By John David Smith

When I arrived in Cape Verde as a missionary on the island of St. Vincent to began ministry at the only Baptist church there, I did not expect that Pastor Manuel Ramos to retire and that I would fill his role. It was a small church with a congregation of fifteen, half of them children. Among the adults, there was a young man I noticed who came in after services started, sat in the back, and left during the closing prayer. 

I didn’t have the opportunity to meet him until one Sunday after service when he came and introduced himself as Claudino Gomez and explained that he was a new believer. He also said, “My common law wife, Francelina, is not a believer. Would you please pray for her?” It was clear that he loved her very much, and I agreed to pray for her. I also invited him to my house to talk about his new faith in Christ and we began meeting during the week for Bible study. 

During one of our meetings, I asked Claudino if he wanted us to go talk to her and share the gospel, but he said no because she was very antagonistic to the gospel. So instead we continued praying as he studied the Bible. 

Claudino grew rapidly in his faith and told me one day, “I can’t continue in this lifestyle of immorality because it doesn’t honor God.” When he told Francelina they should get married, she didn’t want to do it and refused to quit going out to parties. Later Claudino knew God wanted him to issue an ultimatum, so he told Francelina she had three months to change her lifestyle or he would move out. Despite his love for her, he had to follow through with his decision and didn’t believe she would accept the gospel. 

I had lost track of Claudino’s deadline, so I was unprepared when late one night he came to my house weeping, telling me “the time is up” and that he had moved out of the house. I watched his profound sadness in the next weeks as he prayed for her. He knew it was her brokenness that caused her to continue in a lifestyle that did not honor God, but he went through with the ultimatum, difficult as it was. 

In the meantime, the church had grown and Claudino had to sit up front during services, so he did not see Francelina come in one evening and sit on the back row. I was excited to see her, but there was no way I could get his attention that she was there, so instead I prayed, “Lord, let this night be the night of salvation for her.” 

God had been working in her heart, and during that service when the opportunity came to make a decision, Francelina almost ran to the front without Claudino even realizing it. Then he saw her at the altar, and his facial expression was indescribable. He joined her there and I knelt with them as she gave her life to the Lord that night. 

Later Francelina was with a group of new converts “making a profession of faith,” which was the tradition. After her baptism with other new believers that night, she asked to sing a song: “At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away, it was there by faith I received my sight and now I am happy all the day. “ Many tears were shed that night.

A few weeks later they were married, and it wasn’t long before Claudino made known his call to ministry. They were the best I’d ever seen at leading others to Christ, drawing people to church, and creating relationships. They love people and are very fruitful in ministry.

The first church plant where they served was in Salamansa, a little fishing village, then they went to another fishing village on the other side of the island called Calahau. After that they planted a church in Santo Antao then returned to Saint Vincent where he is now interim pastor for that original church in Saint Vincent.

Just recently they went to the island of Sao Nicolau where they are now pastoring a church.I am so blessed to have walked that journey with them from their own brokenness to their call to serve broken people, and I’m proud to call them brother and sister.