My wife and I decided to travel out for our anniversary. It was our 20th wedding anniversary! (I met her in high school and we have been together ever since. I am thankful for the wife God has given me. I look forward to the next 20 years with her.) We were going to go to Kavieng for three days, but that did not work out. I decided to head to Kokopo on the island of New Britain. Kokopo is about a 2 ½ hour boat ride away. Kokopo has a few nice places to stay there that are very western. As we were getting on the small banana boat, a Chinese man also got on the boat. This man works in Kavieng, and missed his plane, so he had to drive five hours south to get on this boat and head to Kokopo. His English was very good. We began talking about differences between America and China. (How thankful we Americans should be for the country God has given us!) I turned the conversation to the gospel. I learned this man had never attended any church of any sort. I asked him how he believed the world came into existence. He believed in atheistic evolution. He said he had heard of the Bible and that some were available in China. He had heard about some stories from it, but what he had heard had been portrayed in a fanciful light, as if it could not possibly be true. He asked me to explain some of them. I did and he listened very intently with great interest. I then started in Genesis and went through the Bible explaining the need for a Savior. As I began to teach him of Jesus Christ, I was hoping he would see his need for the Son of God. He was still listening intently and asking searching questions. I covered the gospel with him, explaining what it meant for him, that this man who died 2,000 years ago was his only hope. (Most church going people today do not have a clue and how the death of Christ actually helps them. This is evident by all the false doctrines. For example, salvation is in the church, or in good works, or in the waters of baptism, etc.) This man did not make a profession of faith during our two hour conversation, but the seed was planted on what appeared to be good ground.
We have agreed to meet again in a few weeks to talk and play basketball. (I will probably be beat by a shorter Chinese man, at my country’s own sport! He plays every day, and I have not played in years!) I explained to him how the fact he missed his plane was not a coincidence, but of the Lord, a divine appointment! I knew when he told me his missed his plane, the Lord had arranged this time. I truly found it amazing when I thought about the two different worlds both of us call home, and yet here we were in this ever so remote place, which neither of us grew up in, and God put us together. I found it no less amazing than Phillip and the Ethiopian eunuch. This, too, was put together by the Holy Spirit of God! Be prepared every day, Christian, as you never know who the Lord will put in your path. Do not think those you meet are just by chance. There is an Almighty God at work, and we need to trust Him!
