How a garden and a novel brought a woman to Christ

Janet Mabie
Special to Spur Ottawa

It all began with a bag of ripe tomatoes and a quote from a science fiction novel. That was the day that Elizabeth Napethe met Pastor Terry Orchard and her life changed for all of eternity.

“Four years ago, I was picking tomatoes in the community garden plot,” says Orchard, who pastors Britannia Baptist Church.

After gathering some produce from the church’s plot, Orchard noticed ripe tomatoes in a nearby plot. It was a garden worked by two South Sudanese women from his church. So he picked the tomatoes and delivered them to the home of one of the women—a widow living with her adult children.

While he spoke with the woman, her daughter, Elizabeth, joined them.

“I knew she seldom left the unit and fought paranoia, negative thoughts, and depression.”

“I had tried everything, yet still there was no peace. My life was a sad, meaningless mess.”

So Orchard reached out to her by first quoting a line from Dune, a well-known novel.

“My heart was closed, but then he quoted a verse from a science fiction novel he didn’t know I was reading. The quote was, ‘Fear is a mind killer.’ And that grabbed my attention,” recalls Elizabeth. “It is clear that it was the work of God because that quote was pretty much all that stood out for me from that book.”

The connection broke the ice and opened the door for Orchard to share the message of salvation with Elizabeth, inviting her to accept Jesus into her life.

“What other options did I have?” she asks. “I had tried everything, yet still there was no peace. My life was a sad, meaningless mess. I was without God and without hope. I didn’t have a solid foundation to stand on, but built my life on sinking sand.”

She describes how she lived only to please herself and had fallen into a life of sin.

“Spiritually I lacked peace with God and emotionally I lacked peace within myself.”

Elizabeth became a Christian, but felt that her heart was still a mess and she still had fear.

Elizabeth became a member of Britannia Baptist Church, was recently baptized, and serves on the worship team.

“As time went by, Christ began to draw me in deeper, exposing my heart and offering Himself as the solution to all my problems,” she says. “He began to show me more of Himself, that He is trustworthy, faithful, and so very loving. He is good and has my eternal best at heart.”

Elizabeth became a member of Britannia Baptist Church, was recently baptized, and serves on the worship team. She prays for her church and community, wears a smile on her face, and is happy to share her testimony.

“I try to speak of Jesus and what He has done in my life and share the Good News, the love of Christ to anyone I feel God draws me to.” Last year, a woman who had been an atheist came to faith in Christ, through hearing Elizabeth’s testimony.

“What I have come to learn as I mature in the Faith is that our walk with God was never meant to be easy. As we struggle to be faithful to God while we face temptations by the world, flesh, and devil, we can take heart. The war has already been won. Christ is forever victorious.”