Why wait until January to start sharing testimonies? I’m already on mission, and I have a story to tell…
A few weeks ago a woman who is homeless came into my work. A fellow customer had blessed her with a gift card to the shop, allowing her to buy clothes for herself and food for her dog. A few days later I saw the same woman at a coffee shop on the opposite side of town. She showed me that someone had blessed her with a new testament on a separate occasion, now she was praying for the old. I “just so happened” to have an extra Bible in my car, so I gave it to her. And man, the look on her face was unforgettable as she clung tightly to that Bible with tears in her eyes. We continued to have a very sweet time of prayer and conversation about God, and exchanged numbers to meet up again.
And although that is a testimony in and of itself, the story has just begun…
I had just gotten off of a 8 hour shift. I was tired, hungry, and all peopled-out. As I drooled over the thought of eating dinner and laying in bed, I drove past the same woman I had met a few weeks prior. She was holding a sign on the street, and I felt the Holy Spirit whisper “invite her to dinner”.
Y’all, my flesh and my spirit fought this one hard. Back and forth I went in my head thinking “okay, so there’s no condemnation in Christ”, but also “do I want to miss this opportunity??”. And it wasn’t until the Holy Spirit said “I am giving you an invitation, you can either accept or deny it.”, that I decided what I wanted to do. I drove back and told her to hop on in.
There we were, having deep conversation in a random dingy Pizza Hut. Not only did I get to hear some of her crazy stories, but I also got to open up about my own struggles. Being a believer, she spoke into them. I felt unjudged, understood. There wasn’t anything I could say that phased her. Want to see some raw, unfiltered faith? Talk to someone who’s from the streets and has seen it all.
Next, we went grocery shopping. The cool thing is that my pastor had blessed me with $100 a few days before, and guess where that money went to. Almost like God knows what he’s doing, huh? As we were leaving, a homeless man standing outside asked us for some cash. I could tell by the way that he talked and blessed us that he was a believer, so I suggested that we all pray. And that we did, interlocking hands for the whole world to see. This man’s story was also crazy, one to tell at another time, but I will say that he accepted Christ in prison, and later evangelized to his family.
The next morning God woke me up early, which was a bit annoying because I had gone to bed so late. The reason he had done that became evident when he placed the idea of inviting my friend to church in my head. She said yes, as long as she could make $55 for the motel she was staying in, and I assured her that God would take care of that. Well guess what, he did…a day’s worth of money in 20 minutes, plus extra.
Yea…that all happened. And the story will continue as my friend comes to church with me.
There is a lot I could say right now, but I’ll simply leave it at this…that day after work I could have kept driving. That morning after my long night, I could have kept sleeping.
But I would have missed being a piece in what God is doing.
