This doesn’t happen to me very often, but I have heard from the Lord a few times. I am unsure of how to describe it fully, but the outcomes have always been incredible. This time came from Rwanda. We were praying in the morning before we went to ministry. As we were praying a red door in the corner of an entry way popped into my mind. I quickly tried to forget about it but as I was praying it continued to show up. So, I thought this was my task for the day. To find the red door.
To back up we would usually start our days in Rwanda by praying for our ministry, and the people we will meet during the day. After we had breakfast (chapati and mangos!!), we went to teach at a pre-school and later preach at a school of 900 kids. After playing with the kids for about an hour, we would break into groups and preach the gospel for 15 minutes. On this particular day, one of the girls from the team asked if any one wanted to accept Christ. Twelve little hands shot straight up and said they wanted to trust in God as their Lord and Savior. We continued to teach the kids for the next few weeks to help them understand what trust in the Lord looks like. But, after this one of the boys came up to us and told us to go to his mothers’ house so she could hear the message of Jesus. How cool is that! This boy had so much love for his family, and faith in Jesus that he already wanted others to know about Him. What a beautiful example of how we should respond to the Gospel. The day continued and during evangelism outreach we walked to the boy’s mother’s home. She grew up in the Catholic church and had difficulty “backsliding” – a term she kept saying. Two members from our team, Jack and Kam, grew up in the Catholic church and were able to have an incredible conversation with her from their own experiences. She committed her life to Christ and we saw her at church the next two Sundays with her son.
As we started to walk home, I saw it. The red door in the corner of the house. I told my good friend Moses we needed to stop, and we did. We knocked on the door and nobody was home, until a little boy came up to us and ran to get the owner of the house. She walked up to us and we had a brief small talk and she invited our team inside. I asked her if she had ever heard of Jesus before and she responded, “I have heard the name, but I don’t know anything else.” I was able to share the whole Gospel with her and another boy in the house. She continued to say that she has done to many bad things that she doesn’t think she could be forgiven. She also told us about her husband who has gone to witch doctor to look for answers. She then told us she was contemplating going to a witch doctor that week. We talked for about an hour and a half, and she told us that we were sent by God. Of all the houses we walked past she couldn’t believe we stopped at hers. We continued to tell her that Jesus loves her so much to find her where she is at. We asked if she wanted to accept Christ as her Savior. She got down on her hand and knees in complete surrender and offered her life to God. It was beautiful, and we were all crying tears of joy.
I am still in shock, that she almost went to a witch doctor, and was able to recognize the goodness of the Lord and see his strength. It was one of my favorite moments on the race. Later in the week the team went to visit her, and she was doing so great. She was filled with joy and peace and was happy to see them. We were able to talk to her husband who had many questions about the Bible and God. Through God, we were able to encourage him and, in the end, pray for him, and he was thankful that we came.
What I learned from all this is that we walk past hundreds of people every day. I went to school and studies the bible and theology. I would think that we need to create programs and methods to reach everyone and there is certainly nothing wrong with that, however if we listen to the Lords voice he sends us to those who programs may miss. We would have never stopped at that house if the Lord didn’t ask us to.
