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Solomoni [sohl-oh-MOH-nee] asked himself. He was still a teenager, but he knew that he had messed up his life. He had disobeyed his parents and joined a gang of teenagers who stole and used drugs. God has condemned me for what I’ve done, he thought. I’m lost. There’s no hope for me; I have nothing to lose. With this attitude, he continued living a life of crime. In time he was arrested for and sent to prison. But prison didn’t change him.

Solomoni had several dreams that haunted him. He recognized a woman in his dreams as a Seventh-day Adventist. He decided to visit the Adventist church to learn why God had sent the dreams. The members welcomed him warmly, unmindful of his torn shirt and dirty jeans. He sat down and focused on the sermon. He was sobered by the pastor’s words and determined to leave his former life behind.

Some of Solomoni’s old friends warned him about what would happen if he left his former life. “Do whatever you want to me,” he told them. “I’ve found a better life in God.” Solomoni realized that he had been given a second chance in life. God had never let him go, and he had nothing to lose by taking hold of God.

Solomoni’s family and friends saw the changes in his life. Some wanted to know what had happened. Solomoni answered by inviting them to church, and several went. They knew that it would take a powerful God to change Solomoni, and they wanted to know God too. Three of Solomoni’s former gang member friends were baptized with him.

The pastor saw potential in Solomoni and urged him to consider preparing for the ministry. But Solomoni hesitated. “God has done so much for me, and I want to work for Him,” he said. “But with my past, I’m not worthy to be a pastor.” He resisted as church members tried to encourage him to consider studying at Adventist-owned Fulton College. But eventually Solomoni recognized God’s leading and enrolled to study theology.

He had no financial support, but he trusted God to provide. “I now know that God is calling me to serve Him, and I won’t turn back,” he says.

Hundreds of students are making a difference in the South Pacific islands thanks to Fulton College in Fiji. Part of a recent Thirteenth Sabbath Offering is helping to establish a new campus for the college where many more students can prepare to serve their Master. Thank you for your part in making this happen.

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When she insisted, they tried to force her to live with her grandmother on a small island. Bien tried to hide her fear. She wanted to continue her schooling, but the island had no school.

She refused to be separated from the people at the church, people who were praying for her, who encouraged her, and who had shown her what true love was. When her parents realized that Bien would resist their efforts, they took her clothes, her personal items, and her schoolbooks to her grandmother’s house, leaving Bien with nothing.

Bien returned to the pastor’s house. She borrowed clothes from a friend so she could go to school, but then she realized that she didn’t have her textbooks and couldn’t attend without them. So she looked for work with someone in her church. She was sad that she couldn’t complete her studies.

Bien continued attending church and studying her Bible. And following evangelistic meetings, she asked to be baptized.

Then a family learned about Bien’s situation and visited her parents. They offered to take Bien to the Adventist academy on the island of Palawan [pah-LAO-wan] and pay for her studies. Imagine Bien’s joy when she learned that her parents had agreed to let her go.

Bien had never been so far from home, and the thought frightened her. But the pastor assured her that she would love studying at the Adventist school. She reminded herself that her prayer to continue her studies was being answered. Bravely she set off for the Adventist school.

The principal took Bien into her own home and provided work for her so she could earn money for her necessities. “I am blessed to have so many people looking out for me,” Bien said. It’s so good to be back in school! The academy has become my refuge and my haven. When I finish high school I want to help others who have problems, just as I was helped. I want to defend what is right and stand for the truth.

Palawan Adventist Academy, where Bien studies, received part of a recent Thirteenth Sabbath Offering to help the school expand its academic program. Let’s continue to give faithfully to mission so that others in the Philippines and throughout the world can know that Jesus is not only their Savior but their friend and brother as well.

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Her brothers had tied her to the small boat before they left to get gas for the boat’s engine. They planned to take her to the small offshore island where their grandmother lived so she couldn’t attend the heretics’ church she had been visiting. She knew she had little time. She saw some friends passing nearby and called them to help her. They quickly untied the rough ropes and helped her from the boat before her brothers returned.

As 14-year-old Bien and her friends hurried through the streets of the small town she explained that her family was angry because she had been attending the Adventist church, and her brothers were trying to keep her from going.

“Why don’t you just give up the church?” one of her friends asked. “Is church worth all this trouble?”

“It’s not just going to church,” Bien explained. “I’ve learned that God loves me, that Jesus died for me, and that He wants me to follow Him. I want to be His daughter, even if it means losing my own family.”

“Where can you go to be safe?” another girl asked.

“The pastor’s house,” Bien said and led the way. When they arrived, Bien thanked her friends and begged them not to tell her parents where she was. Safely inside, Bien told the pastor and his wife what had happened, and they agreed to let her stay with them for a while. But three days later Bien’s mother knocked on the door. Bien fought her fear and bravely followed the pastor to the door.

When the pastor opened the door, Bien’s mother lunged at her daughter, grabbing her by the hair. She tried to drag Bien from the house.

“Stop!” the pastor’s wife said. Bien’s mother let go and faced the pastor’s wife. “We’re concerned about her,” the pastor’s wife said. “Can we talk?” Bien’s mother finally agreed to leave without her daughter, but the pastor promised to bring Bien to see her later that day.

Bien whispered, “I’m afraid.”

“We’ll go with you and stay with you while we try to sort this out,” the pastor said. Bien nodded. She knew she couldn’t stay with the pastor forever.

The pastor took Bien to her parents’ house and agreed to let them speak in private. But when he left, Bien’s parents unleashed their anger.

“You are useless to us and a problem,” her father began. We don’t want you around here, and we don’t want you near those Adventists. You’re going to go live with your grandmother, where you won’t find any Adventists.”

(Continued next week)

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Recently Joshua’s family moved from their country home into a new home in town.

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Joshua wondered how he could tell the children in his new neighborhood about his friend Jesus. When he heard that some children would be going from house to house collecting treats to celebrate Halloween, he wondered what he could do to turn this holiday that didn’t honor God into a chance to share God’s Love. Then he had an idea.

“My brother, Stephen, and I decided that we could make cookies and put a Bible verse with each cookie,” said Joshua. The boys knew that Halloween can be scary with its emphasis on witches and ghosts. So the boys chose Bible verses that talked about peace. They printed the Bible verses on the family computer and tied one to each cookie bag.

As darkness fell on October 31, children began arriving at the family’s door dressed as princesses, witches, dinosaurs, and super heroes. Joshua and Stephen greeted each child and dropped a bagged cookie into the waiting sacks. “There’s something special for you with your cookie,” they told each child. The children seemed happy to receive the home-baked cookies.

Joshua and Stephen decided to expand their cookie-giving to other times of the year. As Valentine’s Day approached, the boys baked more cookies and gave them to people in a nursing home and to shut-ins and neighbors who lived alone. “It was great to see the smiles on people’s faces when we stopped to visit them,” Joshua said.

But Joshua doesn’t limit his sharing God’s love to cookie-making. He helps people with their yard work, picks up trash, and rakes leaves. “We go to the nursing home to visit people who don’t get visitors,” he says. “That can be very lonely.”

Joshua has found many ways to tell others about Jesus. Sharing God’s love is more than quoting Bible verses to people,” he says. “Others should see Jesus in our kind acts and words. I want to be sure that others see Jesus in me.”

Sharing God’s love and supporting world mission with our offerings are important ways to spread God’s message to a love-starved world.

Joshua Wade lives in the United States. He loves to share God’s love with others and has found many ways to do it.

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He had no special interest in religion. Then his cousin invited him to attend his church, and Mandela realized that God wanted to be part of his life. He bought a Bible and began reading it. Questions arose in his mind that his cousin’s pastor couldn’t answer, so Mandela searched elsewhere for answers.

He discovered a religious television station and began watching it. A sermon on prophecy caught his interest. He was impressed that the speaker’s message was based on the Bible. Mandela read each Bible text for himself and was convinced that the words were from God.

One evening the speaker talked about how the Sabbath had been changed to Sunday long after Jesus had died and rose again. Mandela realized that the Sabbath wasn’t Sunday but Saturday. He told his boss that he would no longer work on Saturdays. But because he knew of no church that worshipped on the Sabbath, he rested at home that day and worshipped with his cousin on Sundays.

When Mandela realized that the station was affiliated with Adventists, he found a church in town. On Sabbath morning he got up early, eager to celebrate the Sabbath in God’s house. When one member learned that a television program had brought Mandela to the church, he was amazed for Adventist television wasn’t generally available in Trinidad at that time. Only then did Mandela realize that God had provided the television signal in one small neighborhood where he lived so that he could learn God’s truths.

A few months later Mandela cemented his relationship with Christ by baptism. He wanted to share his new faith with others. He discovered Adventist books and began reading. When he learned about literature evangelists, he knew he had found his calling. He quit his job to work for God.

Although not everyone wanted his books, Mandela saw God leading him. He met people who told him they had dreamed that a man would come with a book or magazine to answer their questions just before Mandela arrived. “This is truly God’s ordained work,” Mandela says. “When I think of how God led me to His truth, I’m amazed that He could care so much for one person. I want to share that with others.”

Our mission offerings bring God’s message to people in many different ways. Mandela and millions of others thank you for sharing God’s truths with them through your mission offerings.

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I disobeyed my parents and teachers and questioned every authority. My parents weren’t religious, but they had strict standards. But I refused to follow their rules.

One day as my mother traveled by bus to another city, a man stood up and talked about a book he was selling. The book was The Great Controversy. He said that this book had changed thousands of lives. Mother was desperate and sacrificed to buy that book for me.

I love reading, and when Mother gave me the book, I went to my room and started reading. The book’s ideas were new to me, and some things were hard to understand. But I kept reading. I looked up references to the Bible and realized that this book taught straight from the Bible.

The book mentioned the Sabbath. I’d never heard of the Sabbath before, but I knew it must be important. I asked a boy at school who worshipped on Sabbath to let me go to church with him. He took me to a charismatic church that worshipped on Sabbath. I joined that church. My parents might have objected, but they saw changes in my life, so they said nothing.

I kept reading the Bible and asking lots of questions. The church elders didn’t answer some of my questions, and one elder accused me of being a Seventh-day Adventist. I didn’t know about Adventists, but started looking for one.

I met an Adventist man and peppered him with questions. He answered them all from the Bible. We had some long and heated discussions. I wasn’t interested in a church; I just wanted to understand the Bible.

I finished high school and took a job teaching elementary school in a small village to save money for college. I discovered that the school was Adventist! I began attending the Adventist church in the village, and soon all doubt was gone. I wanted to be baptized.

I shudder when I think of where I would be if my mother hadn’t given me that book. God used that book to turn my life around. Before I read the book, I was a nuisance to my family. After I discovered the truth in this book, I became so excited about my faith that I became a different kind of “nuisance.” It’s my mission to tell my family—and everyone—about God’s great plan of salvation.

The Adventist Church has a huge publishing work around the world. Our mission offerings help support the publishing work so that people such as I can experience God’s love. Thank you for your offerings. Thank God for His salvation!

Oliver Eshun lives in Ghana, West Africa.

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He had been working for hours to share pamphlets and Bible study cards in his assigned territory with little success. He wanted to go home, but he had promised God that he would visit every home he could, so he continued to work.

Anatoly, 13, lives in Moldova, a small country west of Russia. His shoulders slumped as he approached the last house on the road. He whispered a prayer and knocked at the door. He heard voices inside and thought the family had guests. But before he could leave, the door swung open and a woman invited him in.

She removed some papers from a chair and invited Anatoly to sit down. She offered him some tea and introduced him to her 12 children. Anatoly shook off his surprise and offered the family a book and a Bible enrollment card. The woman seemed pleased to have the booklet. They visited for a few minutes before Anatoly stood to leave. The woman invited him to come again.

As Anatoly walked home, he was glad he had gone to that last house. He decided to visit the family again.

When Anatoly returned to see the family, they seemed cautious. He invited them to attend evangelistic meetings at the church, and Natasha, the eldest daughter wanted to go. But the parents gently refused his invitation. So when Anatoly saw Natasha, and her brother Vania and sister Lena at the meetings, he was surprised. “Did your parents change their mind and let you come?”

“Not exactly,” Natasha said. “We told Mother that we were going for a walk. But I’ve learned so much tonight! I want to come back, but I don’t know whether my parents will allow us.” Anatoly promised to pray that they could attend the meetings.

Natasha, Vania, and Lena attended the meetings, but their parents refused to allow them to attend church on Sabbath. They had learned about the importance of the Sabbath and were determined to keep God’s holy day. Natasha told her parents simply, “God is God. He wants our worship all the time, not just once or twice a year. What He commands, we must do.”

The children worked hard to finish their chores by Friday so they could worship on Sabbath. Natasha asked to be baptized, and Vania and Lena joined Pathfinders. The children were such good examples at home that their parents agreed they could attend church. They even took their younger brothers and sisters.

Anatoly is glad that he did not ignore that last house on the road. Because he was faithful, another family met the Savior. Our mission offerings help provide funds for evangelism at home and around the world. Thank you for giving.

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God led him on a quest to a city several days’ journey away, where he met Adventists and asked to be baptized. But when the pastor asked him to stay in the city, Juan refused.

“I must return home and tell my family and fellow villagers,” he said. The pastor gave him bus fare to return home.

“We have a God who loves us and wants us to meet with Him on His Sabbath,” he told his family and friends. “He has many things to teach us.” At first few people listened to Juan’s message. But little by little some began to accept what Juan said.

Juan realized that he needed help to teach his people. He made the long journey back to the city of Ambato to invite the pastor to visit his village and help teach the people. The pastor agreed to go, and the two men flew to an airport in the rain forest. From there they met villagers who helped carry their equipment through the mosquito-infested jungles and across several rivers in oppressive heat.

The pastor taught them Bible truths and led seminars in health, marriage, and family life. Juan had prepared the people well, and by the end of the week 15 people were ready to be baptized.

After the pastor returned to Ambato, Juan continued sharing God’s word in surrounding villages. Five months later the pastor returned for another week of seminars and baptized 18 more people.

The villagers had built a large church of thatch and wood that was filled with worshippers on Sabbath. ADRA sponsored a literacy program to teach the people to read so they could read the Bible for themselves. Members of the Adventist church in Ambato conducted a large health ministry and Vacation Bible School program. And more people were baptized.

Four years later more than 135 people in Juan’s jungle home have given their lives to God and been baptized into the Adventist Church. Some of the new believers help Juan spread God’s message to those in other villages who are waiting to hear. Today simple chapels stand in several of these villages.

Juan thanks God for leading him to the Adventist Church and helping him share the gospel message with others. Your mission offerings help support Juan as he works among the indigenous people of southeastern Ecuador. A recent Thirteenth Sabbath Offering helped expand the Adventist radio network in Ecuador, making God’s message available to thousands who might not otherwise hear it.

Juan Saant shares his faith in the jungles of southeastern Ecuador.

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But he had no time to gaze at the tall buildings and busy streets, for he was on a mission. But where should he go? He prayed, “God, direct me to the people who keep Your Sabbath.” Then he started walking.

He found himself in front of a theater and watched as people entered. He felt led to follow them inside, though he didn’t know what he would find. Someone welcomed him to the large hall filling with people. He sat down and waited.

Juan lives in a small village in the jungle of southeastern Ecuador. His people knew little about God. Juan had received a New Testament while attending a high school in a nearby town and read it eagerly. He’d discovered truths about God that fed a hunger in his heart. He asked God to teach him how to follow Jesus.

On a trip to another town to buy supplies, Juan had found a tattered book and began reading it. The book confirmed what he had been reading in his Bible and explained the meaning of keeping the Sabbath.

Juan was determined to find the people who kept the Sabbath! He set out on a three-day hike through the jungle to the nearest large town to search for Sabbath keepers. But no one knew of any Sabbath keepers there. “Go to Ambato” [ahm-BAH-toh], someone had said. So Juan spent his few pesos on a bus ticket to Ambato. He arrived late in the afternoon and started walking in search of God’s people. Then he found the theater.

A man stood to speak. Juan listened with growing excitement as the man talked about the Sabbath and other truths Juan had found in his Bible. God had guided Juan’s footsteps from his jungle home to this theater so he could find the people who kept His commandments!

After the meeting Juan found a pastor and told him, “I want to be baptized!” The surprised pastor met with Juan the next day and realized that the boy knew God’s Word. He agreed to baptize him that Sabbath. Juan had never been inside an Adventist church until the day he was baptized. The pastor wanted Juan to stay in town, but the boy refused. He had to return to share his faith with his fellow villagers.

[Continued next week.)

Juan

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She was curious about the Seventh-day Adventist meetings being held on a nearby vacant lot, though she belonged to another church.

The messages touched Pamela’s heart, and at times she felt that the speaker talked directly to her. So on Sabbath morning she took her five children to the meetings instead of to her own church. When the pastor invited those who wanted special prayer to come forward, Pamela took her children to the front. Her husband had died, and she was the sole support of her family. Life was difficult.

Pamela had been an ardent member of the charismatic church to which she belonged. She had donated the land on which the church members built their mud-brick house of worship. So when she did not attend church for three weeks, some church members visited and asked why she was no longer attending. “I have found truth that I never knew before,” she told them simply. “And I am learning how to properly raise my family.”

Pamela and her children joined the nearest Adventist church, which was three miles (five kilometers) from her home. Then she learned that the charismatic church to which she had belonged had abandoned the mud-brick church they had built on her land. Pamela invited the church leaders to hold small-group worship services in the abandoned building, and the church accepted her offer.

When Pamela’s friends from her former church asked her questions about why she left, she shared with them new truths she has learned and invited them to worship in the new Adventist church—their former building. So far three of her friends have joined the Adventist group that worships in the mud-brick church.

The little congregation of 25 met in the mud-brick church for a year before it deteriorated to where it was no longer safe. The church members decided to rebuild with more permanent materials.

Pamela makes and sells porridge and buns to provide for her children. She is poor, but she shares with those in need when she can. When her friends laugh at her poor house, she smiles and tells them, “My God is my husband and my provider. He is so good to my family; I cannot thank Him enough.”

Your mission offerings reach searching hearts like Pamela’s around the world. Thank you.

Pamela Obero shares her faith in Kendu Bay, Kenya.

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She asked a question, and Sharoon’s hand shot into the air. The teacher called on him, and Sharoon answered her question.

Sharoon loves Sabbath School, especially the Bible stories his teacher tells. The church Sharoon attends meets in a house that’s been remodeled to make a church. It’s not big, but it’s clean and bright.

Sharoon and his family live in Lahore, a large city in Pakistan. Most people in the country are Muslims. There are few Christians and even fewer Adventists.

Someone donated Bible story felts so that the teacher has something to show the children when she tells the Bible story. The children enjoy watching the story unfold in pictures as the teacher tells it. When a missionary visited the church, she noticed that the children didn’t bring their Bibles to church. “Next week please bring your Bibles to Sabbath School,” she encouraged with a smile.

“But Teacher,” one girl said. “I don’t have a Bible.” Other children shook their heads too. Sharoon added, “My daddy has a Bible, but I don’t think he will let me bring it to church.”

The missionary was surprised that the children had no Bibles. “Let’s memorize some Bible texts so we take God’s words wherever we go,” the missionary suggested. The teacher agreed and printed Bible texts on sheets of paper. The children worked hard to learn the Bible texts. And they prayed for Bibles of their own.

Someone sent some money to the missionaries to buy Bibles for the children. The children eagerly waited for their Bibles to arrive. At last they came. The teacher opened the box and gave each child a Bible. She helped them write their name inside the cover.

Now the children eagerly read the Bible stories in their own Bibles. They have memorized the books of the Bible and can repeat many Bible texts from memory. The children are so eager to learn more about God that some of them arrive an hour early for Sabbath School so they won’t miss a thing!

Sharoon treasures his Bible, but he knows that other Adventist children in Pakistan don’t have a Bible. He’s excited to learn that part of this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help buy Bibles for children in Pakistan, and in Israel and Sudan, too.

Three years ago Adventist children around the world gave a special children’s offering for Thirteenth Sabbath to buy Bibles for children in Pakistan, Israel, and Sudan. Today thousands of children have a Bible and can learn for themselves that God loves them. Thank you!

Dowell Chow is the Adventist Mission coordinator in the East-Central Africa Division, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.

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While visiting the ailing village chief, he faced down soldiers with guns pointed at his head and prayed for healing for the chief. God helped him raise up a small congregation in the highland village, and today a school and a small church stand as testimonies of God’s power to change hearts.

Benjamin transferred to a region on the southern plains of the island. There he visited the people and found many who wanted to know more about Jesus. He held two weeks of evangelistic meetings in the village.

On the first night of the meetings a devil priest named Bem and his wife entered the meeting area and sat down. The next night they returned, but that night the devil whom Bem worshipped became angry and wouldn’t let Bem sleep. Bem’s joints swelled and became painful, and the devil told him, “I will kill you if you leave me.” Bem became fearful and cried out, “I’m going to die!” Then he told his startled wife that the devil was attacking him and had threatened to kill him.

Early the next morning Bem’s wife came to tell Benjamin what her husband had said the night before. Benjamin visited Bem’s home and told him that the devil was a defeated enemy of God, and Bem didn’t have to fear his power. Benjamin told Bem and his wife that Jesus had cast out many demons during his lifetime. “Jesus even raised a dead child and a dead man,” he said, referring to Jairus’ daughter and Lazarus. Bem and his wife listened in awed silence.

Benjamin invited the couple to kneel with him while he asked Jesus to cast out the demon from Bem’s life. Benjamin prayed for Bem and his family. When Benjamin ended his prayer, Bem told Benjamin that the devil had left him.

Following the evangelistic meetings Bem and his wife asked to be baptized. At the baptismal service Bem shared how Jesus had cast out the demons he had once worshipped. “Now I am a follower of the true God, Jesus Christ,” he said.

Bem shares his new faith with those he used to serve as a devil priest. A small congregation of believers now worships in this village, evidence of God’s redeeming love.

Our mission offerings help reach people everywhere who need to hear God’s message of love and forgiveness.

Benjamin Sam served as a Global Mission pioneer until he was asked to pastor a congregation near Honiara, the capital city of the Solomon Islands.

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