Wow…. Just wow….. God is soo Good. I just want to tell you all a
powerful testimony that happened to me yesterday! It was crazy!!!!!!! We serve
an amazing God!
Well the story starts two weeks ago. A
couple of us AFCOE-Europe students go jogging in the morning a couple of Miles,
and while we go we try to learn some memory verses while we run. - (It
will make sense why I am saying this later.)
Then this last weekend we were at a Youth Congress called Youth in
Mission. And while we were there they fed us some food, and there was extras
every day. (apples, granola bars, jam packets, ect.) And every day Anna &
Natalie (Two sisters here at AFCOE) took some of these extras just because they
thought they might need the or something. But they didn’t really eat any of the
food that they took. So we come to the end of the congress and they realized
that they had a lot of food saved up from the different days! They had a bunch
of apples, and bars, and jam, and they didn’t know what to do with it all! - (Again this will all make sense later, as
to why I am telling you this.)
Ok so now we fast forward to yesterday. Yesterday we had classes and the
for the last session we went outside into the garden. It was so nice and warm
and sunny! Anyways it was a good class. But afterwards because of the sun
Natalie was feeling itchy on her arms. So for outreach in the afternoon we went
to the business district in the city instead of going door-to-door in our usual
specified area, so that we could get her something to put on her arms. So we
started walking to the Apotheka (Pharmacy) and we tried to give surveys along
the way. (I found out afterwards that Natalie was really praying that God would
use this issue of being itchy to somehow reach someone on Outreach)
Anyways, we weren’t finding many people who were interested or had time
to take the survey, and we couldn’t even find people who would take GLOW tracts.
But we were still joyful, and the sun was still shining, and we got the creme
for Natalie’s arms. Then we started to head back to the AFCOE-Europe Center and
continued searching for people who we could talk with.
We met one guy who spoke German and some English who talked to us for a
bit, and he was interested in possibly attending the English classes we will be
holding on a weekly basis.
-Side note, Natalie and I were planning
on having a shorter outreach yesterday than usual because I was going to be
having the short devotional thought for prayer meeting in the evening. (God had
other plans.)-
So, after talking with that one man we started walking through this
small park that is near the train station. And I’m letting Natalie see who we should
speak to. (Because she is usually the one who starts off since she speaks
German) And we walk by a lot of people who are just sitting on benches enjoying
the wonderful weather. (she did give one glow tract to a man) But then she was
impressed to talk to these guys that were sitting on one of the benches. And
she starts in German, but they didn’t speak German, so she asked if they spoke
English, and they did! I then proceeded to give them the survey in English.
As I was doing the survey I got into a conversation with one of the
three men and found out that they were from Italy. (we found out later that
they were Romanians who were living in Italy) But these three men were here in
Germany looking for work, and they had been here for three weeks, and couldn’t
find anything. We also found out that they didn’t have any money and they were
going to spend the night sleeping in the park. One of the guys had just gotten
there when we did with a small loaf of bread and a liter of Coke, and we
figured that was all the food they had.
Then Natalie blurted out, “We can bring you three sleeping bags!” And
unfortunately the first thought that went through my mind was, “WHAT?!?! How do
we know that these guys aren’t lying to us?” But immediately afterwards I
realized that those were not thoughts that Jesus would have thought. So we told
them that we would bring them the sleeping bags in about 20 minutes, and took
off. But actually before we left one of the guys (whose name was Mario), said
that when we came back he would have a question for me about God. I said, “ok.”
(Oh he also mentioned something to us about how he knew some Adventists back in
Italy)
It felt like only two minutes and we were back at the AFCOE-Europe
Center rushing to find the sleeping bags. Also on the way back Natalie and I
both thought of the apples, bars and jam from Youth in Mission. So we collected
those too, along with some bread and plates, to bring to these guys.
But we don’t own the sleeping bags, they belong to AFCOE-Europe, so we
had to call our director and ask if we could loan them to these guys for the
time that they will be here. So Natalie called him, and he was kind of
skeptical at first (who wouldn’t be) but he agreed to let us bring them to
these men. We only had to get their contact information.
So we gathered up the food and the bags and were heading out the door,
when our Director Reed called again. He talked to Natalie again and said that
he had just run into two of the AFCOE students from last year (a husband and
wife). And one of these Bible workers spoke Italian! So Reed said that he would
bring them and meet us in the park with these men.
Again Natalie and I headed out the door, we prayed outside, and then
hurriedly headed back to the park. On the way we met Goran (another
AFCOE-Europe student from Serbia) coming back from outreach, who also speaks
Italian, and we invited him to come along and meet these men. So he went with
us.
So, we make it back to the park and Goran starts talking to the men in
Italian, which was really good because one of the men only spoke Italian. The
men also greatly appreciated the food that we brought. Then after they talked
for a bit I asked Mario what his question was. He said that he had many
questions, and that he had been baptized or almost baptized (I’m not sure) into
an Adventist church like 15 years ago. But there was one question that was
bothering him the most at the moment, and that was, “Why, if God is such a good
God, then why are there bad things in this world, and why am I having to go
through such trials now in my life?” (I’m just paraphrasing because I don’t
remember his exact words.)
Now the amazing thing is that Natalie sent up a prayer that I would know
exactly where to turn in the Bible, and “BOOM!” God showed me where to turn! I
had been studying a chapter on Christ Object Lessons on the sowing of the wheat
and tares, and studying the same story in the Bible. And this story fit
perfectly with what this man was asking, so I felt impressed to turn to the
story in Matthew 13.
I read him the parable of the tares and he understood what it was
talking about, but He still wanted to know if God was with him and why He was
allowing him to go through these struggles. So I explained to him that the rain
falls upon the just and the unjust. And then God brought to my mind to read to
him Psalm 27:14. (This was a verse that we memorized while running, that’s why
I mentioned it before. So I turned there as I was talking to Mario, and
mentally argued with the Holy Spirit and was like, “Are you sure God???” And I
tried to find another verse, or think of another verse that fit in this
situation, but it was like my mind went totally blank except for this verse. So
I read it to him, “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall
strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.”
Mario said that verse was exactly what he needed. And he said that He
was so discouraged about his situation, but he knew that God had sent us to
him.
During this time our director and his wife, and the couple with the lady
who speaks Italian showed up and started talking with the two other men. We
found out that they were actually Romanians that had been living in Italy and
that they had been tricked into coming to Germany to look for jobs. So we left
them the sleeping bags and the food and headed back to the AFCOE-House. As we
were going back Goran said something to me that really got me thinking. He said
something to the effect that it probably quite amazing to these men that we
trusted them. I mean you see someone on the street and you don’t know why they
are there, or if they are being truthful. But I think that sometimes you need
to trust people, (to a certain extent of course) especially if the Holy Spirit
is leading you. Trust is one thing in this world that is lacking. And sometimes
we may need to show someone love and trust them to give them food or bedding,
even if they may abuse that trust later on.
But God is just so amazing! He just works
everything together for good!
