Reaching the Marketplace for Jesus

Waitress 

I just wanted to share what happened last Tuesday night (early Wednesday morning) with a waitress that accepted Christ as her Savior. Just a small testimony to say that God is still working in lives today... 

The Soul Winners Director's College is going on this week in Westminster, MD. This is the outreach program that I was trained in and that our church uses for personal evangelism. We (our church) are sponsoring 3 men (a minister, his senior deacon and their outreach pastor) from Nassau, Bahamas. Their plane arrived at 10:30 PM this last Tuesday night. Cathy, myself, our outreach pastor (Don) and his wife (Robin) met the trio at the airport. Because of a huge comedy of errors, they never had a chance to eat dinner. We all headed to an all-night diner called the Double T. And that's where God did a miracle. 

As we sat to eat, our waitress introduced herself - Gail was her name. After a few minutes she noticed that our guests had Caribbean accents. Over the course of getting our drinks, taking our orders, and bringing our food she asked them where they were from and what they were doing in the DC area. The minister told her they were in town for a Soul Winner's Conference. Of course, she asked what that was all about. Then the Bahamian Outreach pastor gave her a tract and invited her to go to church. Well, this caused her to talk about how she used to go to church as a child and that her mom still urged her to go but she didn't really have time. 

Her history sounded similar to mine so I told her my testimony. I told her I grew up Catholic on the west coast (with no real desire to actually go to Mass) and when I was about 14 years old my family moved to New England. I told her that, while my parents looked for housing and work, my brother, sister and I lived with an aunt in Vermont. During the summer she made us go to church and then took us to a Bible summer camp. While at the camp, I told her, a preacher at the Wednesday night service asked if we knew 100% that if we died we'd go to heaven. I told Gail that I couldn't honestly say yes to that and the preacher showed me how I could know. Then I asked her if she was 100% sure that she'd go to heaven if she died. She said no, she said she had too much sin in her life. 

By this time she had made her way around the table to stand next to me so she could hear me better. I asked her to show me the tract that the other man had given her. I then asked her if she would mind if I showed her what the Bible said and how she could know that she was going to heaven. She nodded her head and noted that it was a slow night anyway. 

I led her down the Roman's Road. I showed her that God says we are all sinners (Rom 3:23). I showed her that we owe a penalty for our sins (Rom 6:23a). I explained that Jesus took our punishment for our sins (Rom 6:23b and Rom 5:8). I then told her how she could accept that gift and know she was going to heaven (Rom 10:13 and John 3:16). I asked her if I could pray with her. She said yes and I prayed out loud that God would show her that she needed to trust in Christ alone to get her to heaven. 

After I prayed I asked her if she would like to pray and ask God to come into her heart and save her. It's usually at this time that Satan or one of his demons jumps in to try to mess things up. No disappointment from them this time, either. Just as she was about to answer she all of a sudden remembered she had other customers to tend to. She walked away and we didn't see her for about 5 minutes. 

When she came back she had all sorts of objections. We talked a bit and she promised to come to church on Sunday. I told her I would pick her up but she should settle her fate for eternity before it was too late. She said she would think about it and left again. 

We all thought that it was over. But God wasn't done. After a few minutes she came back. I looked up at her and there were tears in her eyes. I asked her if she was ready to pray. She nodded her head and quietly mouthed a yes. I led her through a simple prayer asking God to forgive her of her sins and asking Jesus to come live in her heart. In the middle of the restaurant, with customers all around and her coworkers walking here and there, she bowed her head and prayed out loud to accept Christ as her Savior.