Miriam, a 41-year-old mother in Zambia, didn’t feel well. Her head pounded. Her body ached. Dark sadness filled her mind.

With a heavy heart, she went to the opening night of a weeklong evangelistic meeting in Livingston. At the meeting, she was befriended by a Seventh-day Adventist woman named Majorie. Miriam poured out the pain of her heart and asked for prayer. Majorie prayed for her.

Then something unusual happened. The next day, Miriam was stirring a pot of maize porridge on a fire outside her house at 11 a.m. Like many Zambians, she did her cooking outdoors because a national power shortage had left many homes without electricity. As she stirred, she sensed a voice say, “Go and read the Bible right now. Leave your pot and read the Bible.”

Miriam didn’t know what to read in the Bible. She went inside the house, opened her Bible, and read the first chapter that she saw. She was amazed. She felt like God was talking directly to her.

She closed the Bible and finished cooking the porridge outside. Then she returned and read another chapter. It seemed like God was telling her, “Do you know that I still love you? Live how I want you to live.”

Joy flooded her heart. Her body aches disappeared, and her headache went away. She knelt down and prayed, “Forgive me, God.”

Miriam returned to the evangelistic meeting in the evening. She darted over to Marjorie and told her about what had happened.

Tears came to Marjorie’s eyes when she learned that Miriam had heard the voice telling her to read the Bible at 11 a.m. At that exact time, she had felt an urge to pray for Miriam at home.

“Find time to read the Bible every day, and don’t forget to pray all the time,” Marjorie said. “The Bible and prayer are the key for everything.”

Months have passed since Miriam began reading the Bible and praying regularly. Her head has stopped pounding. Her body has stopped aching. The dark sadness that once filled her heart has been replaced with sunny joy and a fervent desire to live for God. “The Bible has encouraged me,” she said. “God is working through the Bible. If the devil wants to bring confusion, I just claim the promises of the Bible and pray.”

This mission story illustrates the “Mission For All” objective of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s “I Will Go” strategic plan, which says in part, “Christ mingled, showed sympathy, ministered to needs, won confidence, then invited people to follow Him. The goal is to take a genuine interest in people, leading them to Christ and inviting them to unite with the Seventh-day Adventist Church as disciples of Christ who make disciples.” Read more at IWillGo.org. Watch a short YouTube video of Miriam at: bit.ly/Miriam-IS.