Isn’t it funny how God often gives us the best opportunities to share the gospel when we most reluctant or least expecting it? Here’s an encouraging a story from Phil’s first day of mission:
I got a taxi up from Albion Park to Moss Vale on Sunday morning. The driver, Reggie, typed ‘St John’s’ into his GPS. “So, you’re off to worship are you?”, he asked.
“I’m actually preaching this morning, so I’ll be reading through my notes”, I said. “Sorry I won’t be very chatty’
A few moments later he exclaimed, “I have to know! What are you preaching on?”
“Mark 8,” I answered, “Saying you need to deny yourself, take up your cross & follow Jesus.” After a few more minutes of reading my notes, he asked,
“Should we praise and worship now?!” I didn’t know what praise and worship in a taxi looked like…
“I don’t feel ready to preach and I really have to read my notes,” I said.
“Ok, you have half an hour of reading your notes and then we’ll praise and worship!”
At that point I put my notes down and we got chatting. He told me the story about how he became a Christian. He said he was studying but was struggling in his studies, so he cheated on his exam. He got caught and was getting expelled from school. This brought him a lot of shame, and he to decided to kill himself. He said, ‘I was about to jump when I heard a voice in my head saying, “I’m Jesus. Trust in me and I’ll give you a reason to live.”‘ Now Reggie goes around sharing his testimony.
I asked if I could pray for him. When we pulled into the church car park he had a huge grin on his face, and was saying,
“Praise Jesus! Praise Jesus!”
It was a good way to start the Sunday!