An Eye-Opening Experience

Ok, so I didn't really experience this myself, but my mom did! She told me all about it. As you all know, if you know my mom at all, she is very outgoing and LOVES to share the gospel, making an opportunity at of every circumstance.

A couple weeks ago she met a lady who went to our gym as she was leaving one of our long night workouts. She was actually sharing the gospel with a worker at the infamous 24-hour fitness, when she happened to meet Rosetta. Rosetta actually was a Buddhist and even though my mom did not think that she would accept the gospel, but rather think that it was crazy and blow her off, she still continued to share the gospel with Rosetta and Miki, the other worker at the gym. To my mom's complete surprise Rosetta was actually quite intrigued and asked my mother where she went to church. My mom went absolutely crazy and became immensely ecstatic, as you all know her when she is extremely excited about something. When my mom came back to the gym the following week, Rosetta informed her that she had tried to find the church, but was not able to. My mom was able to give her directions more in detail and agreed to meet her at the 10:30 service the following Sunday. Well, as all of you who go to East Valley Bible Church know, last week Neil Pitchel, one of the pastors at our church, reinacted a typical Seder dinner that the Jews would have had during Passover, like Jesus had the night before He was betrayed.

Unfortunately, when you do not come from a Christian background and have no information concerning the old Bible stories that are frequently told, Rosetta was oblivious when the topic of the Passover was brought up. The pastor talked about Egypt and how the firstborn son of every household was killed unless God found the blood of an unblemished lamb across the door of every house, therefore, the firstborn of every Egyptian perished. Since Rosetta was clueless about all this history behind the story, the only thing that she came out of the service saying was that, "We Buddhists are peaceful people and we do not kill people, like the firstborn child of every family." She was confused and she was unable to see past this fact. My mom tried to explain and shared the gospel again with her, but Rosetta's only response was that she would see my mom at the gym.

Last night (Monday) is the first night of the week that we go back to the gym. To my mom's complete surprise, Rosetta came up to her and said, "I have a quick question for you. When you took communion, I didn't take it because I didn't know what it was for. Why did you take it?" My mom had a chance to explain to her the importance of communion and how good it really was that she didn't take it because it was for believers. She then was able to go right into the gospel telling Rosetta that she needed a Savior just like all of us. She went on to explain that God created us and the world we live in and the sins that we think are secrets to everyone else, God knows completely and he knew about them before we were even born. She explained that whoever did not know Jesus as their personal Lord, Savior, and friend, was not at peace with God and she told her why Jesus came to die on the cross to save our sins. At this point, Rosetta was almost brought to tears by the words she was hearing and since she was leaving the gym she told my mom that she was going home to pray to Jesus.

Pray for Rosetta! Pray that God would work in her heart to draw her to himself! Rosetta also told my mom that she would be willing to come back to East Valley again! Praise God! My mom came in and said that she had just had one of the best chances in her entire Christian walk to lay the gospel out clearly and we all prayed together that Rosetta might come to know Jesus with a personal relationship. May the Lord do great and mighty things!

Also, although this experience was not near as close to sharing the gospel and the previous, I have another situation that needs prayer. I student teach every Tuesday and today I went in to help teach at Dobson Academy (a charter school on Dobson and Elliot). When I arrived, the kids were in Spanish class and they were all talking about what they were going to do for Easter. I was chosen to speak by one of my lovely students and so I told them how I was going to be singing 6 services at my church for Easter. All of a sudden, an ingenious idea popped into my head (definitely the work of the Holy Spirit). Wouldn't it be great if I could invite the main teacher of the class to the Easter services. I quickly called my dad and asked him for the service times since I had estimated times, but they were far from exact. My mom heard and when she came to pick us up, she had brought Easter service invitations. I quickly ran back to my room, wrote my phone number and the location of East Valley on the invitation, and finally what it was about. I held it up for the teacher to see, since she was teaching and mouthed, "This is for you". She smiled and nodded. Pray that she will be able to come and that she would hear the gospel. She is married and is about to have her first child, the beginning of her family. It would be amazing if God would do a work in her life to bring her to himself. Please be in prayer for her and that I might have an opportunity when I go back to share the gospel.