (Ephesians 4:21) because people’s salvation depended on their knowledge of God and of Jesus His son, who also is the truth (John 14:6; John 17:3, 17; 1 Peter 1:22). I gave him my own experiences of my time being in the New Apostolic Church; how that church holds doctrines such as the service of the departed (offering sacraments to dead people), which go directly against Scriptures such as Ecclesiastes 9:6 that states that the dead have no part in anything that takes place under the sun. He became very interested in this conversation and began to be more open to me stating that he too had questioned some of the beliefs and practices his church holds and was looking for a church that teaches the truth. He asked me several questions including whether it was necessary for one to read the Bible at all provided that one “behaved correctly”. In response I showed him how perverted our views of right and wrong are if left without a standard (Jeremiah 17:9) and showed him the necessity of consulting God’s word in everything, and how God has given us a standard of righteousness which is His law of the Ten Commandments (Psalms 119:142, Romans 7:1–12). This led us to an interesting discussion of the Sabbath. I showed him how the Sabbath was God’s appointed day of rest that would be kept even in the new earth (Isaiah 66:22–23). Beginning with Genesis, I showed him how the Sabbath has been the Seventh day of the week, and that even Jesus (Luke 4:16), His disciples (Luke 23:5-56), and the early Christians (Acts 13:42–44; 17:1–3; 18:4) kept. I then showed him how it was changed by the Catholic church (Daniel 7:25) and how it would end up being a special point of contention in the end of time (Revelation 13:16–18).
The entire discussion lasted about three hours, from 7 pm to 10 pm. As I kept explaining all these things to my neighbour, two other people, from India, who sat opposite me were very interested in the conversation and often interrupted me with questions of their own related
to the point under discussion. At around 10:30 pm the discussion ended, and my neighbour was very thankful and appreciated the fact that I was not afraid to share my faith with him. He lamented the fact that many people, especially scientific researchers, do not care about religion, and was surprised to find someone who was willing to talk about God at a conference such as this.
As I stepped out of that banquet hall, I tried to recall just how such an opportunity to evangelize had been created. I could not fathom the way God had made this possible. Tears of joy began to roll down my cheeks as I recalled my earlier disappointment that day, how I had felt very lonely, how I could not find any of my friends to sit next to, how I found a seat next to a stranger who I had no idea would be interested in learning more about the Bible, how I even got started speaking with him about Jesus. I could not help it but exclaim, “[Great and] marvellous are thy works [oh LORD]; and that my soul knoweth right well.” Psalms 139:14
Other Ninevehs
The following day (on Friday, June 1, 2018), God gave me another opportunity to preach to another conference attendee from Hong Kong, who asked me to show him around the city of Gothenburg since I was a resident there. With this one, the discussion began when I told him that I had to get home early because I was a Sabbath keeper and then he asked me what the Sabbath was. Well, by now you should know how a response to such a question would go. The following week (June 5–8, 2018) I attended a summer school in another city in Sweden called Halmstad. This was a small gathering of PhD students who were interested in topics related to software testing. On one of the days, we were taken out for a social event to drive Go-carts. After this event we had to walk to our hotel rooms and it so happened that my hotel was close to the hotel of one other participant from a city called Uppsala in Sweden. The hotels were about 1.5 kilometers from the place of the Go-carts. As we started off to our hotels, I silently prayed that God would give me an opportunity to preach to this stranger I was walking with; but how do I start? So, to spark a conversation, I first asked him about the area of research for his PhD. As we walked among the beautifully architected buildings in the city, I then pointed to them and said, “it’s funny how some people would entertain ideas that all such wonderful designs came by chance!” I then asked him if he believed in God or not. I found out that he was an evangelical, so I asked him why Jesus had to die instead of just forgiving Adam and Eve. He had no answer to that question and that provided me with an opportunity to explain the plan of redemption to him, and why Jesus had to die to vindicate God’s character and demonstrate that His law cannot be broken with impunity. This later led to a discussion of the many denominations and why the Sabbath is a sign of those that are loyal to God’s commandments! Exodus 31:17–18; Ezekiel 20:12, 20
In May 2019, I attended a research seminar in Germany at Schloss Daghstul, running from 5th to 10th of May. As always, I prayed for an opportunity to share the gospel with anyone willing. During that seminar we were treated with a social event where we toured the city of Trier. During this tour I walked next to someone I previously met at the summer school in Halmstad. She was a Post-doctoral researcher at IT University of Copenhagen in Denmark. As we toured the city’s Cathedrals filled with sculptures of Patriarchs like Abraham and Noah, and some Apostles like Peter, I prayed to God to give me an idea of how to introduce the gospel to this colleague. So, I asked, “do you think life has a purpose and, if there is, what is it?” I pointed to the cathedrals and sculptures and told her that despite having all these cathedrals, many still chose not to believe in God or are less serious with their faith, as evidenced by the few and old people we found in the largest and oldest cathedral we had just toured. She then revealed that she believed in God but that she was a Muslim. I then asked her what she thought God’s plan for the human race was, to which she expressed ignorance. This gave me an opportunity to speak of the creation, of Satan’s fall, of the plan of redemption, why Adam had to be tested, what purpose our lives serve and what God’s plan for the future is. I spoke of how God had sent Jesus to die so that we might have an opportunity to live eternally in a beautiful new world.
Later that afternoon we toured a wine refinery nearby at which venue we were also served with dinner from the restaurant located there. My plan was to sit next to someone I knew during the dinner so that I would not feel lonely, so I decided to reserve a seat with the one person I knew, while I stepped out. When I came back, I found that my seat was taken by someone else and I was forced to sit with people I did not know. While waiting for the main meal, everyone was served with wine, except me and the man to my immediate left who were offered apple juice. The man on my left (from Volvo Trucks, Sweden) then asked me: “So you also don’t take wine, why?” In response, I told him that I do not take wine because as a Christian I considered my body as the temple of the Holy Spirit which should not be defiled with harmful articles of food or drink (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). He then told me that he too was a Christian (Catholic), but only took wine during the Lord’s supper when he dips bread in the wine. I then told him that having fermented wine for the Lord’s supper destroys the meaning of Christ’s sacrifice since Jesus’s blood was uncorrupted by sin; fermentation is a symbol of sin. He was surprised at this “new perspective” and wanted to learn more, so he asked me which Church I go to. When I told him the name, he was very interested to learn the difference between my church and the commonly known Seventh-day Adventist church. Considering that he was Catholic, I first spoke about God’s purpose for His church and what position it should hold in the world; after which I told him the history of Adventism and why Christians cannot participate in War. To my right was another man from General Motors, USA, who also appeared to be listening attentively and asking questions. At the end of our discussion, I understood why someone else had filled the seat I originally reserved. God had answered my prayer and provided an opportunity for me to preach to three people in one single trip.
What would it cost?
Think for a moment about your neighbours, friends, relatives, co-workers, school mates, etc.; what would it cost the church to send a Minister or Bible worker to preach to even one of them? What are the chances that a Bible Worker or Minister from our church would be able to reach them with the message of truth? Perhaps close to zero! Yet, many a member of God’s church waits upon the efforts of the Minister or Bible Worker to evangelize! Many make little-to-no effort to reach out to others with the gospel truth, citing how hard it is to preach nowadays. It is true that the world today does not want anything to do with God, but it is also true that there are some people in this world, dark and unbelieving as it may seem, who are hungering and thirsting for the truth. Our duty is not to presume who is or is not interested in God’s word but to pray for opportunities to present the truth and leave the rest with God. The message we hold is God’s; the people we want to preach to are His by creation and redemption; the time we have also belongs to Him; thus, all we need is to pray for opportunities and then act intelligently and do our part.
“There should have been great diligence in seeking to save those who were still in error, yet interested in the truth… There is much close thinking to be done. We must not enter into the Lord’s work haphazard and expect success. The Lord needs men of mind, men of thought. Jesus calls for co-workers, not blunderers. God wants right-thinking and intelligent men to do the great work necessary to the salvation of souls.” –Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, p. 67
Example of the Waldensian Youth
During the Dark Aaes, the Waldenses were shut out of public view due to persecution and lived in seclusion—hiding in mountains and caves. However, “while the Waldenses regarded the fear of the Lord as the beginning of wisdom, they were not blind to the importance of a contact with the world, a knowledge of men and of active life, in expanding the mind and quickening the perceptions. From their schools in the mountains some of the youth were sent to institutions of learning in the cities of France or Italy, where was a more extended field for study, thought, and observation than in their native Alps. . . . In the schools whither they went, they were not to make confidants of any. Their garments were so prepared as to conceal their greatest treasure–the precious manuscripts of the Scriptures. . . . and whenever they could do so without exciting suspicion, they cautiously placed some portion in the way of those whose hearts seemed open to receive the truth. From their mother’s knee the Waldensian youth had been trained with this purpose in view; they understood their work and faithfully performed it. Converts to the true faith were won in these institutions of learning, and frequently its principles were found to be permeating the entire school; yet the papal leaders could not, by the closest inquiry, trace the so-called corrupting heresy to its source. The spirit of Christ is a missionary spirit. The very first impulse of the renewed heart is to bring others also to the Saviour. Such was the spirit of the Vaudois Christians. They felt that God required more of them than merely to preserve the truth in its purity in their own churches; that a solemn responsibility rested upon them to let their light shine forth to those who were in darkness.”—The Great Controversy, p. 70
Since they could not go openly as preachers, they sent their youth, some as students to the various universities of the land, and others as merchants trading in various things permissible. While studying or trading, the
youth and missionaries had opportunities to share the truth with those they met who were interested. This earlier work of the Waldensian youth preserved the truth and laid the foundation for the great reformation of the 16th century that many are familiar with today. Similarly, today we have several youth studying at various levels and institutions; what impact would be created if each one of them labored like the Waldensian youth, knowing that they owe the world the truth! Yet many children of Reformers today consider themselves “lonely” and deprived of several pleasures that other youth are privileged to enjoy. Many want to be like other youth in the world; and this results in greater darkness in the world. Recall that it was when the faithful descendants of Seth decided to marry and be like the unbelieving descendants of Cain, that iniquity abounded to an extent that God “regretted” making man (Genesis 6:1–7) and decided to destroy the world with a flood. Similarly, today iniquity abounds (Matthew 24:12) because the love of many for God and for one another waxes cold; those who should be light bearers in their various stations of life hide their candles and the world is left in darkness! (Matthew 5:14–16).
“Our profession of faith may proclaim the theory of religion, but it is our practical piety that holds for the word of truth. The consistent life, the holy conversation, the unswerving integrity, the active, benevolent spirit, the godly example,–these are the mediums through which light is conveyed to the world.” –The Desire of Ages. p. 307
What we can do to improve?
Today the world is in darkness because only few scattered lights shine while the majority of professed Christians follow their own course (see Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, p. 28–29). Our mission demands diligence and training of, especially, our youth. In that regard, we can:
Conduct missionary seminars for youth. Parents, youth leaders, and the church at large must invest time and effort to train the youth in evangelism (just like many do with singing and music practice). The church must organize seminars or series of Bible studies targeting youth and missionary service. This should not be done for those in Bible school only but for all youth. Youth must learn and practice praying for the salvation of their friends. They should be made more aware that their conduct will lead to someone being saved or lost.
Promote reporting and testimony meetings. Churches should motivate their members by encouraging (or requiring) that they report their missionary activities more often and give testimonies of God’s working power through them as much as is possible on Sabbath. The youth could even be given specific assignments, by their leaders, either weekly or bi-weekly to reach out to someone they know. As they begin to practice this and pray, they will soon lose all fear of preaching and being ridiculed by their friends.
Be more social and strive to introduce Jesus in social interactions as much as possible. In all my experiences above, perhaps none of those I evangelized to would have accepted if I directly went up to them and told them that I wanted to share the gospel with them. God created opportunities to preach, not during times of formal work, but during social events! By taking advantage of conversations on common things and turning them into a gospel discussion, I was able to present subjects I could never have presented if I went openly as a gospel preacher to my intended audience. We can be more social, for instance, by wearing happy faces and smiles, greeting our neighbours always, looking for ways to initiate conversations with people we meet e.g., on public transport, not being too distracted by our phones all the time while opportunities to interact with people pass us by, seeking interaction with people we do not know rather than being always found with the people we already know, etc.
We must not get discouraged because we baptize few people. We must plant the gospel seed and let the Holy Spirit water it. In the grand time of the harvest, in the great millennial year, when the King shall take His scepter and to judge the world appear, then shall we know as we are known. Then shall the fruits of our labours be revealed.
So, if you are wondering why you are the only Reformer at your workplace, at your school, in your family or even in your entire city, wonder no more. Like Ezekiel, you have been set as a Watchman to hear the word of the Lord and warn others (Ezekiel 3:17; 33:7). You are “lonely” for a reason.
Br Mukelabai Mukelabai, Sweden