In 1986, I had a job interview with the four directors of Modern Motors, the main dealership of GM, Mazda and Mitsubishi in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
Modern Motors covered a full city block and was a double-storey building housing a service station, a two-storey showroom for new and used cars, as well as a spare parts department, a workshop and service department, a panel beating department and a spray-painting department. Across all these departments, Modern Motors employed 66 workers.
As I sat across from the four directors in the main office, we negotiated terms and conditions for my potential employment. The directors were in a difficult spot and stated that they would give me one year to turn the company around; failing that, they would shut it down. In response, I told them I’d like to accept their offer, but with one condition. I knew they were Jewish and mentioned that I was a Seventh-day Adventist and kept the Sabbath. As such I could not work on the Sabbath. Not only this, but I said that if I were to be managing the company, it could not operate on the Sabbath, as it had been operating seven days a week. This was a challenging condition, as Saturday is a big day in the motor industry. I asked if the company could close at 4pm on Fridays and open again at 8am on Sundays.
They asked me to step outside while they discussed the situation. At the time, Zimbabwe was a social communist state, so operating a business according to religious principles was a risk. Eventually, I was called back in and the deal was sealed—I had the job!
Eleven months later we were in that same office, discussing how the company had progressed and what to expect from the upcoming year. In 11 months, we had turned the company around from a huge loss to a $400,000 net profit, after taxes. This was purely thanks to God and I reminded the directors that God had blessed us because we had honoured His Sabbath.
While we were sitting in the meeting, my secretary phoned me urgently on the office phone. She was quite distressed and said there were three men outside demanding to see me immediately.
I asked her to tell them I’d be out in about five minutes. She relayed this message to the three men, but they were not willing to wait. She phoned back again completely stressed out and unsure what to do. I explained the situation to the directors and said that I would be back in a few minutes.
I walked out of the office only to be confronted by these men, one of whom had been employed by the company several months earlier. His name was Jerry. They were big, and Jerry was like Wendell Sailor, the former Australian rugby footballer—huge! One of them grabbed my left arm, the other grabbed my right arm and Jerry grabbed my tie and pulled me forward and started punching me in the face.
Screams erupted from the ladies in the office and the directors and the accountant ran out to see what was going on. They pulled the men off me and demanded to know what they were doing. Jerry explained that they were disciplining me. The directors asked what had I done that needed “disciplining”? The men said that President Robert Mugabe had sent them to discipline me for making everyone in the company Seventh-day Adventists. All I could think was, Praise the Lord.
But the glory of this story is not that I suffered for the sake of Christ, but rather in God’s miraculous protection of me. While Jerry was punching me, trying to smash my face in, God changed his fist into what felt like a giant marshmallow! The next morning when I came to work, our assistant accountant Mrs Jennison walked up to me and stared at my face in disbelief. She then rubbed my face with both her hands, exclaiming, “You don’t have any make up on!” I said, “Mrs Jennison, I don’t wear make-up.” She expected to see bruises and swelling, but there wasn’t a mark on my face! “God was looking after me,” I replied.
Long story short, we left the country two weeks later with four suitcases, a small tea chest with linen, cutlery and crockery, and $US100 in our pockets.
The Sabbath is sacred; it is God’s special blessed day when He meets His people and we worship with Him. My experience is a constant reminder to me of this important truth. How sacred is Sabbath to you?
Ted White is a pastor serving in the North New South Wales Conference.
