Have you ever had one of those situations where you absolutely knew that you had a front row seat to watch God do something really cool?
I saw the 3 cute brown skin, brown haired, brown eyed princesses sitting on a concrete bench about 25 yr away. Something made me get out my camera and snap their picture. As I walked toward the girls, I suddenly felt very strongly led to go sit next to them and strike up a conversation. I could sense that God was up to something, and I didn’t have to wait more than a moment before I knew He wanted me to tell these girls about Jesus. I also equally knew that I was in new territory. I’d never done this alone in Spanish. I’d seen and heard it done by my Guatemalan co-workers and I’d heard it translated from English to Spanish. But this was new turf for me.
As I went to sit on the bench with the girls, I noticed there was a Bible and an EvangeCube (an evangelism tool that looks kind of like a Rubik’s cube but with changing pictures that help to explain the Gospel of Jesus Christ). Within a few minutes we’d exchanged niceties, and I reached for the Cube. I’d watched others use the Cube as they spoke about Christ, but I had not fiddled with it myself. I sent up a quick prayer, trusting that this was being done in His will, and asked for His help. Sure enough God took over. I hardly remember much after that. I remember that He gave me the words I needed (in Spanish) and He guided my hands over the Cube as if I’d used it many times before. The Lord definitely had the attention of the 3 girls and at the end of the story the youngest (about 6 yr old) excitedly jumped off the bench and said she wanted to ask Jesus to be her Savior and best friend forever. The other two followed suit. At that point I called over Oscar, one of our co-workers….a humble and wonderful young Christian man. There’s no substitute for a Guatemalan sharing with a Guatemalan. Oscar made sure that the girls understood the story and confirmed that they wanted to pray and ask the Lord into their hearts and lives. Each eagerly nodded in agreement. With a smile and a tear in the corner of his eye, Oscar led them phrase by phrase in a short prayer where each of the girls accepted Jesus as their Savior and Lord.
There’s nothing like the smile, energy and pure joy in the face of someone who just accepted the Lord as their Savior. It’s a day I pray I will never forget. I remember being a little more quite than usual for the rest of the day. I was in pure awe at what I’d seen the Lord do, and could hardly comprehend that He’d choose to allow me to have a front row seat. This was 100% a God thing. And the next day I had a smile from ear to ear that matched the smiles on the girls’ faces.
I’ve waited a long time to tell this story. It seemed so intimate that I wasn’t sure I wanted to share it. However, my pastor encouraged me to share the story. You never know how the Lord will move. My prayer is that this story will encourage you and cause you to reflect on Him.
(Without me even being aware, a friend snapped a series of pictures during the above event. This series of pictures can be seen on FB or you can click on the link below to see the pictures.)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=142620&id=673981604&l=fbf0c0ea97
