Miguel had finally “made it.” He was happily married and living the life the government said he should live, drinking and smoking and teaching school. No problems. No worries. No cares.
Miguel’s home was in Africa, in the country of Mozambique. His parents had been subsistence farmers near Beira, where Mother, Father, and all his brothers and sisters worked at home. He remembers many days of herding cattle, milking goats, carrying water from the distant water hole, and harvesting vegetables from the family’s small plot, their machamba.
It was a good life, but one he saw no future in, unless he could somehow go to school. He argued often with his parents, begging them to let him go to a nearby Christian primary school. They finally agreed to his request, even though it was an expensive choice.
A CLERICAL START
Knowing that the family was sacrificing to pay his tuition, Miguel studied constantly and learned quickly. After six years in the parish school, he was doing so well that the parish priest recruited him to join the priesthood. Miguel thought that would be a good job with a steady income, so he agreed. After graduation he spent the next four years training to serve God as a cleric, followed by a two-year novitiate to become a priest.
Just as he was to graduate and begin his priestly career, a new government took over Mozambique. Immediately the government declared religion to be the “opium of the people,” and closed all the churches. Overnight Miguel’s carefully planned life had been turned upside down!
Since there were no longer any jobs for priests, Miguel accepted a job teaching at a government school, and quickly learned that he loved being a teacher.
“I got married and fathered two children,” Miguel remembers. “Unfortunately, both of our children died very young. When they died, we were required to go to the witch doctor many times to discover why they had died and who was at fault for their deaths. The animal sacrifices, required to care for the anger of the devils, were very expensive! It was a very painful experience for me and my young wife.”
During all of this time Miguel was drinking and smoking and living a wild life, just as the government said was good to live.
A CURIOUS QUESTION
One day after classes a young student came to Professor Miguel’s desk and requested permission to ask a question. “Sure,” the professor answered. “What would you like?”
“Professor,” the student said with a smile, “have you ever thought about giving up smoking?”
The question made Professor Miguel angry. “Why do you ask me that, young man?”
“Because, Professor, you would be a much better teacher if you were not coughing so much.”
Professor Miguel laughed and sent the boy away.
A few weeks later the young man came to the teacher’s desk again.
“Professor,” the student said, “have you ever thought about giving up drinking alcohol?”
Once again the question made Professor Miguel angry. “Why do you ask me that, young man?”
“Because you’re a much better teacher when you’re sober.”
“I knew my drinking and smoking were ruining my health and my happiness, but I didn’t know how to stop. So I looked down at the student and said, ‘Yes!Can you help me stop?’ ”
“No, I can’t,” the student said. “But come with me, and I’ll take you to someone who can help you change.”
COME WITH ME
The student took Miguel far across town to a tiny hut and introduced him to the young Seventh-day Adventist pastor who lived there.
“What would you like me to do for you?” the pastor asked.
“I want to quit smoking and drinking,” Miguel answered.
“Is that all?” The pastor laughed. “We can care for that right away. This is easy. Come inside.”
“The young pastor didn’t have any books or special potions or anything that would make me think he was a wise counselor who could help me do the impossible,” says Miguel. “I asked about his background and what schools he had attended. The man laughed and said that he had completed only some primary school, not nearly as much as I had completed myself. Then I laughed out loud, thinking I was a fool for believing that this ignorant person might be able to help me.”
The pastor asked Miguel to join him, and the two men knelt on the floor of the hut.
“He prayed for me,” says Miguel. “When the prayer was over, he told me that all my smoking and drinking desires were now gone forever. Then he told me to sit down.”
“Next comes the hard part,” the young pastor said as he opened a Bible. “Now I need to teach you about Jesus.”
Despite his training, Miguel had never held a Bible. For the next hour the
Adventist pastor showed him things about Jesus that he had never heard or imagined.
Walking home that afternoon, Miguel passed the bar where he usually stopped after school, but realized he had no desire to go inside. His interest in tobacco and alcohol had truly been taken away!
At home his wife asked why he wasn’t smoking. Then she asked if he’d like a drink before supper.
“It was hard to tell her the truth,” Miguel remembers, “because I knew she would be angry that I had been talking to those horrible, crazy Seventh-day Adventists.”
A CHANGED MAN
“Who took you there?” she asked. “Adventists are foolish people! You must never go there again!”
But Miguel didn’t obey. He kept sneaking over to the pastor’s home, studying the Bible with him, and letting God change his life.
“My life improved so much that a couple months later my wife asked me why I was so different. When I admitted I was still seeing the Adventist pastor, she asked if she could come along. Three months later my wife and I were baptized together on the same Sabbath day. That was the best day of our whole lives!”
Miguel and his wife became strong leaders in their local church. After additional training, Miguel was ordained as a Seventh-day Adventist pastor and became a strong church and educational leader in southern Africa. When he told me this story, I asked him to introduce me to the young student who talked to him after class.“I am sorry, Pastor Dick.” Pastor Miguel frowned. “When my wife and I asked the young pastor to introduce us to the student who brought me to his house, he looked confused. ‘No one brought you. You came alone,’ he said.”
