Praying for Father to Accept Jesus

By Andrew McChesney

Dominika Gaborova couldn’t wait to tell her father about Jesus. After attending the Seventh-day Adventist church, she ran through the door and greeted Father at their home in Rakúsy, a Roma settlement of 2,000 people in Slovakia. “I believe in Jesus!” the girl exclaimed. Father turned away. He didn’t want to listen.

Dominika felt sad. Then Uncle Robert came to visit. He was a Seventh-day Adventist and Father couldn’t refuse to listen to him. “Do you remember how I used to live?” Uncle Robert said. “Well, I don’t anymore because Jesus helped me and my life is much better now.”

Father knew that Uncle Robert was telling the truth. He had seen big improvements in Uncle Robert’s life. He accepted an invitation from Uncle Robert to go to a Bible study group at a neighbor’s house. Father chose to believe in Jesus as he attended the Bible study. He stopped smoking, drinking, and gambling. He and Dominika, 12, were baptized together.

Dominika liked this new father. In the morning and evening, she and Father prayed together. They read the Bible together. They went to church together on Sabbath. But one day, Father had an argument with someone at church. The next Sabbath, he refused to go to church. He began to smoke, drink and gamble again. Dominika felt so sad. She also didn’t like the cigarette smoke in the house. Every time she smelled it, she felt like vomiting. She prayed for Father to return to God.

“My God, I beg you to help Father to stop smoking,” she said. “Please bring Father back to church so we can go to church together as a family.” She prayed every day. She also shared Bible verses with Father. Every time she read the Bible, she shared what she had read with Father. He listened thoughtfully.

Several months passed, and Father stopped gambling. Then he stopped drinking. One Sabbath, he called out to Dominika as she prepared to go to church. “Wait for me,” he said. “I’m going with you.” Dominika was overjoyed! God was answering her prayers.

She continued to pray for Father. She kept sharing Bible verses. One day, she read 1 Corinthians 13 and gave her Bible to Father so he also could read the chapter. Father read, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Father began to weep. The tears surprised Dominika. Father was a big, strong man and she had never seen him cry. Father read, “Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but the face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Tears rolled down Father’s cheeks as he finished reading. He hugged Dominika tightly.

“Thank you, Dominika,” he said. “Thank you for helping me to find my way back to God.”

Andrew McChesney is editor of Adventist Mission.

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World Church Prayer Requests

February 2 - 9, 2020

• PRAYER REQUEST: Pray for those that are facing sickness, isolation, and fear with the outbreak of the Coronavirus. Pray that God would put a hedge around His children and give peace in the midst of the storm.

• PRAYER REQUEST: Pray for our members in China. Pray that God would take care of them and provide for their needs spiritually and physically during the panic sweeping the country.

• PRAYER REQUEST: Pray for the Middle East and North Africa Union (MENAU), and the cities that have no Adventist presence—that God will raise up laborers for the harvest. There are 48 cities of 1 million or more people in this territory alone, some of which a Seventh-day Adventist has never set foot in.

• PRAYER REQUEST: The 10/40 window is home to 236 cities of 1 million or more residents. Please pray for committed missionaries willing to minister to the unreached people of these cities.

• PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for the “Health for Every Day” radio broadcast airing in Tokyo, Japan. Ask God to guide and bless the presenters, inspire listeners, and connect those listeners to local churches.

• PRAYER REQUEST: Please continue to pray for the Church in Iceland to know how to reach out to and effectively witness in their communities. Pray for the individuals who received one of the 150,000 GLOW tracts passed out by Generation.Youth.Christ. volunteers this last summer. Pray for those who have started coming to church to continue to grow.