A surprising first response

I’d just moved to a new town.

One day it was pouring with rain and I’d forgotten my umbrella. So I sheltered under the last shop in the row and waited for the rain to stop.

It was a bicycle shop and the young boss asked me why I was living in their town (since Westerners were rare in this area). I explained that I was here telling stories.

“How long are you planning to stay?”

“My plan is to stay until I retire but if God asks me to move earlier then I will.”

“What? You mean you just follow God wherever and whenever he leads?”

“That reminds me of a story in the Bible.”

He was very willing to hear a short story as the rain meant no customers could come. So I told him some of the stories of Abraham.

At the end he burst out, “You are a descendant of Abraham because you are bringing his blessing to us in this town!”

Hearing those words I believed that God was telling me that this young man would become a believer. Each week after that I would go and tell a story to him while he fixed bikes. After a year of hearing stories and reading the Bible for himself he believed.

Five years later he is growing and learning to tell stories to others.