I almost died three times in my life. Twice I saw myself out of my body, and the last time I saw a light was heading towards me….
These were the words whispered to us from a man named Simon. His story is a story that I’ve been BURSTING to share with you all. It happened in our 11 hour layover in the Sweden airport to get here to Africa.
This is a story that cannot go unheard. A story that when read I pray two things:
1. If your reading this and you don’t know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I pray that you see Jesus’ true pursuit for your heart.
2. If your reading this and you do know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I pray that you will actually BELIEVE Jesus at His word. That you will BOLDLY step out in FULL FAITH without hesitation to do whatever God calls you to do.
So there we were, four of us from our squad sitting at a table in Stockland Sweden. We were waiting to board our flight to Ethiopia to enter into Africa and a man named Simon walked up and sat down beside us.
“You’re not from Sweden are you?” He said with a laugh because of our accent.
“We’re from America,” we replied. The small talk continued.
He asked what we were doing in Sweden. We described our mission with the World Race. Intrigued, he listened and asked us questions about the organization.
As conversation continued, we asked him about his life. He was an electrician working in Sweden for the past 25 years. He was on his way to visit his family in Uganda, where he was originally born.
One of the girls brought up how she went to Uganda before. She asked him if he knew of a specific church in Uganda.
He was not familiar with it but continued to ask questions about it. Then he started talking about various religions. He paused and said “you want to know what I think about religion?”
“Yes,” we said. He stated that all religions were okay, that there should be no conflict about them. He said that Jesus was not the son of God.
We listened to him and asked more questions to understand his background with religion/faith and thoughts.
An hour or so went by and our plane was about to board. We realized Simon was boarding earlier than we were. We said our goodbyes and walked to meet up with the rest of our group.
The four of us got in a circle and prayed. Prayed that the Lord would just show up in Simons life.
After praying, I had this burning sensation on my heart to go back and tell Simon something, to leave him with a challenge.
So I ran up to him right before he was about to board and said “Simon it was nice for us to meet and talk with you but I want to leave you with a challenge, tonight will you ask God to just reveal himself to you?”
“Ah what?” he said. As I repeated the statement I previously made, he replied with, “yeah sure I can do that,” he said and shook my hand to agree that he would.
“You know, he said, I appreciate you because you have a joy that is different and I see that in your smile.” “Your friends too, I felt so comfortable asking you all questions and just your joy I can’t describe,” he said.
That joy is Jesus.
He boarded the plane and a few moments later, so did we. Little did I know that:
1. Our flight was actually delayed by an hour.
2. That he would sit two seats behind me.
3. The man sitting two seats over from him was a missionary to Tanzania.
Not even a half an hour had passed on the plane and Simon walked up to where I was sitting. He stopped and asked to talk with me.
Sure, I figured. If he had more questions about what I believed I didn’t mind sharing. Never could I ever imagine this…
4 hours or so had passed of answering questions, studying scripture and praying.
At first he didn’t even really believe the Bible, he asked questions like:
-when was the Bible written
-if there’s a good God, why do bad things happen
-what is the trinity
-asked about Mary and Joseph and who they were
-asked about the disciples
And SO many more questions I couldn’t answer, scientific things and questions I’ve never heard of before.
Then he stopped and said: “Wait, why are you sitting here for this long answering all of my questions? You’re young, don’t you have better things to do?”
I shared my testimony with him and said “Honestly sir,” “If didn’t believe the Bible was true, or if I didn’t really love Jesus I wouldn’t be here talking to you.”
“I by NO means want to force some religion on you, Jesus just desires a relationship with you.” “What He has done for you on the cross is too good to hold back from sharing,” I said.
He was stunned and was interested in hearing more.
John 3:16 “For God so LOVED the world that He gave His only begotten son, that WHOSOEVER believes in Him will have eternal life.”
He ran his finger across the page as we read this verse. Three times he read it out loud.
“It’s as simple as this,” I said. As I walked him through the Romans road verses of salvation these two verses really stood out to him.
“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. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” (Romans 10:9-10)
“Really, I can do that?” He asked. Yes if you genuinely mean it from your mind and heart.
“Yes, I want to know this Jesus that you know,” he said.
As he repeated a heartfelt prayer of repentance and salvation to the Lord, he said instantly he felt a peace in his heart.
“Now, what can I bring back to my village?” he said.
We talked through the book of John and starting there. Afterwards, I went back to my seat full of joy and just in pure awe of Jesus.
Never doubt the power of the gospel and prayer. Jesus is real, alive and working all the time.
I don’t know what those experiences were like when Simon said he almost died three times in his life BUT for sure the Lord was pursuing his heart throughout that all AND can I tell you a secret? Jesus loves you WAY too much to let you do this life alone; He is pursuing after your heart.
“Seek Him, and when you seek Him you will find Him if you seek Him with your whole heart.” Jeremiah 29:13
