Inside Story: Accepting the Word, Part 2

Accepting the Word, Part 2

By Andrew McChesney

Eulalia Rashid completed her goal of reading the Bible from cover to cover on the Pacific island of Saipan in three years. Based on what she read, she began to keep the Sabbath and eat a plant-based diet. An alcoholic for 37 years, she told her family that Jesus had taken away her desire to drink.

Image © Pacific Press

But she had colon cancer, a medical diagnosis that was made before she started reading the Bible. Then she came down with painful shingles. The two illnesses caused terrible suffering. But her attention was elsewhere. She did not understand why she felt like she did not really know Jesus even though she had read the entire Bible. She earnestly prayed.

Abruptly, an inexplicable desire overcame her to call the Saipan Seventh-day Adventist Clinic. “I’m sorry, but this is not concerning the clinic,” Eulalia told the person who answered the phone. “I need to talk with someone from church. I’ve read the whole Bible, but I’m still hungry and thirsty.”

A short time later, a young pastor showed up at Eulalia’s door. The two hit it off immediately. Eulalia felt like she had known the pastor her whole life, and they began to study the Bible together. Eulalia asked to get baptized.

About a month before the fall 2019 baptism, Eulalia’s terrible pain suddenly vanished. A doctor had told Eulalia that shingles was untreatable and she would suffer for many months. But now the pain was gone. She touched her stomach and sensed that something else was different. A short time later, the doctor pronounced her cancer-free.

Today, Eulalia is a missionary to her neighbors and family of four children and 13 grandchildren on Saipan. She prays for them as she tends her luscious green garden, which she calls her prayer garden. She gives the fruit of her labors to neighbors. A room in her house has been set aside as a worship place where Adventists and others gather on Sabbath evenings.

Eulalia, 66, has no doubt that the psalmist was correct when he said, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105, NKJV).

“My hope and encouragement to other people is: Follow the Word,” she said. “Jesus is the Word. He is the way to everlasting life.”

This mission story illustrates the following components of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s “I Will Go” strategic plan: Mission Objective No. 1, “To strengthen Seventh-day Adventist institutions in upholding freedom, wholistic health, and hope through Jesus, and restoring in people the image of God” and Spiritual Growth Objective No. 5, “To disciple individuals and families into spirit-filled lives.”

Amen!