We were leaving Cape Town (which is difficult because I have grown to love the people here…) and were headed to Johannesberg on an 18 hour bus ride to catch a 5 hour bus to Swaziland.
That morning when I was packing my things, my Bible didn’t fit into my back pack so I just decided to carry it.
I was sitting on the bus ans I noticed two kids in front of me. Turns out that the boy, Tyrese, is 15 and his little sister is 10. As my teammates were talking to them I overheard that they are returning home from their grandfathers funeral.
We stopped at a gas station and when we got back on the bus my teammate, dani, wanted to switch spots with me. I could see why after I sat down in her seat. There’s no room and the lady in front decided to live her life with her seat tilted all the way back.
When dani sat in my seat, the apple cider vinegar I had been carrying from when we were sick the previous month, spilled all over the back of the bus. It basically saturated everything.
There were two good things that came out of this accident. The first was that the horrible smell that was coming out of the bathroom, next to our seats, was masked by the smell of apple cider vinegar, and the second was that when I went back to help clean up, I was able to apologize to Tyrese and his sister, but also begin a conversation with them.
I noticed a tattoo of a cross on his arm that was faded away. I asked him about it and he asked about the tattoo on my back.
He said “lt means Faith”
I asked “Faith in what?”
He said “Faith in God.”
I was like, “Okay that’s cool – Faith in God…” But I wanted to know more. I wanted to know if he KNEW God personally.
I started to ask more questions.
I asked “When did you become a Christian?”
He replied “When I was born.”
…
We began to talk about what it truly means to be a Christian, not just to believe in God.
I told him that to become a Christian you need to do 3 things.
Surprisingly, he already knew the first two!
He said “You have to Admit!”
I said “Admit what?”
He replied “That I’m a sinner.”
I was excited that I didn’t have to explain this one.
I asked what he thought the second one was. I gave him a small hint and he said, “Believe that Jesus rose again.”
We were on to something now.
He didn’t know the last one, so I grabbed my Bible. It just so happened to be sitting right in front of me, since it had not been able to fit in my pack that morning. I had him flip over to Romans 10:9-10.
That if you CONFESS with your MOUTH that JESUS IS LORD, and BELIEVE in your Heart that GOD RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD…YOU WILL BE SAVED!
Confess. Confess your faith in Jesus as the Lord of your life. Essentially asking him to come into your heart and be the Lord of your life.
I told him that those three things are necessary to be a Christian. I asked if he had done that yet, and he said no.
I asked him if he wanted to do that and he got excited and said yes! I don’t think he knew that he could do it right there on the bus.
He told me that he wanted to but he didn’t always know how to pray. I told him that praying to God is just like talking to me. You just talk to God.
After discussing how to pray and going over what the scripture said he leaned his head over onto the chair in front of him and began to pray.
Right there on the bus.
Tyrese is now a part of our family in Christ!
I shook his hand, congratulated him, and welcomed him into the family.
I told him how important the Bible is and how God uses the Bible to speak to us.
As he was sitting there with my Bible in his hands, I felt God telling me to give my Bible to him. I knew it was from God because I had a complete peace about it.
I began to flip through the pages and take all my notes and papers out of it.
I asked him, “Do you have a Bible?”
He said, “No.”
So I got a pen from my teammate and put his name in the Bible and handed it over.
He was so excited to not only have a Bible but to have one from America. Lol. I told him that the Bible comes from God, no one or no place else.
Either way, his Word does not return void. I told him he needs to read it. I highlighted what I thought was important and told him that he could highlight on his own. He said that he would read it so I believed that eventually he would.
I went back to my seat and tried to sleep. It didn’t work. I sat there and started praying for Tyrese.
Something that I have personally been convicted of is that I have led people to the Lord through this mission trip, but the Bible doesn’t say to just lead people to the Lord. Jesus says to make DISCIPLES. I knew that I couldn’t disciple this young man. I would be leaving South Africa the next day. I just started to pray that God would provide someone to disciple him and get involved in his life.
After about an hour of praying and trying to sleep, I just decided to go back to the back of the bus.
When I got back, this is what I saw…
He began reading as soon as I gave it to him and hadn’t stopped for the entire hour I had left him.
My heart melted. I was so overjoyed and overwhelmed at my Jesus.
He was reading it! And was so excited about it. He wanted to learn. I told him my favorite book was James. He flipped over and started reading there. He ended up falling asleep reading it.
I sat back in my seat and began to pray prayers of thanksgiving.
The thought of him not having someone to pour into his life was still on my mind, so I told him that the next time he goes to church he needed to tell the pastor that he just became a Christian and would like to be discipled.
The next morning I got his contact information in hopes that we could go to church with him when we fly out of Johannesberg in November. We said our goodbyes and he started walking home. He said he lived close enough to the bus station that he could walk home.
Our second bus didn’t leave till 1:00pm, so we had 8 hours to waste. We remembered that there was a Hillsong church in Johannesberg so we looked it up and found out that it’s in walking distance from the bus station.
Then we remembered it was Sunday.
We looked up service times and sure enough there was a service starting at 10:00.
We called Tyrese and he was so excited to come to church with us! He met us at the bus station and we made our way to Hillsong Church.
We got there early so we sat down and had a coffee. I asked a few people if they worked there and they asked what I needed. I told them that the young man sitting next to me had become a Christian the day before and was in need of someone to disciple him. They asked how old he was, I told them he was 15. The man I was talking to was the youth pastor.
Anesu, the youth pastor, welcomed Tyrese in with open arms and invited him to youth on Friday nights as well as a men’s retreat. They have provided transportation for Tyrese so he won’t have to walk late in the evening as well as sponsoring him for the men’s retreat.
What a beautiful picture of the body of Christ!
Anesu was the answer to my prayers for Tyrese. Prayer works. God works. He is living and his Word is living. The fact that the young man sitting in front of me became a Christian, went to church, and found someone to pour into his life is no mistake. It’s a divine appointment that was made by Jesus Christ himself.
Tyrese told me that he will be moving soon, so please be in prayer that wherever Tyrese goes, he will get plugged into a church and the Lord will provide someone to disciple Tyrese.
The Lord provided once and I know he will do it again.
