08.29.06
Rita
by Greg England
When we first moved to Long Beach, for about 2-3 years we hosted a small group Bible study in our home. Usually we would have 6-8 people involved (occasionally as many as a dozen) and always an empty chair for anyone God might send our way. Every 3 months we’d choose a ministry project to do as a group and it was just a good time all around. But we never filled the empty seat. It was one of those “Willow Creek” ideas that really sounds good and looks very spiritual in writing, but didn’t seem to play out in our experience as it must have done in other’s experience. Until ….
Between subjects in our study, we decided to have a meal one Wednesday night to discuss our future as a small group. We’d not “grown” in numbers, but we’d enjoyed some wonderful ministry projects and great bible discussions. And, the week before we gave as an assignment to pray that God would send someone to us who needed something we might provide as a means toward moving closer to God or moving into the kingdom. We left the prayer open-ended.
Wednesday evening came and only a few of the regulars showed up for the meal. About the time we sat down to eat, the doorbell rang. It was Rita. Only none of us knew Rita. Somehow she had heard that we held a Bible study on Wednesday evenings and wanted to know if she could join us! We invited her to eat with us, which she accepted, and for the next year she was a regular in our group and in our church family. Single mom going through a tough time in her life. She was hungry for the Word and became a friend in many ways. Then she stopped coming and we couldn’t track her down. Phone number was changed. No forwarding address. We lost touch with her for months.
Janice and I were in Ralph’s grocery store almost a year later when we ran into Rita! She’d had to move and felt bad about not letting us know anything … but she was worshipping with a church in her new location (a fairly good distance away from Long Beach) and as we “visited” there in the aisle of Ralph’s, she told us how much of a life saver the small group had been and how coming back to worshipping in her life had made a huge difference in herself and in her relationship as a mother.
In other words, God answered our prayers and Rita found her way back home to her Father.
Evangelism need not be difficult nor intimidating. If we’ll do the praying, God will do the providing.