A Spanish tourist hears a new message

Every holiday I ask God for a divine appointment. This time several of my friends wrote beforehand to say, “We are praying for your divine appointment and can’t wait to hear about it!”

That inspired me to pray hard and expect God to prepare someone’s heart. As God had always my prayers for these divine appointments on previous holidays, I went on my boat trip with expectation.

We’d completed a day of snorkeling and the boat was headed back in. I sat at the back of the boat away from my friends – you are much more likely to get opportunities when you’re on your own – and a Spanish lady came and sat down. It only took two minutes of chit-chat to get to whether she was religious. Realising my first question was too broad (What does your religion mean to you?) I asked, “If this boat went down and we all died, what do you think would happen to you?”

“I have no idea. I hope I’d go to heaven.”

“How does one get to heaven?”

She didn’t know.

We had time to do the Adam and Eve story and then I explained the branch illustration, so that she was clear that humans have a big problem: we are estranged from God and have no power to do anything to end the estrangement. Then we talked a little about Jesus – who He was and His purpose in coming to earth. I prepared the way for the crucifixion story by explaining the Day of Atonement and then told her the Luke 23:32-47 story. We had time to discuss why the temple curtain tore in two pieces as Jesus died. Finally, I was able to summarise the good news by using the ‘Two Ways to Live‘ gospel outline.

“How come no one has ever told me this?” she said.