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