"Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not..." 2 Timothy 4:2Art and Eleanore make themselves available to Internationals at several college/universities in their retirement years. I'll let Art explain what happened as they were going about an urgent errand.
"Emergencies are never planned--they just appear. But our response to the emergency is a measure of our commitment and faith, recognizing that these emergencies are no surprise to God, in fact they are often divine appointments.
My wife was having a medical emergency which necessitated a late evening visit to the hospital. After the initial treatment we were required
to get some medication. We located a drugstore that remained open after midnight. There were
two young men from a limited access country waiting to have a prescription
filled. I asked them what language they
were speaking and they said Arabic. I greeted them in Arabic and asked them if they had a Bible. They said they
did, but probably they meant the Qur'an. I went to the car and got a bilingual
copy of More than a Carpenter and another book. We discussed the meaning of the title, that
Jesus, although his earthly father was a carpenter, He himself was more than a
carpenter. He claimed to be the Son of
God. When one of the fellows said “I
don’t believe that” I replied “You don’t have to but it is true”. My wife gave each one of her cards
that has her painting on the front and personal testimony on the
back with our contact email. They had to leave, but as they were leaving, they
joyfully said goodbye and thanked us for the books and cards.
Why the medical emergency? Why that particular drugstore at midnight? Why the encounter with those two muslim men? Those are questions that I can't answer- our responsibility was to show up, speak up and be ready.
One year the Christian university had 95 students from an Arab
country. The challenge for us was
finding a way of connecting with them. A
few words of Arabic greeting broke the ice and opened the initial dialogue.
Since they were all taking ESL it made total sense to have a bilingual New
Testament and also other bilingual books to give to them. That year we gave out close to 100 Arabic New Testaments and other books. All those students were given an opportunity to
explore truth. One student was very
close to becoming a believer, but in the last 'in depth' conversation he
expressed his concern about the consequences of that decision. Another student has rejected Islam and accepted reason and is not willing to submit to Christ.
So our ministry continues. Each time we go on campus we ask God for
divine appointments. Our responsibility is to Show up, boldly Speak up and be
Ready with materials to give them. The
rest is up to God, who works in their lives by the Holy Spirit to convict,
bring to repentance and regeneration."Dear Jesus, thank you for leading Art and Eleanore to just the right place at the right time to meet the Arabic speakers. I pray that you would continue to speak to these contacts that now have your word and heard a testimony. Amen
