Here’s part three of Rich and Sabina’s story. In part two we saw Rich meet Christ and be saved. What we find out in this part is that he had already married Sabina. His conversion was the first major incident that rocked their life, and as he recounts below, initially she didn’t take it too well. In the next part of the story (and final post in this series) we’ll see the second life-changer they encountered. (Click here for part 1.)
[My] conversion took place six months after my marriage to Sabina, a girl who had never spared a thought for spiritual things. It was a terrible blow to her. She was young and beautiful, and she had lacked so much in her childhood. She hoped a happier life was beginning, when the man she loved, her partner in pleasure, changed into a devout believer who talked of becoming a pastor. She confessed to me later that she had even thought of suicide.
One Sunday, when I proposed going to evening service, she burst into tears. She said she wanted to see a film.
‘All right,’ I said. ‘We’ll go – because I love you.’ We walked from one theatre to another and I chose the film which looked most suggestive. When we left I took her to a café and she ate a cream cake. I said, ‘Now go home to bed. I want to look for a girl and take her to a hotel.’
‘What did you say?’
‘It is plain enough. You go home. I want to find a girl to take to a hotel.’
‘How can you say such things!’
‘But you made me go to the cinema, and you saw what the hero did – why shouldn’t I do the same? If we go tomorrow and the day after to such films…every man becomes what he looks at; but if you want me to be a good husband, come to church with me sometimes.’
She thought about it. Then, quietly, gently she began to come more and more often to church. But she still hankered after the [party] life and when she wanted to go out somewhere, I went too. One evening we went to a drunken party. The air was full of smoke. Couples were dancing and making love openly. Suddenly my wife was disgusted with it all and said, ‘Oh, let’s go! Now!’
I said, ‘Why leave? We’ve only just come.’ We stayed until midnight. Again she wanted to go home, and again I refused. It was the same at 1 a.m. And again at 2 a.m. When I saw she was thoroughly sickened by the whole affair, I agreed to go.
We came out into the cold air. Sabina said: ‘Richard! I’m going straight to the pastor’s house to make him baptize me. It will be like taking a bath after all this filth.’
I laughed and said, ‘You’ve waited so long. You can wait until morning now. Let the poor pastor sleep.’
And so Sabina received Christ as well. Tomorrow we’ll see the way these decisions shaped the rest of their lives…