KONA, Hawaii — It is awe-inspiring to witness how quickly God can turn a wandering soul into someone with new hope and direction. I pray that I’ve witnessed that kind of turnaround this month.
I set out on the morning of April 25 looking for people with whom to share the truth concerning Jesus Christ. I start out every conversation with this simple phrase: “Excuse me, I just wanted to tell you that Jesus loves you and died for you so that you could spend eternity with him” (this has proved to be an extremely effective tactic for starting Gospel conversations, by the way). On this particular morning I was crossing the street walking toward a peer off of the Pacific Ocean on Ali’i Drive here. In addition to tourists, this street is heavily traveled by Hippies and New Age practitioners (and Youth With A Mission volunteers).
As I began making my way across the street, I noticed a long-haired, bearded man who I later found out answered to the nickname “Castle.” He had been trying to flow into the New Age way of life, but it turned out he grew up in a Christian home. He had committed his life to Christ as a child, but somewhere along the way became disillusioned with the Church. He moved to Hawaii less than a year prior to our meeting, in search of a new beginning — and a more fulfilling spiritual existence.
My hope was to convince him that the only healthy spirituality is found in relationship with Jesus Christ. I shared a bit of my testimony about God’s love and faithfulness — basically His realness — in my life. Castle was intrigued, but would not yet affirm the supremacy of Christ. I invited him to my church, but he said he wouldn’t come with me unless God showed him a sign. I didn’t see him at church a few mornings later, so I assumed nothing major had developed in his life over the weekend.
I ran into him again four days later — on a Tuesday — and it turned out, God had done a great deal in Castle’s life since our first meeting. He decided to start going to a home church run by Youth With A Mission (YWAM) volunteers (YWAM is the ministry that I work with). He had also seen God providentially provide food for him after he prayed. Apparently, it was the most food he’d been able to eat in months. I told him that God had been faithful in answering that part of the “Lord’s Prayer” in his life: “Give us this day our daily bread.”
The next morning, we bumped into each other as I was going out again to find people to talk to about Jesus. I invited him onto the YWAM campus — where I live — for breakfast. As we ate, he told me that he would be flying back to his home state of Virginia in about three weeks. God had provided a plane ticket back home through a Christian friend. It’s something he had been hoping for since the early stages of his failed lifestyle change in Kona. At the end of our time together, I told him about YWAM’s discipleship schools. The schools are designed to help people understand God’s character and nature, then give them the tools necessary to be effective communicators of the Gospel. He didn’t seem too interested at the time I hinted at the idea of his become a discipleship-school student and, on that note, we parted company.
Only a few hours later, we bumped into each other again (Kona is a small town) and he said “You know, I’m intrigued by this whole …what was the name of that school again?” I reminded him. He responded “People have been telling me for a long time that I should be a preacher. What if that’s God’s calling on my life — the thing that’s going to give me the most joy?” I simply said “Maybe it is.”
So Castle is centering his life on Christ right now. It would be easy for me to pretend that I could somehow take credit for what’s been happening in his life, but I didn’t do anything! If this is a genuine turnaround in Castle’s life, it’s only through the Truth of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit that such a drastic change is possible. Join me in praying that Castle remains on the “Gospel speedway.”
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