Late night story opportunities

James was one of the participants in a Bible storytelling seminar. During each seminar, participants are encouraged to use what they learned; to begin sharing the Good News about Jesus by telling stories. James found that hard. In the month after the seminar he only told one Bible story. Then he went to the USA to visit his daughter.

He wrote:
I had a couple of days here in the U.S. to see my daughter. We met up at for some bowling tonight, then a couple of games of pool. At 1am, I told my daughter I had to go (she kept playing pool with friends).
16th street was still buzzing with heaps of people around. When I left the bar, I ran into a fellow on the street who asked for a couple of dollars for his bus fare. I agreed to give him a dollar if he’d listen to a story. So I told him the story of the woman who spent an entire year’s wages on one man. I could tell he was captivated by the story.
What followed really blew me away. It turned out this guy had done a 4 month Bible course in recent years but he had fallen away from following the Lord. He told me: “What’s happening here right now is no accident. Earlier tonight I was in an alley, crying my heart out to the Lord. I know things aren’t right. I’ve let drinking pull me away from the Lord. But I know He’s speaking to me right now. And I’ve got to have a talk with Him.”
We ended up talking for quite a while. And it was clear to me that this was a God-moment. The guy was SO GRATEFUL that God had placed me there to speak His Word to him. He went to find a pen so that he could give me his email address, and begged me to correspond with him.

Just as I was leaving this man, another guy named wanted to talk and I ended up telling him the same story. And he knew it. And there we were at 1:30am on 16th street praising God for all His goodness. Then when I went to my daughter’s flat to drop a package, I met a third on the street, about 1:50am. He asked for a quarter, and I agreed to give him one if I could find one IF he’d listen to a story. He was really pleased to hear the story. Turns out he was raised Christian and his sister and children are believers but he was obviously feeling condemned, uncertain of salvation so we ended up having a real season of prayer right there on the street, claiming God’s promise of salvation.

Used with permission.