God is working here!

Well, I am writing this at 3:00am, though probably not posting this until my coffee shop is open. I don’t know if I’m going to sleep tonight…I don’t know if I can sleep tonight. I am just too excited, and too full of God’s Spirit and goodness to sleep. Maybe later His Spirit will work in me enough to get a couple hours.

Where to start, where to start. Yesterday, or I guess two days ago, our worship service went really well. We had about 35 people, the singing went well, the message about Jesus’ interaction with Nicodemus went well, it was just a really good service. One of the coolest parts was the prayer following the message. Besides getting to thank God for His work in our salvation, I took prayer requests from the audience, encouraging them to open up and let the diverse yet unified church support them. It was really cool to see people open up to their brothers and sisters in Christ and pray for each other even though they hadn’t necessarily met before. God bless the Church.

So, the service went well, but that wasn’t the best part. As two of us were in a back room of the dining facility at Mt. Rushmore packing our materials into the storage tub, one of our coworkers approached us and asked, “Are you guys Christians?” He is one of our coworkers from China, and was on shift in the main kitchen.

We kind of looked at each other, then down at our worship booklets, then at our five foot tall wooden cross, and I finally back at him and said “yes...?” in a questioning tone.

He got really excited and said, “I want to be a Christian!”

We didn’t even know what to say. We were pretty shocked but managed to tell him that we would love to meet with him and talk with him. He said, “Good, I really want to learn more about how to be Christian.” Then he went back to work with a huge smile on his face. Emily and I couldn’t believe it.

He and I finally got to meet tonight. After I got off work at 11, I went to his room and we talked for a couple of hours. He knew a little bit about Christianity from talking to some people when he visited other parts of the country, but was mostly interested in the peace they showed and the hope they had. I got to explain to him how we have that peace and hope in the midst of difficult times because of who our God is. I found myself falling more and more in love with God as I tried to convey who God is to him. I got to explain the basic story that stretches through the Bible of our Creation, Fall, failure to redeem ourselves, salvation through Christ and now our call to be like Christ and live by faith. He loves reading the Bible and had a lot of questions about how to be Christian.

My heart leaped as he asked, “So how do I become a Christian?” Before leading him in prayer I had to explain to him how to pray, and what praying meant. It was a very surreal experience to hear him repeat a prayer after me putting his faith in God and Christ as his Savior, and asking to be forgiven and for Christ to come into his life.

I was almost a little nervous that he didn’t quite know exactly what this act meant, but when we were done praying he was smiling so big and said, “I’ve never felt this peaceful before.” Then all my doubts were gone, I knew God was working in him and surrounding us in that moment.

We’re going to keep meeting regularly, he even said he wants to meet and read the Bible together daily if possible. He also said that someone else from China that he’s become good friends with here is also really interested in being a Christian. I was actually starting to get tired (it’s now 4:15am), but just got really excited again as I wrote that paragraph.

I hope you could follow this. I probably couldn’t even include half of what happened and what we talked about if I did stay up all night. As far as I’m concerned, this summer has been worth it. The time commitment, the difficulties here, the low minimum wage in South Dakota and the helpless feeling that comes with trying to reach some people completely pales in comparison to seeing God work in someone’s life, and watching them reach out for God. I don’t need anything else to happen, but I’m pretty sure God has a lot more in mind. I just love Him so much.

God is so wonderful, loving and at work right now. I challenge you to think of how you would explain God’s love to someone else; how He has acted throughout the Bible and through Jesus to save us, and how you have seen Him act in your own life. It’s powerful to reflect on. Thank you all for the continued support and prayer, it is obviously working! Thank God for His continued work here!