“Thank you for everything that you have done for me,” Tracy said in her moving graduation testimony.
Tracy wanted to be a medical missionary after she finished her high school, and she thought she needed to study medicine to do that. However, the Lord had other plans for her. She was pleasantly surprised to learn that Purelight* offered a medical missionary course. Though still recovering from a terrible car accident, she nevertheless was determined to study this program.
It was tough because of her health challenges, but Tracy persevered with her studies and was thirsty to learn as much as she could. She learned a lot about Adventism, its origin and message. In addition, she learned practical ways to start her own restaurant and lifestyle center. In her Business Management class, she even wrote a business plan for her ministry. She was so eager to practice what she learned that she organized a mission trip to Uganda, her native country, and began preparations to start a lifestyle center there.
Tracy requested to do her six-month internship at Wildwood Lifestyle Center in the USA so she might learn more about how to start her own. She excelled so much that Wildwood offered her employment. But believing that God had called her to serve in Africa, she turned down the offer. Then she returned for graduation.
Purelight’s first-ever graduation was an exciting time as we celebrated the miracle of five students: three young men graduating in Pastoral Evangelism, and two ladies, including Tracy, graduating in Health Ministry. The service was well attended, and we were privileged to have Elder Randy Skeete as the guest speaker. He presented a powerful sermon titled “The Labor of Love,” in which he shared his testimony and challenged the students to a life of self-sacrifice for the salvation of souls.
By God’s grace, all our graduates have been absorbed into lifestyle centers and churches in South Africa. The various ministries were so impressed by our interns that some even sponsored their church youth to come and study at Purelight. The demand is increasing for well-trained workers, and by God’s grace, we are determined to train up such an army of youth.
*An alumni project supported through Hartland’s “Lord, Send Me” program