I met Saul on a ferry in the Philippines.
We just had a long weekend on the island of Mindoro. We had an early morning of ministering to the Munyun children, an indigenous group of the Philippines, and then an afternoon in the sun. We left our house at 6 pm and had to wait for the ferry to depart at 9 pm. We were hoping for comfy beds like the ferry we had going there, but instead we got bleacher like seats on the top deck. By 10 pm those around me were quickly fading and I myself had things to keep myself busy during the 2+ hour ferry ride.
I had my headphones in when a teammate next to me said that the man standing in front of everyone was talking to us. I took my headphones out to hear broken English and Tagalog (Filipino mother tongue, though there’s hundreds of dialects). He is staring at us but also around the boat. I was told he said he “welcomed the foreigners” and apologized for his poor English. My teammates continued to whisper about how it sounded like he was sharing the Gospel. As he finished talking and sat down an older man across from me leaned forward and asked me if I understood what he said. I tried my best to smile politely and say, “yes, I understood he was sharing the Gospel. I am a Christian missionary, I love Jesus too.” The man replied saying he and his friends were also missionaries. Ha. What are the chances. Not only that but they had just spent 6 days doing ministry with the indigenous tribe of the Munyun. They traveled to churches up in the mountains and shared the Gospel to the tribes and led people to know Christ. What a coincidence! They invited us to worship with them as their worship leader pulled out his guitar and sang a few songs in English. What are the chances haha. Here we are, just expecting a quiet ferry ride to our beds, but God had a divine appointment.
After we worshiped the older man across from me kept up conversation. He introduced me to his wife and daughters. He shared that he was 47 years old and recently became a Christian 2 years ago. His wife and daughters were born again Christians, a term to mean you have been baptized and have personally made a decision to commit your life to a relationship with Jesus. Before he was a Catholic. Something that in the Philippines signifies a lot of idolatry and religiousness. He said he used to persecute those who weren’t Catholic. He said he looked down upon people who went on mission trips. Yet here he was, in Bible school, studying to be a missionary. His own daughter, at 15, returning from her first missions trip.
I told him his story reminded me of something I had read, the story of Saul. Saul was a Pharisee, a religious party of Jews, they kept themselves separate from those who weren’t Jewish and held high standards to the Jewish law. He persecuted those who followed Jesus, someone who he saw as trying to destroy the church. Someone who gave the command to kill Christians.
Well that very same man become a follower of Christ. By grace Saul was saved, his name later being changed to Paul, and ended up writing close to half of the New Testament. An extremist of his time was saved by scandalous grace.
This man sat across from me and said, “yes, that was me. I am like Saul.” He continued to tell me that he had constant thoughts to kill his family. He wanted to harm is family. His wife and his daughters. He had so much anger within him. One day he went to church and encountered God there. He doesn’t know exactly what happened but that he audibly heard the voice of God when he closed his eyes and when he opened them again he was on his knees weeping. He doesn’t remember how he got there as before he was standing. He carries on the testimony of redemption in Christ. As a new man, a new father, a new husband. His friends don’t recognize the person he is today from the one they knew before. He kept talking about the joy of the Lord that radiates from him now.
I tell you this story in confidence that he would have wanted others to know of the love of God through the power of his testimony. God is alive and He is actively working in people’s hearts and lives all around the world because of His love for you. This man in this story is not anything special other than being a child of God. He lives to tell others of the love and freedom you can also encounter and have for yourself. I pray it speaks something to you. No one is too far removed from redemption. To be saved and forgiven for your past, present and future mistakes. To live in freedom and holiness by Gods grace. No price tags.
