About seven years ago our team chartered a mini-bus for a remote mission in a southeast Asian country.
Shortly after we got on the road that morning our driver stopped to pick up a man. When the man found out that this vehicle was not for hire, he asked to ride with us anyway to a certain town. We agreed to the hitchhiker’s request, but informed him that we had a couple of stops to make first.
A Discarded but Well-Placed Tract
We continued eagerly planning our mission strategy for the day. The hitchhiker heard us talking and could sense that we were Christians. He pulled out of his jacket a well-worn Gospel tract and excitedly told us his story.
He was a hopeless alcoholic, his life was full of tragedies and pain, he was estranged from his family and snubbed by his small community. A few months ago he was going to commit suicide because of his shame and pain. But, on that particularly day he saw a booklet on the side of the road and picked it up to read it, and it changed his life!
That booklet was filled with Bible passages explaining how to have a personal relationship with the One True God who created the universe. He grew up in an atheistic society, yet a society that still held on to ancestor worship and animistic practices. This was part of his story of despair. But this small booklet gave him hope and told him what he knew deep down was the truth—that there was a God.
It carefully and clearly explained the holy character of God the Father of All, and how through Adam’s sin all mankind is in rebellion and estranged from God. Likewise it compassionately explained how the Lord Jesus Christ, being the Son of God who became man, was the perfect mediator for reconciliation with God. He died upon the Cross as the propitiation for our sins and was raised from the dead for our justification and peace with God. And that He would come again in glory.
Our new friend had put his trust in Jesus Christ for salvation from his sin, his shameful past, and for hope of eternal life. His life was under a radical transformation these past few months. That discarded tract ended up being a well-placed tract, Divinely placed.
More Mission than Planned
He didn’t have a Bible, so he had just been reading his treasured pamphlet and the Bible verses in it, over and over, many times a day. That is why the paper was so worn and hardly legible any longer. The Holy Spirit used these dozen passages of Scripture to sustain and renew this man daily, to give him hope and to direct his prayers.
He didn’t know any Christians either. He was rejected by his friends and family earlier because of his anti-social behavior, and now he was further rejected because of his faith in Christ. Although, he was now a radically different person, and filled with joy in the midst of it all!
And so, he was praying that God would introduce him to some other Christians if there were any near him. And here we were on the bus! A handful of foreigners and a handful of Asian mission partners.
We had him ride with us the whole day. We told him some of our stories of salvation and redemption from life’s trials, personal struggles and temptations. We prayed with him and encouraged him that the Lord would continue to bring healing to him and his relationships.
We spent time reviewing the Gospel in greater detail than he knew up to that point. We sang worship songs together. We gave him a Bible, showed him how to use it and studied Scripture together. We had him observe as we shared the Gospel at a few different mission points throughout the day.
The Day Had to Come to an End
We circled back at the end of the day and dropped him at his originally desired destination. He was bursting with encouragement, amazed at what God had done in his life that day on the bus! So were we. And we still are.
The next day, we were headed in a different direction, and for other reasons, we couldn’t take our friend with us any of the following days. But, we obtained his contact information, and our friends who knew the area were able to follow up with him and find him a local group of believers for worship and fellowship.
This passage of Scripture forever holds new meaning for our team and for our brother we met on the bus that day:
Romans 5:6–11 ESV “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
Shortly after we got on the road that morning our driver stopped to pick up a man. When the man found out that this vehicle was not for hire, he asked to ride with us anyway to a certain town. We agreed to the hitchhiker’s request, but informed him that we had a couple of stops to make first.
A Discarded but Well-Placed Tract
We continued eagerly planning our mission strategy for the day. The hitchhiker heard us talking and could sense that we were Christians. He pulled out of his jacket a well-worn Gospel tract and excitedly told us his story.
He was a hopeless alcoholic, his life was full of tragedies and pain, he was estranged from his family and snubbed by his small community. A few months ago he was going to commit suicide because of his shame and pain. But, on that particularly day he saw a booklet on the side of the road and picked it up to read it, and it changed his life!
That booklet was filled with Bible passages explaining how to have a personal relationship with the One True God who created the universe. He grew up in an atheistic society, yet a society that still held on to ancestor worship and animistic practices. This was part of his story of despair. But this small booklet gave him hope and told him what he knew deep down was the truth—that there was a God.
It carefully and clearly explained the holy character of God the Father of All, and how through Adam’s sin all mankind is in rebellion and estranged from God. Likewise it compassionately explained how the Lord Jesus Christ, being the Son of God who became man, was the perfect mediator for reconciliation with God. He died upon the Cross as the propitiation for our sins and was raised from the dead for our justification and peace with God. And that He would come again in glory.
Our new friend had put his trust in Jesus Christ for salvation from his sin, his shameful past, and for hope of eternal life. His life was under a radical transformation these past few months. That discarded tract ended up being a well-placed tract, Divinely placed.
More Mission than Planned
He didn’t have a Bible, so he had just been reading his treasured pamphlet and the Bible verses in it, over and over, many times a day. That is why the paper was so worn and hardly legible any longer. The Holy Spirit used these dozen passages of Scripture to sustain and renew this man daily, to give him hope and to direct his prayers.
He didn’t know any Christians either. He was rejected by his friends and family earlier because of his anti-social behavior, and now he was further rejected because of his faith in Christ. Although, he was now a radically different person, and filled with joy in the midst of it all!
And so, he was praying that God would introduce him to some other Christians if there were any near him. And here we were on the bus! A handful of foreigners and a handful of Asian mission partners.
We had him ride with us the whole day. We told him some of our stories of salvation and redemption from life’s trials, personal struggles and temptations. We prayed with him and encouraged him that the Lord would continue to bring healing to him and his relationships.
We spent time reviewing the Gospel in greater detail than he knew up to that point. We sang worship songs together. We gave him a Bible, showed him how to use it and studied Scripture together. We had him observe as we shared the Gospel at a few different mission points throughout the day.
The Day Had to Come to an End
We circled back at the end of the day and dropped him at his originally desired destination. He was bursting with encouragement, amazed at what God had done in his life that day on the bus! So were we. And we still are.
The next day, we were headed in a different direction, and for other reasons, we couldn’t take our friend with us any of the following days. But, we obtained his contact information, and our friends who knew the area were able to follow up with him and find him a local group of believers for worship and fellowship.
This passage of Scripture forever holds new meaning for our team and for our brother we met on the bus that day:
Romans 5:6–11 ESV “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
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