A Change in Oabile

Oabile came to Christ about 8 months ago. The Lord has been changing him in many ways.

Here you see his picture when we first met him, influenced by Rastifarianism.

Here you see his picture today, changed by Christ!

Listen to an audio clip of his testimony here…

My name is Oabile David, and this is the story about how God changed my life.

I was born in Francistown in January 1993 and lived with my parents there. They didn’t build a house, so we were just renting. When I was young, my mother attended the Zion Christian Church so my brother and sisters and I went together with her. But I did not understand that church. They did a lot of strange things there.

My mother died in 2001. My uncle was a policeman in another village and he took me with him to stay with him there. I lived there with him for 9 years. My uncle attended a church there in the village, but I don’t remember the name. I had only been there for one week and they took me to the river and I got baptized there. They didn’t ask me any questions about whether I was born again—they just baptized me. I hated that baptism because I was very afraid, the water was very deep and I couldn’t breathe.

In 2005 my little brother died and in March of 2010 my father died. So I moved back to Francistown in October 2010 to stay with my aunt and to look for a job. My aunt belonged to the Christ Embassy church, so I started going to church with her. At that church, they pray in tongues. While they were praying I looked at them and wondered, “How do these people know that God understands them?”  I thought maybe they should teach me how to pray in tongues, but then I thought, “No, it is too hard. I cannot do that.” So I just prayed my own prayer to God, but not in tongues.

We were very poor and I needed to help support my sisters and my aunt. I went everywhere in town looking for a job but could not find one. Finally after many days, I found a job at Kan-Kan. I began to work there, and every day on my lunch break, I would go over to the Civic Center across the street and eat my lunch there.

One day in January 2011, a man was there at the Civic Center passing out little booklets. He passed by me and then came back and handed one to me. The little booklet was a gospel tract and there was a card that you could fill out for a free Bible study if you were interested. I filled out the card and gave it back to the man.

He then introduced himself to me. His name was Jesse and he asked me if I would like to do a Bible study with him. I told him that I was interested and he asked me if I had ever read the Bible. I told him, “No, I have never read the Bible in my life and I don’t know anything about the Bible.” So we set up to meet the next day to start a Bible study.

The next day on my lunch hour I met with him to start the Bible study. We studied about life after death. That was the subject and the words that got me interested in studying the Bible more. The Bible teaches that after we die, we are going to be judged by God according to our wrong doings, for what we did when we were still on the earth. I wanted to know more about that, because I knew that I had done many wrong things. So I continued studying the Bible with Jesse.

We met several times and he taught me many things from the Bible. When I finished the studies, I was at home one night, just thinking about what I had heard and about how God will judge us and what will happen to me after I die and after He judged me. I thought, “I should just turn from the things I have been doing and turn to God right now. It’s time for me to turn to God.”

But it was very hard for me to turn to God. Since I had started studying the Bible and reading the Word of God, there were times when I wanted to just give it up. Things for me didn’t go well. Sometimes reading the Word of God made me feel very bad and like I was crazy. So it was not easy for me to turn to God. But as I thought about it more, I knew that I needed to turn from my sin. I knew that Jesus Christ had died on the cross to pay for my sins. All I needed to do was repent of my sins and ask Him to save me. I decided that night to turn to God and I am very happy that I did. I just prayed and asked God to forgive me of my sins and told Him I didn’t want to sin anymore but I wanted to please Him.

Many things have changed in my life since I was saved. Before I was saved, I used to drink alcohol. I used to smoke the marijuana weed. I used to go to the bars, to the clubs. I didn’t have a right attitude towards other people. I didn’t have any love in my heart for people. After I got saved, that is when I realized that it is a good thing to change. To turn towards God is a very good thing. So I have changed from those things now. I don’t do them anymore. I just want to face the Lord.

Now here I am. I love God and I am very happy. It does not mean I am perfect. But I don’t want to sin anymore. It is very good to be in the Lord’s hands. To be in His way is a very good thing very much. I wish that everyone who reads this would come to love the Lord and to serve Him. God is the Creator and He loves you. He gave His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for your sins.