Weeks and months passed. Someone donated land in the area for a new church, and Luis made it a meeting place for weekly Bible studies. Through these follow-up studies, he highlighted what the Bible taught on God’s true day of worship, what happens when a person dies, and many other subjects. 

The evangelical pastors continued to cause trouble. They started a rumor that Seventh-day Adventist pastors were receiving 20,000 lempiras (roughly $800 U.S. dollars) for each person who agreed to be baptized. They said that Luis and others were becoming rich by forcing people to be baptized! Despite this falsehood, many people continued to attend the Bible studies each week. 

Doña Elvia was the first to be baptized. She suffered constant criticism for not eating pork, for changing her beliefs, and for keeping the Sabbath holy. People told her that the Holy Spirit was not in her church, and that she would have no joy without worshipping like their evangelical churches did. Other new believers received similar treatment—and some were becoming discouraged.

Brother Luis felt concerned, but he would not give up easily.  He remembered this quotation about prayer: “By your fervent prayers of faith you can move the arm that moves the world…” Prayer, 61.

At 5:00 am each day, he and the new church members came together to ask God to push back the powers of darkness. God gave them their miracle! The evangelical congregations became confused, and their church pastors began to argue among themselves. These arguments grew to be so intense that they split the churches, and the two pastors abandoned the area. This left only one church in town: the Seventh-day Adventist one. In this way, God proved once again that He was there to answer prayer and to plant His banner of truth in the most difficult of places.