Slice of Laodicea

There are so many today who sneer at a straightforward presentation of the Gospel. We are to hold the hands of the unsaved, they say. We are to find common ground with them, We are to share the Bible as narrative, not as God’s authoritative Word. We need to use the pop culture, i.e. rock songs, movies and TV shows, to make a connection with the lost. That is how the thinking goes in our sad times.

Last night at 9:15pm, my husband and I had just said good-bye to a houseful of guests, and I was in recovery mode from all the wonderful excitement that had filled our home. I sat down, exhausted, and the phone next to me rang. There was a woman on the other end of the line with an Asian accent.

“I’m looking for Ingrid,” she said.

“Yes,” I replied, thinking that telemarketers had stooped to a new low by calling on Christmas Day.

“I’m sure you remember me, this is Joo Ming in Singapore!”

Twenty years. The last time I had seen her and talked with her was 20 years ago,  Christmas, 1988. Our relationship began eight years before that when I was 14. I had learned about an organization that connected girls in America with pen pals in other parts of the world. Eager to start to make some interesting friends, I soon had pen pals in England, Greece and Malaysia, where the group had connected with me a girl of the same age named Joo Ming. She was Chinese, but her family had moved to Malaysia. What I didn’t realize at the time was how God would use that relationship to further His Kingdom.

In 1988, after 8 years of writing back and forth, Joo Ming wrote to tell me she was coming to America. She was on her way to Canada to a University, and wanted to know if she could spend three days with me. She arrived and it was exciting to at last meet the spunky, funny and charming girl I had written to for so long. Because I had two small children to care for at the time, my parents invited Joo Ming over to their home nearby for meals to help lift the load. They enjoyed getting to know her as well. I didn’t know that the contact my friend had with my parents would change her life.

Last night on the phone we chatted about our personal lives and then she asked, “How are your parents? Are they still involved in that work they were doing in Christian radio?”

I told her they were and then, not knowing her beliefs, I said, “The world is in desperate need of the Gospel.”

“I know,” she answered. “It’s because of your parents that I accepted Christ as my Savior!”

I nearly fell out of my chair. I knew that she was from a Buddhist background from when I had written to her all those years ago.

“Your father, ” she continued, “talked to me one day when I was at your parents’ home. He drew the word sin on a piece of paper, and he showed how the blood of Jesus, shed on the cross, covers our sin. All my life I had wrestled with how it was that sin could just be no more. I had had contact with Christians in Malaysia and they would talk about sin and God’s forgiveness. How could sin be taken away from us, just like that? As a Buddhist I could not explain that. Your dad drew a cross and told me about how Jesus Christ paid the price for those sins and covered them with His blood. It was like a light switch went on in my head that day.”

I listened, amazed, as she continued.

“Then your mother took me out to lunch, I even remember what we ate that day, and she answered more questions, like how it was that good people, including my family, could still be lost and going to hell. More answers finally became clear to me. That short, three-day visit to Milwaukee, is the reason I know Christ! Ingrid, God chose me to be your pen pal, I can see that looking back. After I left Milwaukee and went to Canada, God continued to place Christians in my life who taught me more and more.”

Joo Ming now lives in Singapore, and she is letting her light shine there on the other side of the world. I tell you this not to boast in anything my family accomplished, but in the power of simply sharing, as Mom and Dad did, the message of the Gospel—that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and that each and every one of us deserves hell. But God, in His compassion, sent His only Son to pay the penalty for our sins and that we, through faith, can be right with Him.

I felt something else last night as my friend spoke on the phone. I felt a longing and sadness that I myself hadn’t been a stronger witness. Overwhelmed at the time as a young mother and hostess, I was consumed with the details of what our guest would eat and where she would sleep and how we could entertain her while she was our visitor. My parents cut right to the heart of things and were able to see to my friend’s deepest need.

Friends, don’t ever doubt the potential of those moments spent with someone who is without Christ. God uses our humble efforts to bring new souls into His Kingdom. All praise and glory goes to His name. I wanted to share this Christmas gift our family received last night. Praise the Lord.