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
