In response….

… to last week’s Sunday’s Coming, LaVon received an email from her cousin in Texas.  What a blessing and encouragement this was to us and we pray it will encourage you, as well.

LaVon,

As I was reading Don's message in Sunday's Coming this morning, it reminded me of a simple thing that happened to me about 20 years ago, but I will never forget it because it impressed on me the same message Don was telling us.

As a country girl that had never experienced a true 'big city' environment, when I had to leave this small town and go to work in downtown Dallas, it was more traumatizing than I expected (or showed to anybody else).  I would spend most of my lunchtimes eating my sandwich at Thanksgiving Square which, even though in the heart of downtown, was set in a small valley surrounded by waterfalls, grass & trees, birds chirping, and a chapel at one end.  It also had Bible verses carved into the high walls that surrounded the 'valley'.  The 'valley', walls, and waterfalls shut out all the sounds of the city traffic.  It gave me peace to be there.

On the days that weather or time constraints did not permit me to go there, I would sit in a corner of a small waiting area outside in the hall next to the elevators.  People would come and go, but didn't bother you.  What I haven't mentioned yet was that I almost always had my Bible with me and would read while I was there.  This was part of the peace I mentioned earlier.

Among the approximately 300-400 people that worked in the same area, I knew the people who worked in my immediate group, but few of the others.  One day I was sitting in my cubicle and a complete stranger came in.  She said, "Some of us were discussing something from the Bible and couldn't agree on it and we knew that you had your Bible with you and were wondering if you would mind if we borrowed it for a few minutes?"  Of course, I gave it to them.  After that, there were a couple of other times when people I didn't know would ask to borrow my Bible for a while.

The point is ... I felt alone, a stranger in a strange place, wondering why I had ended up having to come to that place.  I was so touched by the fact that complete strangers had thought about me, sought me out when they needed the word of God, by having simply seen me reading my Bible. 

Over the next ten years, I had other opportunities to witness to people who had life problems that were so much more difficult than anything I could imagine.  The saddest was a young man who came to talk to me because he couldn't talk to anyone else at work.  He was leaving to go back home to his family ... he was dying of AIDS.  I held his hands, we cried together, and we prayed together.  Maybe I made a difference in their lives, maybe I didn't.  But had I not been there, I like to think that there are some people that would have had a more difficult time in that part of their lives.

Don's message is so true .... you never know who you may touch, no matter how small or how much.  We are all a witness to others of what we believe, or don't believe.  And, when God puts you somewhere or in some situation that makes you wonder 'why?', if we put ourselves in His hands, we have nothing to fear.

God Bless You Both!

I love you,

Jan

[Printed with permission.  Thank you, Jan.  We love you.]