One evening in 520 BC, the prophet Zechariah received a total of eight visions in a single night. The seventh vision concerns an ephah, with a woman briefly revealed as being inside the ephah. Thereafter another two women came to lift up the ephah between heaven and earth, to find a resting place for it in the land of Shinar, a name used eight times in the Bible and which refers to the whole of Babylonia. Read Zechariah 5:5-11. The angel accompanying Zechariah called it wickedness.

The ephah is an ancient standard of dry volume measure, a basket really, that contains an exact quantity of product, for example grain or barley. In modern times it approximately equates to 22 litres.

The book of Revelation reveals another standard in the midst of heaven, competing against the ephah for the hearts and minds of men. "Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people. He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water." Revelation 14:6-7

It is a fitting tribute to the angel of Revelation 14:6-7 that the technology of today is increasingly being used to spread the everlasting gospel to all the world. The three women of Zechariah 5:5-11 are also active in this sphere. Social media, combining with satellite feeds, radio, internet radio and the internet are all used to promote either one of these two standards. Could it be that the final battle can be waged in cyberspace also?

But how to use the technology at our disposal? This is what kept Neville Neveling awake, untill the answer hit home! He has found a way to use WhatsApp to spread the everlasting gospel and how simple it is!

Applying Metcalfe's Law, which states that the effect of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system, could spread the gospel to the world in one generation. In common language, if you have two connected users, then the effect (possible connections) is 4. Likewise, if you have five connected users, then the effect is 25.

Attributed to Robert Metcalfe who presented his theory in 1980, the formula is no longer confined to telecommunications, but finds application everywhere. Facebook, for instance, is reported to use this method to value itself. There are other variations of this law, most notably that of David Reed.

Applying this law in the social media space to spread the gospel means that the work could be finished in one generation! So Neville set out on his mission, sending out the gospel message to his contacts while promoting the method to others to become involved.

The method is simple. Neville voice-records the messages and asks his contacts to join a WhatsApp group. These contacts invite others. He then broadcasts the messages to the group and takes questions. The first attempt resulted in 150 baptisms during the early part of 2018. I had the privilige of being part of the first broadcast which was aptly titled 'Revelation of Hope'.

But more miraculous still is the story behind the story. In Neville's travels to educate the flock about his method, he dropped in at my congregation and shared his amazing story. I am sharing from memory and have forgotten minute detail such as names and dates but the substance is intact.

Neville cut his teeth in the radio industry, spending a big part of his life behind the microphone. In 1999 he retired early from radio and bought the Bush Pillow Guest House in Otjiwarongo, Namibia. It was here where God started calling him to the space in the midst of the air.

One day his pastor came calling, requesting him to start an Afrikaans congregation. He immediately showed the pastor the door, saying 'that is the quickest way to get involved in racism'. With South African and Namibian history tied at the hip on this issue, Afrikaans is viewed as the language of the oppressor, but still, it has a huge traction in the Southern African region. The pastor replied: 'you don't understand, I want you to start an Afrikaans church among black people'. With the racism link out of the equation, Neville accepted... on condition that the pastor help him to start camp meetings in Namibia. At the first camp meeting only about 12 people attended, but they were not deterred and started making plans for the next year.

The timeline and name elude me here but at one point Neville invited an American evangelist to speak at the camp meeting, however he pulled out at the last proverbial minute and proposed Jonathan Zirkle to take his place, who gladly accepted. Unbeknown to Neville, Jonathan arranged to place his name and contact details on the General Conference's Total Member Involvement (TMI) database. One year later Jonathan invited Neville to attend a TMI event in the USA.

Before attending the TMI event, Neville started his WhatsApp ministry, sending messages to his contacts who sent it to their contacts untill it reached quite a few countries, But the effort needs greater recognition, greater and faster reach! What to do..?

Enter the suits from the Adventist World Radio. Towards the end of 2017, a group from the radio station was in Zambia. They first held meetings with church leaders in Lusaka. Directly after their last meeting they headed back to their hotel to make reservations in Livingstone, 478km or seven hours drive in a southern direction. Alas, there was no room in the inn, except for one resort. Upon entering the resort, they found a lady behind the bar, with a cigarette in the one hand, a cup of coffee in the other, a Bible and a cell phone on the counter...

They found the manager of the resort to be uber-friendly and felt right at home. The next morning she told them that her uncle is a Seventh Day Adventist and that he sends her evangelistic messages via her cell phone. Her uncle in turn gets it from Neville. One of the AWR group remarked: 'I know that man, I put his name on the TMI database last week.'

To add to the baffling nature of this confluence of seemingly independent events, the team from AWR attended the same TMI event as Neville. Upon meeting with Neville the team was amazed at how well he fits into the AWR mission and objectives.

That put the train in motion. Neville was summoned to the General Conference where he addressed all the staff about his method, including Elder Ted Wilson. At this meeting it was decided to embrace the method. 'That just does not happen' said the staff at the GC, 'it takes weeks, even months to decide on things and by then the issue is not even relevant anymore'.

But now that the GC has thrown their weight behind the method, how to fund it? There was no budget! But God was not done with his plans yet. As Neville was on way back to Namibia, the GC staff who accompanied him insisted on a detour to another city where someone wanted to meet him. The meeting was with a kind elderly gentleman who requested to hear directly from Neville. After hearing Neville, he asked how much money was needed to spread the method to the world. Neville had no clue how to answer that question, he did not think that far ahead yet and the 'world' was not on his radar! But the GC staff did. It would cost $500,000. The gentleman remarked 'I suppose that is only for the first year. Here is you $500,000. Come back next year.'

Can you see Satan frothing at the mouth..?

For more updated information, see the Adventist World Radio website and particulary this article.

Should you wish to participate in WhatsApp evangelism, the steps are quite simple.

• Start with your address book. Invite them to attend the WhatsApp seminar. When they accept, make sure that they have your number on their phone; VERY IMPORTANT, your number must be stored in the international format otherwise they will not receive your messages.
• Some people who participate in the cellphone evangelism project have taken to joining Facebook groups where they post invites with applaudable success.
• Place everyone who accepted your invitation on a broadcast list, which is not the same as an open group where posts can be seen by all. The messages posted by the participants are seen only by the broadcaster and leads to one-on-one conversation.
• Keep your groups small and manageable, you can always start more groups.
• Decide on which days you want to broadcast your messages, not more than two broadcasts per week is recommended.
• Broadcast the messages to your groups.
• You can record your own messages if you are confident enough.
• However, if you would rather use pre-recorded messages, then you can ask Neville for it. Simply WhatsApp him on +264 81 128 5323 with the simple message 'Please send me the files'.

May God bless your efforts.