Student leads many to baptism in Gabon :: Adventist News Network

Jun 15, 2019  |  Silver Spring, Maryland, United States  |  Andrew McChesney

Rorive Vinga introduced a friend to Christ when he was only a boy.

Father, a soldier in the Gabonese military, was stationed in the eastern city of Koulamoutou. So, Rorive moved into a new home there with his parents and four younger brothers and sisters.

But they had a problem. There were no other Seventh-day Adventists in the city. There was a church, but it had been closed for many years because no one worshipped there anymore. The building was old and falling apart.

Father called Rorive and the rest of the family to repair the church.

“We will worship God on Sabbaths in the church even if we are the only Adventists in the city,” Father said.

The family worked hard to repair the church, and soon they worshipped there every Sabbath, every Wednesday for prayer meeting, and every Friday for sundown worship.

At school, Rorive made new friends. He loved Jesus, and he loved to talk about Jesus. A new friend, Glen, was curious and asked to know more. The two boys began to talk about Jesus after school.

One Friday evening, Rorive arrived at the church for sundown worship with Father, Mother, his little sister, and three little brothers. To his surprise, he saw Glen standing outside the church.

“What are you doing here?” Rorive asked.

“I live next door,” Glen said.

“Great!” Rorive said. “Join us.”

Glen couldn’t come to church that day, but he promised to visit another time. Two weeks later he showed up for a Sabbath service worship, and he liked it.

“This church is different,” he said.

Several months later, Glen gave his life to Christ and was baptized. After that, he invited his whole family to church, and they also were baptized.

Glen told Rorive that he had been praying for God to lead him to the right church when Rorive’s family moved to the city.

“I never realized that the right church was located right beside my house!” he said.

Rorive was happy that Glen and his family had given their hearts to Jesus. As time passed, more and more people worshipped in the church on Sabbaths.

An Unusual Dream

Rorive grew up and moved to Gabon’s capital, Libreville, to go to the university. He made new friends and became active in Samarie Seventh-day Adventist Church. But he noticed that the church was located in a bad neighborhood. Many young people his age used drugs and drank alcohol around the church. Some were thieves, and they broke into the church several times.

One day, Rorive wondered, “Can God change these people?” He doubted it and thought, “No, they are lost.”

That night, he had a dream. Many people don’t have running water in their homes in Gabon and have to take buckets to a neighborhood water tap to fetch water. In the dream, Rorive went to the water tap to fetch water, and a young man tried to steal his wallet. The man slid his hand into Rorive’s pocket, but his hand came out empty!

The thief was surprised to find his hand empty, and Rorive smiled at him.

“Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you,” he said.

Then he told the young man about Jesus.

When Rorive woke up, he knew that God had answered his question. He must share Jesus with the thieves, drug users, and drinkers who lived near the church. When his church organized an evangelistic meeting a short time later, Rorive invited thieves, drug users, and drinkers to come to the program. Six young people whom he invited were baptized.

Rorive is thrilled that God has used him to lead people to baptism. He has an important question to ask everyone who goes to church on Sabbath.

“If God used me, why couldn’t He use you?” he said.