Listen to Their Story – Tell Them Your Story

“Jesus replied, ‘Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.’” Matthew 11:4-5, NIV.

This month I met a man with a story. He knocked on my front door. He was standing there in soiled clothes. He wasn’t old… maybe 35 or 40 but he looked weary and spiritually drained. In a very soft voice, one that has gotten that way through dehydration, weakness and rejection, he asked me if I had anything he could do to earn some money. I talk about loving my neighbors all the time, but the truth is that I usually would stay right inside my house and tell the beggar to leave. But something compelled me to walk onto my porch. I asked one simple question. “What’s your story?”

He told me that he had come to the city 15 days ago searching for work to support his wife and four children who were at home in a village hours away. He said that he only wanted enough money to buy some rice. I told him to cut the weeds in my small front yard and I would pay him.

While he started to work, I went to the kitchen. I prepared him some noodles and water. I asked God to open an opportunity for me to share with this man that Jesus is a helper in times of trouble. I went back out onto the front porch and handed him the noodles. He cried. He explained that no one had been kind to him and that if he had known how bad it would be he never would have left home. As he ate he continued to share his story. He really missed his family and wanted to go home.

He asked me if I had any more odd jobs around the house so that he could go home. I said that I didn’t and he immediately said, “Oh, that’s okay. You have already helped me more than many others.”

I went back into my room as he finished and prayed. “God, do you want me to help this man and how?”

And God said, “Tell him your story. Tell him Mine.”

I went back outside carrying a copy of Psalms, a tract about Jesus, and some money. Then I told him my story. I told him that I too had left my family and that I sometimes I felt very alone. But I also told him that when I am alone I read the word of God and it helps me know that Jesus is with me. I then told him that some friends from the United States had sent some money in the name of Jesus and that they had said that money was to be used however God told me to use it. I told him that God had told me to give it to him. I explained that Jesus loves him very much and that He also wanted him to be able to get home to see his family. I handed him the money and the books.

The man fell to his knees. He bowed before me and touched my feet with his head. I felt tears fall on my feet and started crying myself. I immediately said, “No, don’t bow to me. This money is not from me. If you want to bow to someone, bow to Jesus. He is the one who gave you this money!”

Pray that:

The man will read and understand the books that the Pacific Rim worker gave to him.

The man’s family and village will hear about the love of Jesus as he shares how he got back home.

Pacific Rim workers will be sensitive to listen and share however the Holy Spirit leads.

Pacific Rim is a region of the International Mission Board, SBC.