Daughter’s Contact With Solusi and Ellen White Transforms Home
Hazel Moyo always longed for a happy home in Zimbabwe. Then she went to the Adventist university.
Home was not a happy place for Hazel Moyo as a child.
Her father drank, and her parents argued frequently in Gwanda, a town of about 13,500 people in southern Zimbabwe. Hazel longed to have a happy family.
At the age of 14, Hazel made a decision that triggered a chain of events that would change her home forever. She started going to church.
Hazel saw other children heading to Sunday services, and she wanted to go, too. So, she took her 9-year-old brother by the hand and went.
She loved hearing about God, and she wanted to learn more.
Before long, she asked her mother to go, too. Her mother, who had attended church years earlier, agreed to go. But she never went.
“I felt pained because my mother never went,” Hazel said. “We couldn’t go on church outings because our parents didn’t go. We felt different.”
Hazel didn’t invite her father. She reasoned that he would never go to church because he drank so much.
Finishing high school, Hazel made plans to enroll in a public university, but then she saw a newspaper advertisement for Solusi University, a Seventh-day Adventist institution located about 2 ½ hours by bus from her home. She met university recruiters when they visited her town, and her father agreed to pay for her tuition.
Praying and Fasting for Hazel
Hazel had heard about Adventists but knew little about the Adventist Church. When she arrived at Solusi to start classes, she realized that she also knew little about God.
“I didn’t really know God other than that I should read the Bible and pray,” she said.
Shortly after the school year started, a new friend invited Hazel to join a singing group of 40 young people. Members of the group, Streams of Mercy, answered Hazel’s many questions about God and why all the students went to church on Sabbath.
After about two weeks, one of the group members, a young married pastor named Elyght Nyatanga, announced, “I want this girl to be my daughter,” he said. “I will pray with her and make her know a lot about God.”
He said he would pray and fast for Hazel every Wednesday. Five other group members liked the idea and, together with Hazel, joined in.
For three months, the seven young people prayed and fasted for Hazel’s spiritual life on Wednesdays. In her prayers, Hazel told God, “If it is Your wish that I be your child, let it be. Use me to spread Your word. Let me be a shining star in your firmament. Let others see a difference in me.”
The members of the singing group loved Hazel. Even when they left the campus for the break between the first and second semesters, they wrote encouraging messages to her on Whatsapp, a mobile app.
“They were always there for me,” Hazel said.
During the second semester, Solusi University held a week of prayer, and Hazel was baptized.
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Hazel Moyo says the Bible can change your life. She knows. (Andrew McChesney / Adventist Mission)
Ellen White Changes Family
On Hazel’s birthday, Elyght presented her with a copy of Ellen White’s book “Messages to Young People.”
“This is a gift for you,” he said. “If you don’t understand something, come to me, and I will explain.”
Hazel eagerly read the book. When she visited home, she showed it to her mother, who read it as well. Several childhood friends borrowed the book, and those young women and Hazel discussed its themes for hours.
Hazel was most touched by Ellen White’s advice for families. She had long desired to have a happy family life, and she began to modify her own behavior.
“I learned how you approach an angry parent, how you address some of the issues that you have with parents, and how to show honor to your parents,” she said.
One of her favorite passages says, “There are many children who profess to know the truth, who do not render to their parents the honor and affection that are due to them, who manifest but little love to father and mother, and fail to honor them in deferring to their wishes, or in seeking to relieve them of anxiety. Many who profess to be Christians do not know what it means to ‘honor thy father and thy mother,’ and consequently will know just as little what it means, ‘that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.’” (page 331).
Joy began to fill Hazel’s home, and she prayed for her parents’ salvation.
Starting Family Worship
One evening during a school break, Hazel stopped her parents and brother when they wished her a good night’s rest.
“Before we say good night, could we read a Bible verse and pray?” she asked.
Her parents agreed, and Hazel read Psalms 119:105, which says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (NKJV).
“If we read the word of God,” she said, “He is always there for us. He will guide our way and everything we do and touch.”
Then she prayed.
The next evening, her mother said, “Who’s going to lead us in prayer?”
“I don’t mind,” Hazel said. “I can do it again.”
In the morning, Hazel told her family, “Starting today, our prayers will be in the morning and in the evening because I want God to guide us throughout the day, too.”
Today, Hazel, 23, is a third-year student of history and education at Solusi, and thrilled that her parents are praying and reading the Bible daily. Her mother entered an Adventist church for the first time when Hazel’s group led the Sabbath service in their hometown of Gwanda.
Happiness now permeates the family home.
“Solusi has really changed my life,” Hazel said. “Now we are a happy family, the kind of family that I always wanted.”
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