Stephen
Rabera’s Personal Spiritual Testimony
My
names are Stephen Onundu Rabera from the interior parts of
I was
born in 1978 in the month of May in a family of eight other brothers
and sisters.
I
used to be a strong member of the Seventh Day Adventist church. It
happened that my parents directed me to the spiritual understanding of
the word of God through this church.
I
knew no any other denomination except the SDA. I used to see others
going to church on Sundays and hated them since I knew they were
sinners and never knew what they were doing- a thing I have grown to
regret; I am not supposed to judge others since everybody has gone
astray.
As I
grew up, through high school and college, I decided to find out the
truth of the word of God. I asked myself several other questions as to
why we have several churches. Wanted to know why church leaders or
pastors or apostles differ and decides to start up their own church
gatherings.
It
was until I was 29 after college that I decided to do throughout Bible
study. I formed a small Bible study group of 5 people of which we
shared and studied the Bible deeply verse by verse. The group has grown
now to nineteen members.
We
have decided to rent a small place to make our gathering due to a
growing number of members.
Besides,
the group has the following tasks:-
·
Searching
for
the truth by analyzing the Bible verses and raising questions for
the Bible study group to answer each meeting days.
·
Making
sure
each member attends to all discussions and participates fully in
the interpretation of the Bible verses through the guidance of the Holy
Spirit.
·
Making
sure
we visit families and friends once a week ensuring that we share
out the weekly gatherings and Biblical understandings.
·
Prayers
being
the key issue that assist us understand the Bible and interpret
it; each member has a task to fasting and praying for the spiritual
growth and maintainability.
·
Collecting
different
kinds of donations e.g. clothes, shoes, house-holds and any
other that is necessary from friends and well wishers to help the less
fortunate families in meeting their daily basic needs. We already have
two families we are taking full responsibilities in assisting the
orphans/less fortunate (after their parents died of HIV/AIDS) grow
understanding the true gospel, feeling loved/worthy and meeting their
daily needs. Some of them are in schools now and have hope in their
lives.
·
Doing
volunteering
tasks like tilling land for the less fortunate and
planting crops for them, cleaning of schools/institutions compound,
cleaning of market places during World Health days and planting of
trees during World Environmental days.
There
was need to understand denominations and their doctrinal beliefs. We
tried to find out why we have different beliefs. We tried to analyze
the beliefs and compare them according to God’s Holy Bible.
We
studied Church History where we studied the Islamic, Hinduism,
Christianity and Buddhism into details. We also studied the different
denominations within Christianity.
All
was/is hectic and confusing till now.
We
have been using the bible commentaries, internet materials for our
daily studies.
I
once joined the Church of Christ (Temple Lot) of Joseph Smith as a
training pastor. All wanting to know more about the church.
I
studied much on the book of Mormon (the second witness of Jesus Christ)
and got confused more. I used to ask some questions concerning their
doctrinal beliefs and the origin of the book of Mormon but could not
get convinced over the explanations they gave. I moved out instead of
getting confused more.
I am
seriously searching for the Biblical truth till now. After which I will
wish to share it out with all people around me. Let me hope I shall
find it one day I belief. I feel God has a purpose of having me a life
and in good health.
May
our good God help me grow spiritually to serve Him forever AMEN.
Stephen
Onundu Rabera