and that one single thought can change an entire life,
and redirect the course of generations.
It's sobering.
and wonderful.
And rather terrifying.
So, once upon a time in Duisburg, two sisters were on a split.
We were on our way somewhere on the Bahn 903, and I saw two men standing in the belly section of the Bahn, in-between the two cars. I knew immediately that they were not from Germany, and I knew that I could get their number.
Still I hesitated talking to them. #fearlohntsichnicht
The urge to talk to them didn't leave, so I went for it.
They weren't standing super close, but their body language told me that they were traveling together. I looked from one to the other, and then picked one.
Before "Hallo! ich bin Missionarinnen für der Kirche..." was out of my mouth, I knew he couldn't speak a lick of German.
Luckily for me, his friend saved us both from the awkwardness of speaking troll.
With the little German his friend knew, we established that they were from Iran, that they had been in Germany for about 4 months, and that he had two weeks of German.
Oh, and that they were Christian. :)
With my non-existent Persian and limited German, and various hand signals, I tried explaining that we were missionaries, and had something about Jesus Christ that we wanted to share with them.
We exchanged info, and hopped off the Bahn.
To be honest, I didn't think anything would come of the contact.
But, thankfully we had a "call all the potentials" day thanks to Sister Markl, and felt the need to call them.
So we did.
They were surprisingly willing to meet, which confused me.
I don't know why.
So, exactly one week to the day they were contacted, I was on another split, and we headed to the Bahnhof for our appointment. We told them to meet us at Bahnhof, but somehow their Bahnhof was not our Bahnhof, and we wandered around our Bahnhof for about 10 minutes, calling them over and over again, until I finally figured out where they were.
They kept saying
"Targo Bank, Bahnhof, Bus Station." Over and over again, and I was frantically looking Targo Bank up on the mapsme app, and all the while, my poor split partner just had to follow the whole circus around.
We finally located them, clear on the other side and outside of our Bahnhof. They gestured emphatically to the buildings around them.
The SUBWAY Bahnhof
The Bus stop
And Targo Bank...
Which was basically a skyscraper
P gestured at it, and then looked at me, showing me with his hands how HUGE it was.
TARGO. BANK.
Alles Klar
We then had the funniest, most hilarious Restoration lesson over google translate.
Interspersed with:
"Translate, bad...but understand".
We laughed and testified, tried to teach...and set up another appointment.
Fast forward, and now they're baptized!
When I think about how subtle and seemingly irrelevant those gentle urges were, I feel very small. Small because I can feel the fragility of split seconds, and how easily it could have gone the other way; how Philip and Sairos could have gotten lost on the list of "potentials", because I, in my weakness did not clearly see theirs.
But it also brings me joy, because I know that God can work through who we are RIGHT NOW, and we should never be afraid to give what we have.
With God, it will always be enough.
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| Pday in Muenster |
Sister Roderer
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