When God Closed the Mouth of Birds!
By Cami Oetman
Our film crew was in Africa recently to document how cell phone evangelism is spreading the gospel message like wildfire.
Amazing things happened every single day while I was there, from feeling the spray of Victoria Falls, to being only 20 feet from elephants bathing and playing in the river, to floating down the Zambezi river in a dug out canoe. All of these were incredible bucket list experiences for me. But nothing compared to watching God perform a miracle right in front of us.
Our film crew was in Pretoria, South Africa. We had come to document a young man’s story. Elmer has an amazing testimony of how Jesus continually pursued him for 15 years while he was using drugs. What is so amazing is that this man returned to Jesus through cell phone evangelism! It’s an incredible and powerful testimony that we believe will change many lives.
As we were beginning to film this beautiful testimony, we started to experience some technical difficulties—not the normal technical difficulties you would expect, but difficulties from outside the building. You see, a flock of harmless looking birds had quietly clustered outside the building where we were filming, eating and minding their own business. Every time Elmer opened his mouth to begin sharing his testimony, however, these harmless looking birds went crazy and began squawking at the top of their lungs. The sound was so overwhelming and piercing that it was very distracting. We would stop recording, and start the film over. As soon as we stopped recording, the birds would go quiet, so we would begin recording again. But as soon as we had started recording, the birds would start squawking again. This cycle was repeated over and over again.
You see, the devil did not want Elmer to tell his testimony, and he was doing everything he could to keep Elmer’s testimony from being heard. But God had a plan and God answers prayers.
Finally, after a few vain attempts, with the piercing shriek of the birds in the background, we stopped to pray, claiming the promise that where “two or three are gathered together in His name,” He is there. “Dear Lord,” I prayed, “we want to make this recording to glorify You. Elmer has a powerful testimony that we are praying will be used for all those that have experienced the same type of story, so they will see hope in Elmer’s testimony. Dear Lord, please have these birds go away so that we can get a wonderful recording. We do this all for Your glory, in Jesus precious name, Amen.”
The exact moment we said “amen,” the noise from the birds stopped, and we were able to capture Elmer’s beautiful testimony without any further incident.
Wow! Can you believe it? Yes, the same God that shut the lion’s mouths, can also shut the mouths of noisy birds. We saw this special miracle with our own eyes. We serve a God that delights to hear and answer our prayers.
(To watch this short testimony, and see the miracle first hand,click this Youtube link!)
Came Oetman is Vice President for Advancement with Adventist World Radio. To learn more about the wonderful work of Adventist World Radio, click here.
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World Church Prayer Requests
April 22-29, 2018
• PRAYER REQUEST: May is almost here. Please continue to earnestly intercede for Japan’s Total Member Involvement event occurring May 4-20, 2018. Pray for all the 163 evangelistic sites, and for those pastors and lay people who will be speaking at each site. Pray that God will do above and beyond all that we ask or think, and that many in Japan will come to know our Lord and Savior as a result of this event.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Please continue to pray for the special work of Adventist World Radio, and for the cell phone evangelism that is sweeping across the continent of Africa. Pray that we will learn how to reach those within our sphere of influence, with whatever means God has placed in our hands.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for Hope Channel, 3ABN, Better Life Network, and the many other television and media ministries throughout the World Church. Pray that God will help people tune in to just the messages they need to hear.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Pray for Adventist Community Services as they equip and train leaders for Urban Ministry.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Pray for the Total Community Involvement programs occurring on school campuses like Weimar Institute in Northern California. Pray that these initiatives will spread to many other campuses around the world.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for Literature Evangelism Rally week occurring April 21-27 in different Divisions across the World Church. Pray for more to catch the spark of involvement in literature evangelism.