Living the life that I do, on God's ship in different places of the world, I have wondered at times how He uses us as a ministry and actually how He uses or has used me for His plan. I try to be ready for Him (when I remember) to use me when and as He wants.. But I also never feel that He has told me specifically to speak to certain people. I generally just talk to anyone who wants to talk and try to be open and honest about my walk in life and God.
When we travel to the different ports, we hear so much about the fruit that the Doulos (the previous sister ship) has left. This is soooooo good to hear. But we rarely hear about stories that has happened right there and then. I know that this is OK. I trust that God is using us, as He wants, to further His kingdom. But the curious side of me has wondered at times how God has used me? The thing is, I know that He doesn't even need to use us...but for some reason, He does use us!
I was so encouraged by a message that a friend left for me on Facebook recently that I wanted to share it with you. This isn't just some random story from some random friend of a friend of a friend. This actually happened to a very good friend of mine. This is how God used her to further His kingdom. She isn't sharing it to be boastful, she shared this with me to encourage me, which is why I want to share it with you. I asked for her permission to share with you.
This is her story. It happened at the end of 2011 and she was volunteering at her local Hospice.
God is Faithful.
The volunteer who just finished her shift before mine suggested that I go and sit with Tom. Tom was 20 years old, he was in the hospice because his family decided to turn off the life support machine that he had been connected to after taking a drug overdose a week previously.
Tom was meant to die as soon as they turned off the machine. His family said goodbye to him.
However he began to breathe on his own; the doctors transferred him to the hospice where he could spend his last few hours before he died. Tom was medically brain dead; he showed no signs of brain activity and the doctors stated that he was unresponsive; therefore his family decided it best for him to die as they felt that he would not want to remain alive “as a vegetable”.
So… I went into Tom’s room. He looked like a regular 20 year old just lying on a bed sleeping. I began to talk to him and pray for him. He did not seem to respond. A siren started outside in the street and he immediately opened his eyes then closed them again. This I found strange, so I began to ask him to do things to show that he could hear me. I asked him to swallow, he did, I asked him to blink, he did. I told the nurses but they told me it was a coincidence and these were involuntary movements.
I moved Tom’s arm from being on his stomach onto the bed, I left the room and no one else entered and when I went back in his arm was back on his stomach. I told him that if he was able to move his body he needed to show me, I told him to move his arm back and put it back on the bed. Instead he lifted up his arm and held it in the air for several seconds. At this point I was convinced he could hear me. I told the nurses, however they kept saying “there’s nothing we can do, his family do not want to be contacted until he is dead, and we are unable to give him food or water as the doctors will not allow it.”
After 3 hours, I told Tom I needed to leave, immediately his eyes opened and he began to panic, breathing very quickly and heavily, with a look of fear on his face. I told him about the love of God and how he sent Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins, I told him he could talk to Jesus and Jesus would hear him.
Tom was dying, he was alone, his family did not wish to see him in this state. Tom was given no food or water and would eventually die of thirst and hunger.
After being at the hospice I visited some friends and told them about this unethical situation, my friend Andrew decided that he wanted to do something about this. Although patient information is confidential, I broke this confidentiality and told Andrew his name and which room he was in. The following morning Andrew went to the hospice to visit Tom.
Andrew entered his room and a really small old woman walked in behind him. She reached up and grabbed his hand and said, “ohhhh I am so thankful you have come to visit!”
She then walked to Tom’s bedside, grabbed his face with two hands and said, “Tom! You are so beautiful and handsome! Your friend is here to see you!” Then she turned to Andrew again and said, “We have been praying for God’s mercy. Thank you so much for coming”. Then she left.
Andrew pulled up a chair and sat down beside Tom. His eyes were wide open and staring straight into Andrew’s. Andrew described feeling intimidated.
He introduced himself, “Ummmm…. I’m Andrew – you don’t know me obviously. Nope I’m not an angel if that’s what you’re thinking.” (He was trying to break the ice with someone who couldn’t speak).
Andrew shared who he was and why he was there – To tell him about Jesus.
Andrew wanted to know if he could hear/respond to him, so he started with the one blink/two blink method. He explained to him 1 blink = no and 2 blinks = yes.
“Are you Tom?” – 2 blinks.
He played a song on his phone “Do you like this song?” – 2 blinks.
He changed the song “Do you like this song?” – 1 blink.
It seemed like every time Andrew would ask him something; he would have an internal struggle to communicate back. He would ask if he could squeeze his hand and Tom wouldn’t be able to do it, but Andrew could see his neck muscles tightening and twisting as he fought to do it.
Andrew grabbed his hand and started massaging it. It was burning hot.
Andrew said, “Well Tom, I’m here to tell you there is a God who absolutely loves you and is here with us now. I’m not sure if you’ve ever read or heard anything about the bible, but I’m going to read some chapters to you and tell you about Jesus. To be honest you don’t really have a choice – sorry about that…”
Andrew started reading from the bible Ephesians 2:1, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins….” Andrew paused and thought…“maybe this is a bad idea. Oh well – keep reading.”
He read to Tom that, “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not works, so that no one can boast (Eph 2:8)”
He then skipped to the end of Matthew and read about Jesus on the cross. He spent time explaining the Old Testament, how people used to make sacrifices as payment to God for their sins – but then he sent His son Jesus to be final sacrifice for all sins. He explained the story of Phillip and the Ethiopian – where the Ethiopian couldn’t understand the book of Isaiah until Phillip explained it to him. Andrew knew he wasn’t just supposed to just read the bible to Tom, but was suppose to explain it to him. Andrew felt totally empowered by the Holy Spirit at this moment and felt a wealth of wisdom in explaining scripture.
Andrew asked Tom, “Do you want me to keep reading?”
2 blinks.
“Ok”.
Eventually He was done reading the book of Matthew closed his bible and said, “Ok bro, it’s decision time.”
“Just like the man who was crucified on the cross next to Jesus, you can make a decision in your final moments of life to believe in Him. So what do you say? Do you want to accept Jesus as the final payment of your sins?”
2 blinks.
“Um, I’m not sure if that was a ‘yes’ or whether you just maybe had something in your eye so I’ll ask again, do you want to put your faith in Jesus as the final payment of your sins?”
2 blinks.
“Ok. The bible says if you confess with your tongue and believe in your heart, then you will be saved – but to be honest I don’t think God is too worried about your tongue right now….so maybe just pray in your heart and tell Jesus you believe.”
The second Andrew finished the sentence, a nurse walked in and said, “I just need to give him something to make him feel better.”
She put a needle in his arm and he instantly fell asleep.
Andrew picked up his coat and headed out, praising God that he had just witnessed Him save this young man from eternity in hell.
Tom died a few days later and now he is with Jesus - His saviour who he had met a few days before dying. The intensity of the love of God for mankind is overwhelming and his mercy and desire to save the lost is beyond comprehension.
Tom gave his life to Jesus at 12.45pm, Andrew’s wife and I spent the previous hour interceding for his soul. At the same time he gave his life to Jesus we felt the burden of prayer lifted and only afterwards found out that it was at this same time that he was saved.
God’s plan and mercy continued…. A week later I was invited to a Gideon’s dinner (the bible people) at someones house. After the meal the official Gideons went round testifying of what God had done as a result of them handing out bibles. Many of the Gideons were 70+; there was a younger Indonesian man (40 ish) who had recently become a Gideon. When it was his turn to talk, he started by saying, “I do not have a testimony yet of God doing anything with the bibles I handed out, however I am excited for when God will use me”. Just as it appeared that he was finished, he added, “Around 3 weeks ago I gave a bible to my 20 year old neighbour, we talked a little bit about God and he seemed somewhat open to God, however a week after giving him the bible he overdosed on some drugs and died.” He said that this has been troubling him for sometime. As I was hearing this I began to cry, knowing that this was the same guy that gave his life to Jesus before he died. I discreetly asked the Indonesian man to come out of the room that we were all sat in, and then had the privilege of telling him that Tom had given his life to Jesus before he died. The Indonesian man cried, and was speechless. He did not know what else to do other than praise God.
The word of God does not return void, and God waters the seeds that we sow, we need only to be obedient and God is faithful and He will do the rest.
This situation was a massive injustice with Tom dying, and what satan meant for bad in having him die, God had the final say and saved his soul for eternity.
This has blown my mind with the intensity of God’s love, faithfulness and mercy. He hears our prayers and answers; this is for sure, and he works in ways that we may not know or understand until Heaven.
I look forward to meeting Tom again in Heaven, where we will marvel at the amazing love and mercy of our Saviour.
Wow.
Be encouraged and see how God is working. We might not always see the fruit of our work but rest assured that He is working and sometimes He even uses us!
