By Patrick Bradaway
One day while doing mission work in New Zealand, we had a teaching on evangelism, sort of like a motivational talk to get us pumped to meet the people around our community. So I got on my walking shoes and went to the first place I had in mind–the park.
At the park sits almost everyday anywhere between 2 and 10 Muslim men who sit there during the day and just talk. I was excited to walk right up to them and share my faith and test theirs and convert souls. As I was walking up to the park I could see about t 10of them sitting around (in my head this is what I wanted), but as it turns out I wasn’t ready. I got scared and walked the other way.
Needless to say, I was a little disappointed in myself, so I walked around and found myself at the corner store buying a cola. As I walked out, I saw an older man sitting on a brick wall that sat about two feet high. This man must have been in his 80’s and was sitting all by himself.
So, I walked over, shrugging off my previous try to save a soul, and just sat by him. I soon found out he didn’t speak any English, so I thought to myself: “Great, now what am i going to do?!”
Just then, a little girl on a bike rode up to me and my new non-English-speaking friend and started to talk. She was about 10 years old but could speak Both English and Indian. It wasn’t long before we were both talking to each other, and to the young girl as well.
After a while, I turned to the young girl and asked her what she was doing today; she began telling me the story of how she was staying with her grandmother because her younger brother was in the hospital with cancer and that’s where her mother was, never saying a word about her father. I, knowing full well that I was sitting between two Muslims decided to take a chance and ask if I could pray for her in the name of my Lord, and to my suprise, she said “Yes, please.”
So, she sat down next to me, and I prayed with her, telling her that God’s will is perfect and that her brother must be very strong if God is testing him with something so hard. After I prayed with her, she got up, thanked me and left. Now here, I was stuck with the old man who didn’t speak English, and I didn’t speak any Indian. He was just sitting there, enjoying the day, I sat there for about 10 minutes, then gave him my drink and said “bye bye,” and as I was leaving, I heard in this quiet voice behind me: “Good bye.”
Sometimes we don’t always know what God’s will is, but we will always know it’s perfect for our lives.
Patrick is a 22 year-old college student who lives in the great mission field of Flint MI, the third most dangerous city in America. His heart is bent on seeing the Father work wonders on the patients in the hospital that he works at and the people on the streets of Flint. He helps leads a small group of believers who are not afraid to get dirty for the gospel.