DAY TWENTY ONE - IMPACT

Do you remember a time where you have impacted someone else's life?

For many years I served in a mission organisation (YWAM) whose soul purpose was to know God and make Him known. There were many missions and many ministry opportunities to share God's love with others. There were people who were great at sharing their faith too- people who could naturally talk to anyone. I often admired people who could easily do this - have a conversation with someone about God and not be having a hernia about it.

As a full time missionary there was some sort of expectation that I was great at sharing my faith and bringing people to Jesus. Although I have no desire to be shoving the gospel down people's throats, (especially people who don't want to hear it) following God is the single most "life changing" experience of my life. When something like that happens to you, and everything you do revolves around it, it's hard not to share it. Of course we are supposed to be bold and be shining lights, and I think that's important. But in today's world it is so hard to get people to listen, especially when so many people take such a strong stance against God.

I often struggled when I was serving in YWAM and I'd be speaking at a church somewhere and they would ask me - "As a missionary, how many people have you won over to Christ?" I absolutely hated that question. It made me feel that the work I was doing was only successful if people were becoming Christians. It also made me think how bad I must be at communicating what I do. Success for me lay in choosing to say yes to God everyday. Whatever He asked. Some days I failed. And some days I got it right. And it's in these times that I began to see God use me to impact others.

I met a man. I'll call him Frank for the sake of this story. One day while I was working with a YWAM team at rescue mission church in the downtown Eastside of Vancouver, Frank says to me. "Do you remember the first time we met?" I closed my eyes and tried to think back but couldn't pinpoint the time.

He said, "You were on a team with about 5 other people, and you had come to serve at a drop-in-centre downtown. One of the things your team was asked to do (outside of serving food, and cleaning) was to run a short service before everyone could eat. Your team did some sort of drama thing, and someone shared about a scripture. But at the end, you got up and sang. And all of a sudden every word you said, and every note you sang dropped right into my ear. I was in a particularly bad place in my life at the time - living on the street and addicted to drugs, but your song it somehow gave me hope and peace, and I just knew there must be something more. You were like an angel with a message. I had to come meet you. So afterwards I made my way over to you to tell you I liked your singing."

When Frank told me this story I began to cry, "Thanks for telling me this Frank. I was beginning to wonder if any of the ministry I was doing here in Vancouver was having any sort of impact at all."

He then told me that he sees that day as the beginning or starting blocks of his long road back to God. He began to return to the mission in hopes that I'd be back to sing. When I didn't come back for awhile, he began to ask the workers a lot of questions about who God was. And then one day a miracle happened. A space opened up at the rehab centre and he was able to enrol. He became clean, about the same time he became a Christian. A few years later and he got a job serving in the rescue mission/church we were sitting at - helping to pastor this church - and praying for and loving the poor.

He then told me, "I am where I am today, because of how you sang that day." And I responded, "No, you are where you are today, because of God's grace, and your determination. I'm only thankful I got to be a part of your journey"

How amazing to think that this one small act became the turning point for this man's life. I thanked God for the opportunity He had given me, and thanked Him too for all the other people who had been placed in this man's life. It made me wonder what kind of things God was up too all the time without me even knowing it. I guess that's why it's so important that I am obedient to His will every day - even if I don't know why... I'll never know what kind of impact I might make!

*you may need to click on the picture below to be able to read it...