"…Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…." 1 Peter 3:15
So go figure God can show up on the bus after a super long day of traveling and still give you the opportunity to show His love and share His goodness with a random stranger sitting beside you?
Picture this- it´s the end of day 3 of traveling literally all over Nicaragua searching out and meeting with Unsung Heroes. Now don´t get me wrong, it was awesome, but I had traveled about 30 hours worth in 3 days and I was TIRED! But the work of the Lord never sleeps and when we are willinging and submitted to Him the Lord can do absolutely anything. He gives us strength when we are weak and the Holy Spirit gives us words when we have none. So here I sit, exhausted, ready to make the last leg of the journey home on this final day. Unknown to me, my sneaky team mate Jordan Treuter had prayed that God would send someone who spoke English to us on the bus so we could share Jesus with this person. Well God answered him!
The friendliest person I have met yet slides into the seat next to me and offers me some cookies. We exchange some greetings and stumble upon the fact she speaks very little English but does know a little from school. Jordan, who is in the seat right behind me, taps me on the shoulder excitedly and whispers to me about his prayer and then sits back and simply says, "now go!". Now go? I am tired. I barely know any Spanish. She barely knows any English. How do I bring up Jesus? Thanks a lot Jordan, ugh! These are the thoughts the enemy immediately slipped into my mind. But God is faithful and we engaged in a friendly chat discovering neither of us are married and without children and found more common ground on our love for our pets. I showed her pictures of my cat and she told me all about her dog and instantly through this we are friends! She asks about my favorite things in Nicaragua and from that I begin to tell her about why we are here. Oh and just to mention, this is a broken half English half Spanish conversation in which I am speaking and understanding waaaayyyy more Spanish than I should be able to….. yea the Holy Spirit truly is that good 🙂
Anyway, she is amazed we would give our lives and resources to do a trip like this and I tell her it´s just all for the Lord and He provides. Then here it comes…. the big opportunity…. the big question- Do you know Jesus as your Lord? Her answer….. She had become a Christian ONE WEEK prior to this meeting! In that moment I suddenly felt overwhelmed at knowing that God was right beside me in this bus seat. God Himself had divinely inspired this meeting and this very conversation. It was totally on purpose. And our Holy Father was using little ole me to encourage this brand new daughter. She proceeded to tell me that things had been hard in her family and she knew she needed God´s help and since she had given her life to Jesus she was totally different and everything had changed for her. I prayed with her right there on the bus and I kid you not, the moment I said amen we arrived at her stop. We shared a big hug and her name will be written on my heart forever. The Lord brings her face to my mind´s eye frequently and I still pray for her. It is incredible what God can do when we just say yes. We are the footprints of Jesus Christ every where we go and in everyone we meet.
"What if God was one of us? Just a stranger on a bus…. trying to make His way home…"
