Inside Story: Modesty! Modesty! Modesty!
People came in a seemingly constant procession to look pityingly on 2-year-old Akurious in the hospital in Katima Mulilo, Namibia. The boy had been ill for months, and the people wept as they saw his terrible pain.
Image © Pacific Press
“The hospital is failing us,” one told Akurious’ parents. “You should consult with the witchdoctor.” “God will understand,” said another. “Just do it.”
After the last visitor left, Father turned to Mother. “What should we do?” he said. “Maybe the people are right. Jesus will understand.”
Mother couldn’t bear to see her only child in pain. She agreed.
The witchdoctor declared that witches had cast an evil spell on the boy and that he would recover with traditional medicine. The parents bought the witch doctor’s medicine and gave some to the boy daily. But the more medicine they gave, the worse he got. Father began to pray earnestly. “Lord Jesus, I know I’ve made a mistake,” he said. “I departed from Your saving grace. Speak to me, Lord, for the sake of my child. You healed lepers and made the blind to see and the lame to walk. Do that for my child, too.”
A short time later, Father had a dream. As he slept, he heard a voice call him by his name, Modesty. “Modesty! Modesty! Modesty!” the voice said. “This is My child. Why have you tainted him with evil spirits? I don’t want you to be involved with any witchdoctors if you want him to live.”
Shaken, Father got up and threw away the traditional medicine. He remembered hearing a Seventh-day Adventist physician give health presentations at camp meeting, and he took the boy to him. The physician diagnosed Akurious with pneumonia and tuberculosis and sent him to a hospital where he could treat him. Father continued to pray, and Mother joined him. They placed their full trust in Jesus. Akurious (pictured) now is 22.
Akurious’ parents, Modesty and Rebecca Kakula, went on to have four children. But with the birth of each child, they refused to take part in the traditional ceremony that townspeople hold for newborns. Instead, they took their babies to the Seventh-day Adventist Church to be dedicated to Jesus.
Dear reader, pray for people who sincerely accept Jesus but struggle to forsake traditions fully. These people end up with two levels of religion: a theoretical religion based on the Bible and a practical religion grounded in culture. They embrace Bible teachings but, when faced with real-life challenges, revert to tradition. Seventh-day Adventist missionaries seek to contextualize the gospel to facilitate personal Christian growth among these people and to help them realize that traditional practices don’t work. Thank you for your mission offerings that help spread a contextualized gospel around the world.
Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org
Straddling the religion of the Bible and the religion of culture can happen anywhere and everywhere. The Holy Spirit has been speaking to me this week through these daily lessons, and as I looked at my bookshelf, I realized I still had so many New Age books, self-help books, astrology books, yoga books that I had purchased during my years I strayed away from faith in Jesus. Somehow, because I wasn’t consulting the dead or trying to predict the future, I thought it was OK to still have these books. But as I took each one off the shelf and looked through them, I recoiled at how false and dangerous they are. One book’s preface even said that a spirit guide had dictated the whole book, had visited the authors at 3:33 AM every morning to tell them what to write. Scary! I’ve bundled all of these books up and put them out in the car to bring to the transfer station tomorrow. I’m being inspired to clean out of my house and out of my heart and out of my mind anything that lifts up self and fake spirituality over faith in Jesus. Like Modesty and Rebecca, I am submitting everything to Him.