Led by an Angel

A stranger directs truth seekers to the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

My name is Shintoni, and I come from Kwilu Province, one of the darkest, poorest regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Many people from my area have never heard about the Three Angels’ Messages and the second coming of Jesus. What people do believe in is sorcery and enchantment. My people—even those who pretend to be Christians—believe that every sickness results from sorcery.

Some time ago, a Baptist minister shared about Jesus with some people from Mongombala, my home village. The message brought them such joy that they shared about salvation and God’s care with the rest of us, and soon the whole village accepted the Baptist faith. A number of locals, my uncle included, went to Kinshasa to be trained to serve as pastors in our area. The Baptist community built schools and even a big hospital.

Then a strange thing started to happen. Local ministers, teachers, medical personnel and other leaders started getting very sick. Some even died. Rumors spread that the ministers had been involved in witchcraft. Some of them left the ministry to save their lives.

It was disappointing to see the fear even the trained ministers still had of sorcery. Those who did not leave the ministry organized a small group to beseech God for more light, more truth from the Bible. My uncle invited me to be part of the prayer group. As we fasted and prayed for God to lead us to the truth, we sometimes spent sleepless nights in prayer.

One night after a month dedicated to prayer, I had a dream in which somebody told me that God would send us a messenger to help us find the truth. When I woke up, I told my dream to the prayer team. That same morning a stranger came to my uncle and told him that he had heard about our prayer group. “There is a church in Kikwit City called the Seventh-day Adventist Church,” he told my uncle. “They keep Saturday as the day of rest.” The stranger gave my uncle the physical address of the church and the name of the Adventist pastor in Kikwit. “Go and find that pastor,” he urged. “He will tell you more about the truth.” After the converstation, the man disapeared, and none of us ever saw him again.

Intrigued, our group collected money for my uncle to go to Kikwit to look for the truth. He found everything just as the stranger had told him. Pastor Tatipanga told my uncle the truth about spiritualism and about how Jesus overcame the devil and gives us power to overcome as well. He told my uncle about the Sabbath, the Three Angels’ Messages, the second coming and more. My uncle invited Pastor Tatipanga to Mongombala, and he came and spent a week sharing the good news with us. We accepted the message and helped to spread our new faith with people in our community. In the end, one thousand people accepted Jesus fully and were baptized—my uncle and myself included.

After our baptism, my uncle trained as a minister in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. As for me, I received training as a Bible worker from Train Them 2 Fish. God used me to plant a new congregation in Kinshasa. Now I have been called to work as a full-time pastor in the Central Congo area. I thank God for sending His angel to lead us to the truth!

Location
Democratic Republic of Congo

Author
Brother Shintoni is a pastor in Central Congo.

How You Can Help

Pray for the Train Them 2 Fish team as they train Bible workers to penetrate the dark regions of the Congo.

Pray for Shintoni, his uncle and other pastors and workers to be able to reach many dying souls in Congo.

Give. If you would like to help reach souls in dark areas, mark your donation “Congo” and send it to:

Mission Projects International
PO Box 151
Inchelium, WA 99138

For electronic options, visit:
www.missionspro.org/donate