Fundraising update: I am currently at $14,345. In order to stay on the field I will need $15,100 by July 31st and fully funded at $16,617 by August 31st. You all have been incredibly generous and I know God will show up in this. If you or anybody you know would be interested in partnering with me, feel free to share my blog and ask any questions! You can donate on my home page at johnhopkins.theworldrace.org and email at [email protected]. Thank you all so much for reading!
In my last blog I had mentioned I wanted to tell about a couple stories that touched me in particular over the past couple months.
The first is about a young man named Joshua. In my previous blog I had posted a picture of me playing baseball with some kids.
If you look to the right of the photo you can see Delaney and Shae from our team, and one of the pastors from the church we were working with, talking to a young man named Joshua. The pastor called us over to talk with him and hear what he had to say. He had been an idol worshiper for his whole life. Idol worshiping is common in this part of Africa as it gets passed down from generations to their kids, etc. He was argumentative at first trying to get his points across and we simply listened to him. The pastor kept at him just telling him about the love of Jesus and how much he means to us. In about 10 minutes his whole demeanor changed. He broke down and wept saying he has wasted his whole life worshiping idols that didn’t mean anything. He said he wanted that to stop today, follow Jesus and find out everything he could about him. To see such a drastic change happen right in front of your eyes is incredible and just one example of how God works in awesome ways! He accepted Jesus and said he wanted to come to church with us but didn’t have any clothes to wear. He works at a car wash which is where we first met him, and he lives under a truck so he only had a couple outfits to wear and said he didn’t want to show up to church like that. We told him not to worry and we would see him at church.
Having talked to a few guys before that seemed genuine and said they would come to church but never showed up, I was apprehensive to be honest. But sure enough, Sunday came and Joshua showed up! We had a change of clothes waiting for him so he would feel comfortable and I’ve never seen somebody so excited for new clothes.
We went back a couple days later to check on him and give him a new Bible. We left him with a new testament the first time we met him. He said he is trying to read his Bible but it is hard to understand at times. Being the first time he read the Bible we asked him what he read. He said when he first opened his Bible he turned to John 3:16. He mentioned the first time we met him that he didn’t understand how God can speak to somebody without you physical hearing Him. We told him that right there was God showing him what he wanted him to read. He looked up and you could see the light bulb come on in his head that he finally got it and understood. To me, that was one of the coolest moments of the race so far to see the change in this young man in such a short amount of time. Here is a picture of Joshua the next time we saw him to give him his Bible.
You can tell by his body language that he values that Bible and will keep it close to his heart. He then just started telling his friends about Jesus right then and there.
We asked him if he wanted to come out in the neighborhood with us to evangelize for a bit and before we even finished the sentence he said “Let me just go change my shoes!” Before we knew it he was going up to whoever he could to tell them about Jesus. Here he is talking to a local bar owner.
He said he now wants to be a pastor so he can tell others about Jesus. When we went back to his work to say goodbye to him he wanted us to get some pictures of him working so here he is!
His attitude from when we first met was night and day. We originally went to the car wash to meet with somebody else who never showed up. God had other plans and put us in Joshua’s path so we could share some love with him and look what happened. The best part is his story isn’t finished, just like yours and mine. It is continually being written everyday by God as His plan unfolds for your life. We might not be there to witness the growth that Joshua will experience soon, but I have faith God has this taken care of and has been planning this for a long time.
As we left Joshua he said with the biggest smile on his face, “If I don’t see you again in this life, I’ll see you in heaven!”
Thanks for reading!
