Yes!!

Greetings my friends!

As most of you know, my favorite pastime is evangelism. We don't get to do much of it here, because we are placed in a sort of discipleship cocoon, so that when we do step back into the "real world" we better represent Christ to the world. But I still like doing evangelism, and the Lord made the way!

Monday, we had a special time of simply meditating on the Word and prayer, and we were taken to Goodman's Beach, where a lot of locals resort when they want to have fun. No, I don't like being at the beach in the day time, but the Lord is good, and I can rejoice in Him at all times.

I prayed during this time that we were out in public doing nothing but prayer and reading that I would have occasion to preach His Gospel to someone. Well, the Lord provided.

There was a man named John who was standing at the end of the fence. He did not seem too interested in talking at all at first, but I pressed, and he engaged. Mostly, we talked about the dreadful effect of the economic recession in the US on the economy of the Bahamas, which I didn't know about. As a consequence, he did most of the talking, and I never found a transition to the Gospel. I did interject a point about not chasing wealth, but I think it went over his head. I have found that the Lord sometimes sets people up for later appointments, so I was not overly concerned. I did pray for him and feel like a failure for about fifteen minutes, but the Lord cleared that feeling up, and I moved on.

Philip and Ken are "Reverends" and Roberto is a business partner, and their business is jet-ski rides for tourists. Obviously, they were hurting for business, so they were doing nothing but sitting and talking when I was on my way back from the restroom. I didn't want to approach them at first, thinking that my entrance would be awkward, but the Lord convinced me that this was His will, so I did.

Sure enough, it was awkward starting the conversation, but the Lord soon kicked it into high gear, as Philip asked me about the US elections and my choice for president. The choice has already been made by the Lord, but black people in general like to discuss and debate things just to have an argument about them. Philip was no exception (though there are many), and I took the bait because we had already established Christianity as the baseline, and I don't care enough about politics to panic if the person I voted for doesn't win (primarily because most politicians are corrupt anyway).

This is how I found out that Philip was a false prophet. He thought it more important as a Christian to stand against McCain for calling out a black false prophet during the campaign for being racist (something that I heard about but paid no attention to) than for us to seek the salvation of whatever leader God puts in the White House. Then he told me that he thought that Muslims go to Heaven too. Oh, and those who never heard about Jesus? They get in, too.

When I contradicted him using Scriptures and repeating Jesus' claim to exclusivity found in John 14:6, he asked about the Old Testament saints. This guy is a preacher? This experience gave me a new appreciation for what Paul Cowley does in Kenya. Wow.

Funny thing is, he got distracted by customers right as it was time for me to leave. Hmm...I think the Lord had it all planned out from the start. I gave him something to think about. Roberto lost interest rather quickly, and Ken did, too. But there was a young lad who stopped by to listen when I was explaining some of the Scriptures to Philip, so I don't believe for a minute that the time was wasted.

May God bless you all as you endure your trials of faith and your triumphs over fear.