"Here I am Lord, Use Me"

July 21 2011 #500
by Vincent Samwinga


Campaign Site Narrative. The speaker assigned to this site was Vincent Samwinga.

God desires to use us and it seems to me that every prayer requesting to be used of God will never go unanswered. I attended a Share Him Boot Camp at Nosoca Pines about two years ago at my own expense and initiative with a desire to learn how to share Jesus using modern technology. Due to my busy work schedule over the school year, it has been difficult to find time to conduct a campaign. Yet I had the inner urge to do a campaign for the Lord especially the past one year particularly over the summer when I’d be on vacation.

Consequently, I told the Lord about it through prayer, that I am available to be used of him to do a campaign. However, I didn't want to initiate the plan for a campaign lest I advance without a divine signal. Therefore, I started praying that the Lord would send someone to request me to do a campaign, and that at the end of it there be a harvest.

On April 23rd, my prayer was miraculous answered and immediately I knew that God was behind this. It was after the youth program when the Elder in Charge of our Sabbath School Branch in Robersonville, NC (who doesn't usually show up for the youth program) Jean Exantus, asked me if I could do a seminar in Robersonville during my summer vacation. Though I told Him I would get back with him, I knew deep down in my heart that I wouldn't turn down this request because God clearly had a hand in it. Within a couple of days I told him that I would be willing to do the seminar through God's help and the support of the church. We did all the planning and ordered 500 handbills that Sr. Margaret Pio helped customize by adding sermon topics and contact details. My support team helped pass out these to the community on Sabbath afternoons prior to the start of the campaign.

We had a number of assurances from the people in the community to attend the seminar including those who wanted rides to the venue. However, the story was different on the day the seminar began on June 17, 2011. Those who had earlier requested for a ride made excuses and in fact not even one guest from the community showed up on the opening night. However, I had good support from the church as a sizeable number of brothers and sisters showed up. Humanly speaking, It wasn't very exciting though to stand up front to preach without any guests from the community considering how we had braved the summer heat Sabbath afternoons passing out hundreds of flyers.

Anyhow, we prayed about it after the meeting and still trusted the Lord that He would be faithful in sending the right guests to our meetings. On the second day, a brother at our Robersonville Sabbath School Branch brought two guests who consistently came till the close of the campaign. One other lady came along and became one of our three guests who came just about every night.
By the grace of God one of the three guests decided to be baptized and the other two made a commitment to be baptized later. The campaign ended with the last message on Sabbath, July 16 at the eleven O’clock hour climaxed by the baptism of one of three guests (Ms. Ruth Lee) later that afternoon. Joining her in baptism was Sr. Berverly Lopez who years back joined the church through profession of faith but like the disciples in Acts 19:1-5, decided to be baptized after learning and accepting many more truths. The third sister Julienn Exantus was re-baptized after she decided to renew her commitment to the Lord.

Through it all God worked through many human agents, from the brother who brought our guests, those faithfully praying, to those helping set up and pack the equipment. It has been a very amazing and awesome experience to see God at work touching your own life and those of others through His word. Like many others who have done this, I wish to confess that I have now been “bitten by a bug” of evangelism and hope to be used of God do many more campaigns henceforth. Lastly and most importantly, To God Be the Glory!
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