How Prayer and a Rented Car Paid the Bill!
By Andrew McChesney
Choomba Simillah was studying for a bachelor’s degree at the public university while teaching at Rusangu Secondary School, a Seventh-day Adventist boarding academy in Zambia. One university teacher refused to give him a passing grade and another teacher failed him when he repeated the course. As a result, he was informed that he would be expelled.
Choomba couldn’t understand why he was being failed, and he rushed to the teacher for an explanation. The teacher said he hadn’t turned in a key homework assignment. Choomba remembered doing the assignment and found it at home, complete with the teacher’s marks.
Returning to the university, he handed the assignment to the teacher.
“I’ll look at it later,” the teacher replied. “You might have marked it on your own.”
The teacher’s response might have sounded harsh. But he had no urgency to look at the assignment until Choomba settled his tuition bill. Choomba owed 9,000 Zambian kwacha (about $900 USD), and he had no idea where to obtain the money.
Unwilling to give up, Choomba approached various people asking to borrow the money. He looked for a way to sell his car, a maroon Toyota Voltz. He prayed for God to intervene.
He visited a bank in Monze, the nearest town to Rusangu Secondary School, to apply for a loan. To his dismay, he learned the bank had stopped offering loans.
As he dejectedly left the bank, a friend called out on the street, “Can I hire your car for 21 days?”
Choomba looked up. Was God about to answer his prayer for help?
“There is a white man who has a daughter coming here for the holidays,” the friend said. “He wants to travel. He asked me to look for a sound car, and I think yours will do.”
“That sounds like an opportunity,” Choomba said. “What should I do?”
“Just take your car to the car wash,” the friend said.
Choomba gave his car a good wash and met with the white man, who was spending several months with a friend on a farm in Monze. He said he wanted to take his adult daughter on a tour of Zambia and offered 12,000 kwacha to borrow the car for 21 days. The amount was enough to buy a second-hand car.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Choomba said in an interview.
The man asked to take the car the following day, a Saturday. Although Choomba needed the money, he refused, not wanting to engage in a business transaction on the Sabbath.
“No, we can meet on Sunday,” he said, praying silently that the man wouldn’t change his mind.
The man agreed to pick up the car on Sunday and handed over 11,000 kwacha on the spot.
Choomba promptly returned tithe and went to the university to pay off his bill. He was not expelled and went on to graduate in 2016.
Now more than ever, he believes in the power of prayer.
Andrew McChesney is editor of Adventist Mission. This story is reprinted with permission. To view the original article, click here.
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World Church Prayer Requests
for Dec. 24-31, 2017
• PRAYER REQUEST: Please continue to pray for the Holy Spirit to be poured out in a powerful way on the upcoming Ten Days of Prayer, January 10-20, 2018. Pray that many new churches become involved, and that thousands of lives are changed for eternity as church families come together seeking a closer walk with God. To be a part of this life-changing event, visit: www.tendaysofprayer.org.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Please continue to pray for Pathways to Health and the Generation of Youth for Christ convention that will be taking place in Phoenix this week. Please pray that those who come to the Pathways to Health clinic will see Jesus in the young people and medical personnel who serve them, and that many lives will be changed for eternity.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for all the General Conference staff working on the logistics for the 2020 General Conference session to be held in Indianapolis, Indiana. Pray that they will seek God’s will in all that they do. We especially want to lift up Sheri Clemmer and Miriam Taylor as they coordinate details behind the scenes. Pray that God will give them Holy Spirit wisdom and strength.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for “Centers of Influence” being developed in cities around the world. Pray that they are blessed, managed well, and that they reach thousands for Jesus. Pray for the Mission to the Cities initiative, and for workers to answer the call to serve. There are still so many large urban areas with no Adventist presence.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for all who have been affected by hurricanes, floods, fires and tornados this past summer/fall. Pray that God will provide as families, churches, and communities rebuild. Pray for the relief efforts still under way.