Ask, and it shall be given unto you - a story.

Wednesday, November 9, 2005

Yesterday was Tuesday, visitation day for our church. The Lord had laid it upon my heart to visit my friend Anna, a girl about my age who lives in Edinburgh near our church but goes to a very small Pentecostal church nearby with her family. I hadn't talked to her in a long time. Throughout the day I just asked God to fill me with His Spirit and give me wisdom and let me glorify Him in what I say to her. Mother said I should also visit Asha, a Muslim girl from Georgetown (the capital) who had come back from there and was staying with her aunt in Edinburgh. (I'd had a Bible study with her before.) I felt so helpless to accomplish anything, but God has never failed me, and I asked him to use me once again.

So my mother and I went to Edinburgh (the village of our church about 2 miles away from Glasgow, where we live) First we visited a lady who goes to our church, whose little son was very sick, with tonsilitis as we found out. She was sitting on a bench in her side porch, holding a piece of styrofoam. Mother talked with her while I kept quiet, watching three of their dogs tumble and walk around nearby. When we were about to leave, the lady said she'd tried to call us but our phone was busy. Mother asked, "Do you have our cell-phone number?"
"No"
"Do you have a piece of paper?"
"I can just write it on this" (the styrofoam)
"Um, I can't remember it, Alyssa?"
Aha! That's the whole providential reason I came along, to say "619-5682". Well God works out little things too.

[When we got back into the car, we were greeted by the pungent smell of ripe mangoes. Through the whole time, we couldn't figure out what it was coming from.]

Anyway, Mother took me to Nali's house/shop where Asha was. While I was with Asha, I asked her what she remembered from the last time, when we studied in Romans. She said, "The good and the bad". That's all she could remember. I reminded her that who is bad is us, and who is good is God. Then I sought to explain to her Isaiah 53 and the gospel, Jesus bearing our sins, our righteousness not sufficient - we must have His, which we get by believing in Him who will take our sins and be our righteousness. I don't know how much she understood, but she listened attentively. She is not a strong Muslim, and likes Christianity, that's why my mother got me onto her. But oh may God open her eyes to see and understand and believe.

Leaving that house, I walked down the street to remind Kelly that I was only coming for her reading lessons every other week now. She looked as if she had forgotten I wasn't coming and was ready for me and I felt reluctant not to stay, but I had a mission - Anna, so I told her to keep on studying.

I decided that I didn't want to walk on the busy main road to go to Anna's so I turned into the next street, where I learned a lesson - always look the whole way down a street before you enter it. There were 4 oil barrels forming a barricade to large vehicles at the head of the street and I walked around them. The side of the street was freshly laid with tar and gravel, so I stepped over that and walked on the little dirt strip on the far side. A hired car driver was trying to enter the road and was moving the barrels. A middle-aged man was standing in front of his house yelling at the man for messing with other people's property - I hurried on my way. As I walked I realized that men were still working on the road - oh no, workmen. I doubted that this white girl could get past them without some comments. I ignored one who said, "How are you this afternoon? - hey, you can't even give a 'good afternoon'?" Well I managed to get through the street without too many more comments and soon reached Anna's house. Her mother was there, but she was at church practicing worship dance and would soon be back. So we sat on the porch and talked. I love how easy it is to go to Guyanese people's houses and visit them. While we sat there, a girl who lived on the same street as the church passed on her bike, and Anna's mother hollered for her to tell Anna to come home because somebody was here for her. Anna's mother told me about Anna's being in the President's Youth Club program and how she had gotten the Silver Award for her walking expidition (A kind of 'scouts' program) She wants to go for the gold - walking from Lethem to Brazil!

When Anna came, we talked about that and I shared some verses with her. I asked her what her goal for her life was. She said, "In the church, I want to be a preacher and teach people God's word, and in my life I want to be an accountant." I knew that there church promotes women leadership. She had also told me that in her Bible she mostly reads the gospels and some of the beginning. Well, I showed her the passages in Timothy and I Cor. about women, that they should not speak in the church. She had NEVER heard those verses and it seemed they just blew her mind. Well I talked to her about that and later told her my testimony. God empowered me so much and gave me so much joy and freedom in speaking to her. When I left she said, "I feel so different." and I told her to think about and pray about the things I'd told her.

God never fails. He uses earthem vessels to display His glory. When I opened my Bible in the Psalms that night, I saw one verse, "When I called, you answered me; you made me bold and stout-hearted." Amen.