Miracle of a Mission School

By Chifundo Kanjo

Two very different kinds of mission schools shaped John Phiri’s life.

As a youth, John was sent from home in Malawi to study the family’s non-Christian religion on the Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar. John spent three years immersed in the religion’s main book and learning how to establish houses of worship in unentered areas of Africa.

Image © Pacific Press

Finishing his education in Zanzibar, the young man was sent back to Malawi to lead two houses of worship. He also was tasked with closely monitoring local Christians and reporting his findings back to Zanzibar. To better understand Christianity, he was instructed to read a King James Bible.

Over the next few years, John joined three different Christian churches, rising to a senior position in one of them, as he collected information for Zanzibar. All the while, he led houses of worship in two Malawian towns.

John’s heart was touched as he read the Bible. He found it more understandable than his religion’s book. He longed to know more about Jesus.

Still a youth, he enrolled in the Seventh-day Adventist school at Luwazi Mission. For him, it was a new kind of mission school, very different from the school in Zanzibar. He was particularly interested in the school’s Pathfinder club, and he joined it, participating in all the programs.

John fell in love with Jesus during a week of prayer at the school, and he gave his heart to Jesus in baptism. He stopped sending information to Zanzibar. John’s father was furious when he found out. He angrily accused John’s mother of being the cause, and he divorced her.

Years passed, and John felt called by God to put his mission schooling to work. While he had been trained in Zanzibar to open houses of worship in unentered areas for his former religion, he resolved to take his Adventist education and do the same thing for Jesus. He became a Global Mission pioneer, an Adventist who establishes congregations in unentered areas within his or her own culture. John served as a Global Mission pioneer for 10 years, and many people from his family’s religion gave their hearts to Jesus.

John went on to graduate with a theology degree from Malawi Adventist University and today serves as an Adventist pastor. John said the Adventist mission school changed his life. “Do not to undermine the importance of mission schools,” he said. “They are a tool for people to know Jesus and accept Him as their personal Savior. Seventh-day Adventist education is very vital in preaching the gospel and making Christ known to all.”

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org

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Further Thought:

 God honored His part of the covenant by blessing Abraham. And Abraham honored God by not storing up treasures on this earth. “The heritage that God has promised to His people is not in this world. Abraham had no possession in the earth, ‘no, not so much as to set his foot on.’ Acts 7:5.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

He possessed great substance, and he used it to the glory of God and the good of his fellow men; but he did not look upon this world as his home. The Lord had called him to leave his idolatrous countrymen, with the promise of the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession; yet neither he nor his son nor his son’s son received it. When Abraham desired a burial place for his dead, he had to buy it of the Canaanites. His sole possession in the Land of Promise was that rock-hewn tomb in the cave of Machpelah.” — Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 169.

As we live our lives, we are sometimes tempted to go toward wealth and leisure. It takes strong faith to practice delayed gratification. “The magnificent palace of Pharaoh and the monarch’s throne were held out as an inducement to Moses; but he knew that the sinful pleasures that make men forget God were in its lordly courts. He looked beyond the gorgeous palace, beyond a monarch’s crown, to the high honors that will be bestowed on the saints of the Most High in a kingdom untainted by sin. He saw by faith an imperishable crown that the King of heaven would place on the brow of the overcomer. This faith led him to turn away from the lordly ones of earth and join the humble, poor, despised nation that had chosen to obey God rather than to serve sin.” — Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 246.

Discussion Questions:

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