One morning over a year ago God provided a ministry opportunity at a local coffee shop. At the time I had been displaced from my home and in the throes of a very challenging and painful family situation. I was angry and financially wiped out. Feeling overwhelmed about the decisions I had made to this point and the consequences that it meant for my family I was broken and had cried out that morning for direction and mercy from the Lord. Just hours later I found myself in a conversation with a guy older than me who had moved to town weeks earlier and said he had come to the Lord a few years ago. In our first meeting when I asked why he moved here he said outright “I’m just looking to be discipled”. I was pretty taken back by this and knowing my current situation I was thinking that this guy needed someone older who had it more together and could invest the time and energy he needed. We traded contact information and I just went about my day trying to manage my emotions and pains the best I could.
I ran into him again and again that week at the same coffee shop so we ended up having a few more conversations that quickly turned to spiritual matters. From what he shared he had a solid understanding of the gospel but really wanted to know how to study the bible. He had a very likable personality and seemed to know a lot of people. I soon found out that he was basically homeless but was finding places to live with people in the area and attended a few different local churches trying to find work. In one of our conversations he shared that he really wanted to know God’s “purpose” for him so I felt led to asked if he wanted to start meeting regularly to talk about what the Bible said about it. He agreed and started going through the MIM purpose book. This began a great study and we quickly became good friends. As I learned more about this guy I discovered he was in orphanages most of his childhood, physically and sexually abused, struggled to get through high school, seen combat in the army, divorced, and penniless many times in his life. He felt worthless to God and everyone else while confessing that suicide had been on his mind many times recently yet resolved that it was not God’s will which I was grateful to hear.
As my family situation went from bad to worse my own suffering increased but I kept running into this guy and continued to meet with him sometimes 2-3 times per week. I found this really helped me focus on what God was doing rather than my own situation which was completely out of my control at this point. After a while I moved back closer to my family but we still kept in touch by phone. I’ll never forget doing a bible study over Skype with a light dimly on behind him (at the time he was living in a storage closet at the local movie theater). I helped out as I could but my finances were such that I had very little to give. At the start of the year he moved into town, found a local shelter, and started looking for work. We started meeting up regularly again for lunch or coffee and we got him a phone to help in his job search. I took him to retreats, bible studies and occasionally our local church service. He said he loved it all and felt that he was finally get fed the Word of God on a regular basis. He’s experience up to this point in some local churches were very light on the Word of God but heavy on the prosperity gospel. He was clearly starving spiritually and had been taught that since he was poor that he was “in willful sin”. This got us further into the Word about eternal reward and storing treasures in heaven not on earth – I could see that he was continually renewing his mind each time we met. I was always encouraged in our meetings to see the Word of God work in his life as I saw this neophyte in Christ grow in the knowledge of God right in front of me.
After staying his allotted time in the shelter he had to find another place to stay. I helped out as I could again but knew he needed a job and after much searching/prayer he finally found work at a local retail store. Like me and most men this guy was an isolator so it was good to see he had a job where he was around different people and not on his own. He made some good friendships at work and said for the first time in his life he finally enjoyed his job because he understood his purpose in Christ and could focus on relationships instead of just seeing it as meaningless work. He soon found a co-worker that rented him a room and it seemed he was really starting to get on his feet both spiritually and financially.
After a few weeks on the job we started talking about setting up a bank account, the need to budget and putting some savings away for possibly getting a used car and eventually a place of his own. We also discussed him working on his testimony and writing down his story which he soon started and called me one night crying saying he had begun writing and had written 6 pages in one sitting! Much of it were memories from his childhood buried away but he was now wrestling with where God was when he went through these traumatic events at such a young age knowing now how much God loves him. I stood amazed at what God was doing in this man’s life… it was so overwhelming to see that it was clear I was only watching God work in this man’s life and had nothing to contribute.
Recently I met with him for what may be the last time before I left for a week-long business conference and with our schedules we wouldn’t be able to meet up for a few weeks. The last time we met he told me that it would be our last time (he had tried leaving town a few times before) but I didn’t think much of it and encouraged him to call me so we can do a bible study over the phone and told him that we’d get back together soon. He never called so I called him every few days for a couple of weeks and I have yet to get a call back. The phone I had given him was now shut off so I decided to stop by his work to see if he at least still had his job. I found out from one of his co-workers that he called in and quit about the time of our last meeting…I drove home disheartened and confused. What happened?? After all this time looking for a job and both of us seeing God do great things in his life why did he just quit???
At first it seemed like all the time, energy, trips, phone calls, and countless coffees/lunches invested over the year had been thrown away in an instant. I felt the loss of a close friend and started to question what really happened yet as I prayed God helped me understand the bigger picture. While this man would tell others that I helped him out more than anyone else God had used him more to help me! Over this year my anger has been replaced by a peace I can’t explain, my family situation has improved, and I’m walking closer to God than I have ever before. Even my finances have increased and find myself now looking for more and more ways to give. God clearly provided this opportunity at a time in my life when I needed it most. I believe that this is what Matthew 6:33 teaches… that if we seek God’s kingdom first “all these things will be added” and submit that this includes the healing we need as well if we choose to focus less on ourselves and more on those in need before us (Isaiah 58:7-8).
I may never hear from this guy again but know I’ve experienced firsthand God work in a man with many reasons to have no hope in this world. I continue to pray that I’m just one of many that God will use in his life to encourage him before He takes him home. Our Lord can obviously use anyone he wishes in ministry and regardless of the decisions others make, if we’re willing to participate and are submitted over to Him, we’ll always benefit.
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