Stubborn Wife

By Andrew McChesney, Adventist Mission

Convinced that Saturday is the biblical Sabbath, business owner Zelindo JoÃo Lay informed his wife that he would leave their Sunday church in Lospalos, East Timor.

“What, are you crazy?” exclaimed his wife, Dulce. “First you close our two mini-marts on Saturday, and now you want to leave the church. Why?”

Image © Pacific Press

“I have found the truth in the Bible,” he said.

Dulce refused to discuss the matter anymore.

“From now on, you go your way, and I’ll go mine,” she said.

She stopped cooking for Zelindo and sometimes locked him out of the house.

Zelindo cried and prayed, “What is happening to me? I found the truth in the Bible but now my wife wants a divorce because I am following the Bible’s teaching about the Sabbath.”

In the mornings, Dulce went to their larger mini-mart as usual, and Zelindo watched their young son at home. He took the noon to 9 p.m. shift at the shop, and Dulce returned home to be with their son.

One morning, Zelindo prayed, “If You want me to leave my church, show me a miracle.”

At noon, he walked into the shop and was shocked to find Dulce reading the Bible. He had never seen her read the Bible before. He saw she was reading about the woman and dragon in Revelation 12.

“Darling, if you don’t understand what you are reading, I can explain it to you,” he said.

BANG! Dulce abruptly slammed her hand onto the desk. The loud noise drew startled stares from browsing customers.

Dulce started crying. “Why did they lie to us?” she said. “Why did they hide this from us?”

Zelindo hugged her. “Thank you, God, for answering my prayer,” he said. “I have seen a miracle.”

On Saturday, the family went to a Seventh-day Adventist church for the first time.

Later, Zelindo and his wife were baptized into the Adventist Church.

Zelindo, 42, said God has blessed beyond measure as he has sought to honor Him at work. He stopped selling alcohol, tobacco, coffee, and tea, and he changed the employment rules. In addition to salaries, he provides employees with room and board. He asks them to worship with him every morning and evening and attend Bible studies once a week.

Zelindo prays every day, “I want to use this business to praise You. Help me to bring people to You.”

The employees have expressed amazement as they study the Bible.

“What you are teaching us from the Bible is really true,” they say.

Zelindo, upper right, said God has blessed his business beyond his biggest hopes: Eight employees have been baptized in four years.

Part of a 2015 Thirteenth Sabbath Offering helped build the first Seventh-day Adventist school in East Timor’s capital, Dili. Thank you for your mission offering.

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

All Rights Reserved. No part of the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide may be edited, altered, modified, adapted, translated, reproduced, or published by any person or entity without prior written authorization from the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

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Further Thought: Ellen G. White, “A Rebuke Against Extortion”, pages 646–652, in Prophets and Kings.

“As Nehemiah heard of this cruel oppression, his soul was filled with indignation. ‘I was very angry’, he says, ‘when I heard their cry and these words’. He saw that if he succeeded in breaking up the oppressive custom of exaction he must take a decided stand for justice. With characteristic energy and determination he went to work to bring relief to his brethren” – Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, p. 648.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

“Jesus proceeded to lay down a principle that would make oath taking needless. He teaches that the exact truth should be the law of speech. ‘Let your speech be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: and whatsoever is more than these is of the evil one’. R.V” – Ellen G. White, Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 67.

“These words condemn all those meaningless phrases and expletives that border on profanity. They condemn the deceptive compliments, the evasion of truth, the flattering phrases, the exaggerations, the misrepresentations in trade, that are current in society and in the business world. They teach that no one who tries to appear what he is not, or whose words do not convey the real sentiment of his heart, can be called truthful” – Page 68.

Discussion Questions:

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