Don't Go Near the Adventists

When the Adventists came, her dad called a family meeting and told everyone not to have anything to do with them.

On the day that nearly 40 women moved into Tumaini Emmanuel’s home, she had no idea how much their arrival would change her life. They were part of an Adventist women’s ministries team that had come to hold meetings in her town and rented part of her father’s house.

Tumaini was interested in religion. She was active in another Christian denomination, and ever since she was 16 she had been a lay preacher for her church.

When the Adventists came, her dad called a family meeting and told everyone not to have anything to do with them. He finished by warning, “Everyone who speaks to a devoted Adventist is converted.”

In the following weeks, Tumaini and her brother couldn’t help but mingle with these friendly people, and they heard what they were teaching. Tumaini’s brother became more and more excited about what he was learning, but her parents weren’t too concerned because they said it was just “his childish mind.” They thought he would grow out of it, so even when he decided to be baptized, they didn’t object too much.

On the day of the baptism, Tumaini’s parents asked her to escort her brother to his baptism. They told her, “Just take your brother there, but never should we hear that you have been baptized.”

Tumaini didn’t know it, but the women had been watching her and for two days they had fasted and prayed that when her brother was baptized, she would decide to be baptized too. They even took extra clothes for her, just in case.

While she watched the baptisms, Tumaini felt confusion and turmoil as the Holy Spirit tugged on her heart. At the end of the day, even though no one had said anything to her about baptism, she decided to be baptized.

Tumaini was taken to a changing room as the pastor waited for her. Then the astonished crowd watched as Tumaini was baptized.

The decision wasn’t an easy one for Tumaini to make. As a lay evangelist, she had received a salary from her church. Now that she had been baptized, she would lose that income. Tumaini didn’t know what she would do, but she trusted Jesus to provide for her needs.

Things became difficult at home for Tumaini. Her family threatened to kick her out of the house and she was only allowed to stay by agreeing to attend both churches. Her old church kept scheduling events on Sabbath morning. Finally, the Adventist women invited her to help with another series of meetings and they came up with the money to cover her expenses.

Today, the women’s ministries department sponsors Tumaini as a Global Mission pioneer. She visits families and studies the Bible with them and organizes lay activities in the local area. Her brother is still an Adventist, and she rejoices that her mother has also become an Adventist.

Please pray for Tumaini as she shares her faith with her friends and family and people in the community where she lives in Tanzania.

William Fidel Bachako is a Global Mission pioneer working in west Tanzania. He was sent to a village where there are seven churches but no Seventh-day Adventists. From the beginning, he faced opposition. He was accused of witchcraft, and later a group of people planned to beat him and drive him from the district. Three times they set a trap and waited to attack him. Each time they never saw him pass, but he was already gone. William only learned of the plot after one of the men was baptized and told him.

Jaspar Senguo has been a Global Mission pioneer for more than 12 years and is sponsored by a local church in Tanzania. Jaspar and some others were sent to an area with no Adventists. They were holding meetings near the hospital and decided to visit some of the patients in the evening. They met one woman with a large head wound that wasn’t healing. They prayed with her and shared about Jesus. They invited her friends to the meetings. She came, and as the meetings went on her wound began to heal. When she went for a checkup, the wound had completely healed, and she and her younger sister were baptized.

Yohana Musa Jisena set out to share his faith in 2002. In 2006 he became a Global Mission pioneer and received a small stipend. He was sent to a cattle farming community in an unreached area where the people drank excessively at dances. When he saw how important those social dances were to the community, he went back to his home church and asked them to send the choir with their guitars. A date was arranged and the choir came. When the people discovered the choir didn’t do music like they do music, they were curious and started asking questions. Yohana invited them to learn more by taking Discover Bible lessons. After some of the people graduated from the Bible course, they held public meetings.

When the choir came back for the meetings, word spread throughout the community. Some men who belonged to a drinking club decided to go to the meeting to try to meet women. They listened to the music from a distance, then, as they moved closer to hear the music, the women greeters invited them into the meeting.

The men liked the music and after the meeting one of them invited the choir to come and sing at his home.

When the choir went to the man’s home, they discovered that he had invited almost everyone in the entire village. He asked them to sing in Sukuma, the language of the majority tribal group in the country. At the end of the meeting, 27 people answered a call to start Bible studies. That group included the chairman and treasurer of the drinking club.