New Zealand bus

I got onto a crowded bus in New Zealand. The only vacant seat was next to a young guy. I groaned inwardly as I thought that after 4 years living in Taiwan that someone like this would be the hardest for me to connect with. However, I quickly reprimanded myself inwardly for this pre-judgement. I had been praying for two days that God would give me a storying opportunity and that it would be very obvious that He’d prepared the way. In faith, I opened my mouth and greeted him. He replied and so we quickly moved on general questions about who he was and what he did. He was 19 and had joined the army as that was the fastest and most cost effective way to get his truck license. Then he planned to resign and join his father’s trucking business. With every word he said, I was thinking, “We have nothing in common! This can’t be who God has for me to talk to.”

Suddenly he asked me, “What do you do?”

To answer this question simply by saying “Missionary” is a total disaster in the New Zealand context. The word is regarded totally negatively. So I normally give them a clue or two (live and work in Taiwan and speak Chinese) and let them try to guess. He was totally unable to guess even when I gave him follow-up clues like, “I have the pleasure of seeing lives totally transformed,” or “I teach the world’s best selling book,” or “This book is really 66 smaller books and was written over at least 1000 years.”

However, when I said, “I tell Bible stories and answer questions that people have about hard things in life,” he suddenly woke up. He said, “Two nights ago I had a dream and woke up knowing that I had to read the Bible but didn’t know where to start!”

I needed no more hints from God! We only had 30 minutes until I was getting off the bus. I told the Genesis 1-3 stories and then used a 6-picture outline to summarize the rest of the story. I explained how the Bible works (two testaments, chapters, verses) and wrote down my suggestions for him to get started reading it.

We then only had time to say goodbye and both went joyfully on our way. His last words to me were, “God sent you to me today.”

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