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