Inside Story for Friday 4th of July 2025

By Andrew McChesney

Peter Siamikobo enjoyed digging for rats in a mountainous village in Zambia. The boy and his family ate the rodents with maize-meal porridge at mealtime. They also enjoyed eating pigs and bubble fish. Pork was always on the table at Christmas. Bubble fish was popular for its boneless meat.

So, it came as a surprise to Peter when he learned that the Bible prohibited his favorite meats.

He heard about unclean food for the first time when he traveled about 20 miles from his hometown to visit a brother who was working at a farm operated by Seventh-day Adventist missionaries from the United States. He stayed for Sabbath worship services, and the preacher spoke about the clean and unclean animals of Leviticus 11:1-47. Peter realized that he and his family were following a meal plan that didn’t match the Bible’s teaching.

After a while, the missionaries began to hold worship services in Peter’s elementary school on Sabbath afternoons. Peter attended the meetings, even though he had to walk two miles to reach the school.

His parents, however, discouraged him from going and reminded him that he had been baptized as a baby. Father even ordered him to work on the family farm on Saturdays. Peter didn’t know anything about Sabbath observance, and he quickly did his work in the morning so he go to the afternoon meeting.

In high school, Peter made new friends from Adventist families. He studied the Bible with them and gave his heart to Jesus in baptism by immersion. He stopped eating rats, pork, and bubble fish.

Over time, his parents grew to appreciate the seventh-day Sabbath. They understood why he didn’t eat unclean meat. Every Sabbath that he was at home, they encouraged him not to be late for Sabbath School.

Today, there is an Adventist church in Peter’s town. Through the Adventist influence, many townspeople have stopped eating unclean food.

Peter is grateful that he learned as a boy about the importance of healthy living and glorifying God with his diet. After all, 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (NKJV).

“Thank Jesus for saving me from unclean food,” said Peter, a church elder and head of the Social Sciences Department at Rusangu Secondary School, a Seventh-day Adventist high school, in Zambia.

Pray for the gospel to be proclaimed in Zambia and other countries in the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division, the recipient of this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering.

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