We are presently visiting with some friends with whom we were doing missionary work in Europe many years ago. They recently purchased a property in a small town in the central part of Texas, which they plan to turn into a missionary training center.
The town where their property is located is rather small, and by and by, we have been witnessing to most of the townspeople here.
A few nights ago there was a “grand opening” of the local gas station; and complete with a musical and stage for the event. We attended the festivities and spent the evening getting to know people and witnessing to as many as we could!
Unbeknownst to us, there was a raffle at the end, so we received our ticket numbers. The first number drawn was that of my friend’s wife. She received all the vegetables and a large turkey for a big family’s Thanksgiving dinner! She passed it all on to a family in need. The second number was received for Linda, my wife. She immediately told the band leader that she would forfeit her prize and to please choose another number. The prize was a beautiful 60 inch TV! A young mother who won the TV came to us jumping up and down, just so thankful that we had passed it on to her.
The next number drawn was mine! My prize was a full bag of groceries for about a week. I went to the manager of the event and asked him to find a family that would really appreciate all those groceries and we passed that on as well!
It was just so great to see how the Lord engineered us winning prizes and then giving them away. –That connected us to witnessing opportunities! At first people didn’t know that we were all together, the four of us, and they were most surprised and quite touched that people would do that.
They just thought that it was so awesome that those who won the prizes all chose to give them away. And it caused a wave of thanksgiving and appreciation in the crowd which facilitated even more witnessing!
Now get this, the lady who won the TV came to Linda to thank her and when she found out that we would be starting a “missionary training course” she said, “OMG, this is even better than the TV… I have been wanting to receive some training, to learn how to witness and to know more about Jesus! I want to be the first one, as soon as the course is available.”