I am now in Singapore after a
brief stop over in South Africa with Jonathan and Tracey.
My journey out has been
interesting: First of all a one and a half hour delay in Toronto due to an
ice and snow storm on the eastern seaboard. When I arrived in New York, I
had to transfer from Le Guardia to JFK airport and my cab driver was a
Christian, had something about Jesus loves you in the cab, so I opened a
conversation and we had a great time of sharing, wishing each other Gods
blessing as he dropped me off at the terminal for South African
Airways. Then in New York our departure was delayed two hours because
of back-logged flights and waiting our turn for de-icing. More than 20
hours later I arrived in Johannesberg via Senegal. The heavy rain was
almost horizontal; the radar auto landing facility wasnt working so each
flight was brought in manually, but we touched down safely. After a 20
minute wait at the gate for a bridge operator to show up, we finally
disembarked and waited 50 minutes for our luggage. A missed connection
meant going for the next flight to Durban which in turn was delayed by
almost 1½ hours and I reached Durban at midnight. Jonathan was there
to meet me and drive me the remaining hour to his home.
A friend of Traceys called
Natalie was staying the weekend with them. She had to be in Durban on
Monday so offered to save Jonathan the round trip and drove me there for my
flight to Singapore. She had grown up in a Christian home, gone to Bible
school and then turned away from the Lord. During the weekend, I
sensed she wanted to talk to me alone. She had been intrigued by
Jonathans and my stories from Papua, and asked a lot about missionaries and
culturethe usual stuff about imposing our beliefs and westernism on
unsuspecting natives. But her tone changed.
On the way to Durban she opened
the door for me to talk to her about the gospel in a more personal way. She
told me early in our 1 hour drive that, she had been brought up in a
Christian home but had questioned her beliefs and reached the point where
she wasnt sure whether she had totally rejected Christianity or was in
middle ground. I suggested that what she had rejected was
churchianity and not Christ. This really opened the conversation, and I
was able to talk about what Christ and the gospel means to me and my
everyday life. It seems this was the kind of thing she had been
longing to hear, but had she only been hearing the trust Jesus now and go
to heaven later, and dont go to hell (like we heard on Sunday); but no one
was making it relevant to daily living. She said the church is always
talking about what you have to do, but not about beingabout who you are and
how you can be a complete person. She said she never felt the church
was interested in who she was as a person. I told her that the gospel is for
now, not just for eternity; that Jesus came to redeem our personhood, not
just save our souls for heaven. Obviously, when she dropped me off at Durban
airport we could have gone on talking, but I sensed that her heart had been
gripped and hope revived.
As I sat waiting for my flight,
and all through my 12 hours to Singapore, I could not stop thinking about
that conversation and that this was one of those God-ordained moments that
takes your breath away. I was praising God and praying for Natalie all the
way. Keep her in your prayers too.
Today, Gloria travels to London
to spend time with her Dad. I will speak at the Asia Cross Cultural
training Institute today and tonight am meeting with a man from Myanmar who
has seen the Yali Story. Tomorrow I will meet my Taoist friend
Shankar.
Greetings,
John
