“Return home and show the great things God has done for you..” So he went his way and told throughout the whole city the great things Jesus had done for him.”Luke 8:39
Week of July 1
Before setting out on my travels, I pray that God will allow at least one believer to cross my path. He has never disappointed me—the unexpected believing strangers are always there.
I have met believers in the middle of a desert in Idaho, on a tiny island called Salt Cay, in a sports shop in Vermont and at a coffee shop in San Francisco, to name a few. I have recently bought a small, purse-size blank book so I can have my “kisses” sign it, and I can look them up in the Book of Life when I get to heaven. I call it “God’s Guest List.”
The latest “kisses” occurred during a recent trip to Phoenix. As I stood on the sidewalk of the Phoenix airport waiting for a cab, I met an attractive African-American woman. She was on her way to a car rental place, and I asked her if she wanted to share a cab. “It’s not really on the way to your hotel,” she told me. “That’s OK,” I replied. “I don’t mind going out of my way.” The cab attendant started yelling at me when I joined this woman, since another cab had just pulled up. “I’m going with this woman, and you’re not going to tell me what to do,” I answered authoritatively.
During the ride, my new acquaintance confided she had no friends in Phoenix and that she was leaving her Congregational church friends and community in Chappaqua, New York. I remarked to her that God would bring her friends and suggested to pray for them—and find a church. We talked like old friends, and when she departed, I wouldn’t let her pay her fare, which intrigued our Somalian cab driver, considering I had just met her. I know he listened to our conversation and I hope that he saw Jesus Christ uniting us together. As I rode alone to my hotel, I knew then that my tenacity with the cab attendant was God-given. This woman needed encouragement!
Two days later, I sought relief for my muscles at the hotel spa. Many spas tend to embody the New Age philosophy, and this spa was no different.
“Lord,” I prayed, “protect me from this atmosphere.” I was ushered into a room and was assigned a masseuse, an older German woman with a face that looked like she had gone through many trials. She inquired why I was at the hotel.
“To learn about Jesus Christ and how to follow Him in our everyday walk,” I responded.
“I love Jesus, too,” she replied. I then learned she had recently moved to Phoenix after having been in a cult in Germany that pretended to be a Christian commune, but which had deceived her and taken all her money.
She asked me to write down the titles of Christian books that would help her, and I gladly gave her a long list—along with the verses of Philippians 3:12-13, which would encourage her to forget what was in the past and press on toward the goal of knowing Christ. She hugged and kissed me, and her weary face now blossomed with a smile. I left the spa feeling rejuvenated by the Holy Spirit.
Shopping, too, was invigorating. I went to a boutique to buy my aunt a birthday present, and within a few minutes, I found myself on the sidewalk talking with the owner and his wife. We discussed how the Lord was working in the country; the National Prayer Breakfast; their minister son; believers in Phoenix—and who knows what else. They were mature believers, and we had a wonderful time just enjoying each other.
But the trip was ending, and off to the airport I went with my family. As I walked past a sleeping shoeshine man, I noticed he had a Bible opened to John 11, so I woke him up. “Fred, would you give me a shoe shine, please?”
“Hop up,” he said. “So, how long have you been a believer?” I questioned. “’Bout forty years,” he replied. “Forty years? That’s a long time,”
“Forty years? Naw, that’s nothin’! Think of Moses in the wilderness. Why, it’s not even a twinkle in eternity.”
The way he said that brought laughter to my soul. My laughter made him laugh, and we had a grand time. After kidding me about my small feet, he promised to pray for me at his prayer meeting that night. I promised to do the same for him, wherever I happened to be.
I later looked up John 11 and read in verses 25 and 26: “I am the resurrection and the Life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe in Me?” Did Fred just happen to be reading John 11, or was he ready with words of life for any patron who would listen? Only God knows.
I find it amusing, thinking about the scurrying “travel agents” of God, arranging not only my itinerary, but the itinerary of other believers. Why would God do such a thing? To bless only me? He does that anyway, even when I’m home. Rather, the answer to “Why?” is so He can bless others.
I’m “paying it forward” to the readers of this article so that you, too, will be blessed and encouraged to look for lovers of Jesus wherever and whenever you travel. “Kisses” are waiting for your collection, and God’s guests are waiting for your acquaintance.
Sandra Ulbrich
Durham, Connecticut
