October 27, 2012, witnessed the closure of a seven-day reaping campaign held at the Jakarta International Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jakarta, Indonesia, where 277 people were baptized.
After the baptism and just before people filed out of the church, a man walked forward pushing a tearful lady in a wheelchair. Speaking through a translator, she told the preacher that though the baptism had already taken place, she wanted to be baptized. The lady was Augustina, and the man pushing her was her husband, Deswanto.
Pastor Ronny Rambi, the pastor of this church, had been visiting this family for some years for prayer sessions and Bible study. Early in Pastor Rambi’s visits, the family’s oldest son, Wira, who was 12 years old at that time, decided to be baptized. When the evangelistic meetings were scheduled, Pastor Rambi invited the couple to attend, but they refused.
Unknown to Pastor Rambi, from the time Wira was baptized, he tirelessly talked to his parents concerning Bible truth. Now, four years later, a tearful Wira had left for the last day of the meetings after failing to convince his parents to come for baptism.
When Wira saw his parents go forward, not believing his eyes, he broke down and wept. Deswanto carried his wife, Augustina, in his arms and walked in to the baptismal pool. They were both baptized. There was hardly a dry eye in the church.
Definitely, God uses children.
—Saustin Sampson Mfune is associate director, Children’s Ministries Department, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Silver Spring, Maryland, United States.
