“Hey Pastor Paul, is it okay if we go to Vanessa’s house?” David asked Pastor Paul as we walked up the hill. We were going on house visits with him, and as we walked by Vanessa’s home, a young girl we know from the church, David asked if we could stop.
Pastor Paul agreed and we went inside. Vanessa was there, but neither her mother nor her grandmother were home. Instead, we talked to two other men at the home whom we didn’t know. They took us inside, and we started talking to them.
They started the conversation by asking us what we were doing and why we were in Rwanda, so we introduced ourselves. We explained that we were with an organization called Adventures in Missions, and that we are traveling the world for nine months to share the love of Christ through different ministries. Then we asked them if we could pray for them in any way.
We had no idea the question we were asking.
One of the men started talking about the sins in which he had found himself. He said he has been repeatedly borrowing money from people that he then would use to buy alcohol. He’d go get drunk rather than using the money responsibly. Not only that, but he also said that he was married, but he had been sleeping around with prostitutes. This man knew he was living in sin, and he was confessing this to us and asking us to pray.
Before we prayed, I told him about a story of King David, which I had just read that morning before we went on the house visits. In 2 Samuel 11, King David sees a beautiful woman named Bathsheba bathing while he is standing on his roof. In lust, he sends for her, takes her in, and sleeps with her. Then she becomes pregnant, and David doesn’t know what to do. He sends for her husband, Uriah, who is in the war. He tries to have Uriah go sleep with her in order to cover up that David himself had impregnated her, but Uriah wouldn’t go lay with his wife or even return home to rest while his brethren were still at war. Rather than confess what happened, David sends Uriah back to war on the front lines where Uriah is certain to be killed. David sends this innocent man to the grave to cover up his own sin. Then he takes Bathsheba as his own wife.
I told our friend that even King David, the greatest king to ever live, committed some terrible sins, but David’s sin isn’t why he is remembered. David is remembered because he was a man after God’s own heart. I told our friend that God is always pursuing us and that we always have the opportunity for redemption and forgiveness. God will always forgive us so long as we turn to him, confess our sins, and ask for his forgiveness and salvation.
After I shared that word, David prayed for the man, and we asked the other man how we could pray for him. He said the same as the other man. He said he needed prayer because he struggles with alcohol and with sleeping with prostitutes. Josiah shared a word with the two men. He talked about the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15. He said that they are the lost sheep, but God is searching for them and once they are found, there will be rejoicing and celebrating in heaven. He also said that they have to make the hard choice that the rich young man in Mark 10 couldn’t make. Jesus tells him to give up his possessions and follow him, but the young man can’t do it. Josiah told these two men that they had to give up themselves, their pleasures and desires, and run towards God. Josiah then prayed another prayer over the two men, and before we left, Pastor Paul prayed with them a prayer of repentance and salvation, and the two men gave their lives to Christ!
Of all that I have experienced on the race, this is probably the most beautiful thing I’ve witnessed. God gave David, Josiah, and me the opportunity to be his hand in speaking to and praying for these two men. We got to witness as two lost, broken men gave their lives to Christ, and we only had the opportunity to be a part of that because David asked to stop at Vanessa’s house.
