SOUTHERN STUDENT REACHES HUNDREDS FOR CHRIST
by Angela Baerg
When Southern Adventist University student Sarah Andrews first saw a sign advertising a mission trip to Sierra Leone in West Africa, she felt drawn to it like a magnet. The Forest Lake Church member always wanted to go to Africa, but she was a nursing major, not a theology major. Besides that, she didn’t have the money.
A few days later, she saw another sign by Southern’s Evangelistic Resource Center (ERC) and again ignored her desire to follow up on the opportunity. Finally, when ERC made a presentation in her Christian Spirituality class, she decided to meet the obstacles head on and chase her dream.
In Sierra Leone, Sarah preached 19 sermons that touched many lives, but one night was especially unforgettable. She was giving a sermon on the unpardonable sin to approximately 250 people while a spiritualism crusade simultaneously blasted sound nearby. Due to technical issues, the church members who provided the generator and microphones for her meetings only had one microphone that night, which Sarah allowed her translator to use. Sarah had to shout to be heard, even by her translator, and she was terrified as she felt her voice giving out.
“The devil attacked that night, and no one could focus—not even me!” Sarah remembers. “He did not want that important message to be heard.”
She wanted to stop and pray, but being an inexperienced preacher, Sarah was afraid she would lose track of where she was in her notes. Finally, she borrowed the microphone from her translator and begged for God’s help to calm the crowd.
“After that prayer, everything changed,” she recalls. Almost immediately, the crowd seemed to focus. Not only did Sarah’s voice come back, but it was now louder than ever. In spite of the noise and lack of a microphone, even those sitting in the back could hear her. During the altar call that night, people filled the platform to give their lives to the Lord.
“It was so incredible,” Sarah shares. “I didn’t do anything at all—it was just all God. It was amazing to watch Him use miracles to touch lives right before my eyes.”