The Boy Who Answered God’s Call

By Anna Galeniece

Young John Loughborough believed with all his heart that Jesus was coming soon. So, at just 12 years old, he tucked a bundle of little books under his arm and walked from house to house, hoping others would believe too.

Not everyone welcomed him. Some people laughed. Others shouted at him. A few even pushed him around. But every time John picked himself up, he remembered why he had started. If Jesus is really coming, he thought, everyone should have the chance to know.

When John grew older, he learned to work with wood and hot iron. He became a skilled carpenter and blacksmith. But his favorite tool was still his Bible, and people invited the young man to preach. Because of his age, everyone called him “the Boy Preacher.”

One day John attended a meeting, and he brought with him, folded inside his pocket, a list of questions about some difficult Bible verses. He hoped someone could explain them. The speaker was a minister named J. N. Andrews. One by one Andrews answered every question on John’s list! John could hardly believe it. That day he joyfully accepted the Bible Sabbath. 

Soon afterward, John met James and Ellen White, who encouraged him as he began sharing this new truth with others. Even though he worried about how he would support his family, John trusted God and continued preaching.

Life as a traveling minister was not easy, however. In those days preachers received no regular pay. John often traveled long distances in terrible weather, spent nights away from his family, and wondered how they would have enough to eat. After many hardships he grew discouraged. Maybe it’s time to stop preaching, he thought.

He moved to Iowa, hoping to earn a living as a carpenter instead. At first, everything seemed to be going well. But little by little, John’s tools became more important than God’s work. Deep inside he knew that something was not right.

John was not the only minister who felt that way. Several early Adventist preachers had become discouraged and had quietly left the work and moved to Iowa too.

This situation made it necessary for James and Ellen White to travel to Iowa to visit these weary workers and encourage them to return to the mission that God had given them. During one meeting there Ellen White repeated in her sermon the question God had once asked the prophet Elijah: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Those words reached straight into John’s heart. He realized God had not forgotten him or His calling for him. John chose to return to the ministry, and this time he never looked back. For the rest of his long life he traveled wherever God led, preaching, encouraging believers, and helping, alongside other faithful leaders, build the young Seventh-day Adventist Church.

John Loughborough discovered through a hard experience that the greatest satisfaction in life is not choosing the easiest path. It is trusting God enough to follow Him wherever He leads.