Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Praise, Prayer Request, and what God's taught me--all in one . . .

Has your pastor or youth pastor ever asked you to share a praise, prayer request, or something God has taught you? Mine does--often. Sometimes it is hard to come up with one (well, not the prayer request, we seem to always have those). But this past Saturday (yeah, I know it's Wednesday, I haven't had time to get on my computer much lately), I got all three in one day--and they were all related to each other.
so first, the praise. The 8 hours I spent at work at Tim Hortons got really stressful. I don't tend to get stressed out very often. I serve one customer at a time and just roll with the punches. But today had been really busy--it was the Atlantic National Car Show, and we were short staffed. Which is bad, because we had only 4 people serving more people than we served on concert day. We got another person in eventually, but for several hours we were short-staffed. So, I was feeling run off my feet, my head was pounding, and I was ready to go home. And it was only 9:00. I was off at 3. So I saw this couple come in and stand at the back of the line. As I watched them (from what seemed to be miles away), I noticed something different about them. She was in a skirt and modest top. He was in a full suit (tie included). They were waiting patiently in line--not rolling their eyes and making disgusted faces at the long wait. Who wears a suit and tie in 35 degree (95 degree Fahrenheit) weather? The only answer I could come up with was a pastor. Sure enough, when they finally got to the front of the line, they weren't complaining about how long they were waiting. They were patient and polite. After they paid me, they give me a tip and a tract. Yes! They gave me a tract. I have never, in my 6 years of food service, been giving a tract. I didn't tell them I was a Christian too, because by the time I looked away from the tract, they were headed towards the door. It was a pastor and his wife from Newfoundland. That was such a blessing for me. God used them to remind me that I wasn't alone and wasting my time. There are other Christians around. The rest of the day went better because of their desire to reach people for Jesus Christ.
So that's my praise--and what God taught me. I have worked food service for 6 years and that was the first tract I ever got. I serve an average of 1000 people a day. So if I work 200 days a year (average), that's 200,000 people a year. Multiply that by 6 and you get a staggering amount of people. A lot of those are regulars, who I know are NOT Christians. However, many of those people that I don't know probably are Christians. None of them offered me a tract, or seemed to care about where I would spend eternity. Have I given any thought to the person making my lunch behind the counter? When you think about it, what's more important? Offending people you may never see again anyway, or knowing they may spend forever in Hell because you were too embarrassed to give them a tract? That's what God taught me.
On to the prayer request, which also is a praise. After 8 hours at Tim Hortons, I went to work for another 6 hours at Little Caesars (yes, I'm trying to pay school bills). There is this guy named Aaron that is a supervisor, that I have worked with several times. He really doesn't know what he believes, but is willing to take any side so we can debate (or argue, whatever word you want to use) Christianity and what I believe. Often he leaves friendly arguments and starts attacking--me, what I believe or whatever. He is very cynical and it seems like he tries to ask really hard questions just to see me slip up. But Saturday, while it started out this way, it very quickly changed tones. He said to me, "It just isn't really fair. You know exactly what you believe and can support it with evidences--both from the Bible, history, and whatever. Nothing I say can change your mind. How come you can have answers and I can't? Why do you know exactly what you believe? Why do I have to doubt?" I told him he didn't have to. From there we got into heaven and hell, Jesus, and many other topics. We worked together for 6 hours, so we had lots of time. He was raised Catholic, so he knows a lot about Jesus (the virgin birth, crucifixion, etc.). He no longer is a practicing catholic, but he is searching. Please join me in praying for him. Also, pray for me, that I would have the words to say to him when he asks questions and that we would have time to really talk. That is my prayer request. My second praise is that I still had the tract the Newfie pastor gave me, and I was able to give that to Aaron.
So that is what God showed me this past weekend. Isn't He faithful???
Now I must go spend my day off cleaning and doing stuff that hasn't been getting done!!!!

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