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