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| Desmond in 2004 or 2005 |
Coming back from church two weeks ago, I heard a strange
noise coming from my vehicle. I was
pretty sure something important just fell off my car! I turned around and drove slowly down the
road looking for some sort of vehicle part on the road. Then, I saw it, a large
(22 metric) bolt, and I knew it must have fallen off my car. I picked it up and drove carefully back home
anticipating some type of trouble in my car. There was nothing though, the vehicle ran
just fine. I wondered why the large bolt
had fallen off. Our road has been
recently sealed so it was not from a rough road. I hit nothing on the road that might cause
damage. I had no idea why. I located where on the car the bolt fell off
from and I decided to take to a mechanic to have him look it. I could have easily put it back on myself,
but I wanted a trained eye to look for what might have caused it to fall off in
the first place. I took the vehicle to
the mechanic first thing Thursday morning.
He too was baffled as to why the bolt just fell off. He saw no reason for the bolt to have fallen
off when inspecting the car. The reason,
though, was about to be crystal clear.
At church the evening prior, we had our normal prayer meeting/preaching
service. One of the prayer requests was
for a man named Desmond. Desmond is 26
years old and during his teenage years he attended the Baptist work in
Sohun. However and sadly, as many young
people do, he left church when he was no longer required to go by his
parents. Desmond simply came to church because he had to, not because he was converted to Christ. (The answer to our issues with young people not wanting to serve the Lord is not the youth pastor with a "cool" youth department and great teen activities and "teen" music, but true conversion to Christ. I think I will do a post later on this subject.) I would see him plenty of times and always
say hello and try to encourage him. He always maintained a very kind disposition with me. The
prayer request was to pray for Desmond because he was sick. I was told it was a swollen spleen, which is
very common here due to recurring Malaria.
To me this did not sound like a major sickness since we see this all the
time, but certainly something to pray about.
So again Thursday day morning I took my vehicle to the
mechanic. As I was leaving the workshop
on Thursday morning, I had the urge to go and pray with Desmond. Thursdays are usually days for studying for
Sunday’s sermons, not visiting. I knew I was not very far from where Desmond lives,
and felt strongly I should go pray with him. I arrived at his house and his mom, twin
brother, one of his two sisters, and one other brother was present. We all went into the house and sat down. It was clear Desmond was sick, and he told me
it was not his spleen. He said he just
had pain in his stomach area and could not eat.
It started after a night of heavy drinking. I was immediately concerned about alcohol
poising or bad home brew, which is common here.
I know Desmond had heard the Gospel many times from his days at church,
but I decided to tell him again of Christ before praying with him. After I
finished presenting the Gospel he said he wanted to trust Christ and follow the
Lord. He then, without my help, with
tears streaming down his face, prayed and put his faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ! We rejoiced and it was nice to
see the tears of joy also flowing from his mother’s face. I now knew why the bolt had fallen off! The Lord used that to put me in a place to go
and talk with Desmond. The story is not
finished yet, though.
Desmond told me if he
was well enough, he would be at church on Sunday. I was hoping to see him
there, but I did not. After I left him
on Thursday, his Mom took him to see a doctor in Kavieng. I was not aware they would be going to
Kavieng. Little did we know then, only
his body would return. I received a call
at 6:00am the following Thursday. Desmond had just passed and went to be with
the Lord. I preached his funeral that
Saturday and hundreds more heard the gospel from the village. Oh, how thankful I was he trusted in the
Lord! I have no doubt Desmond is doing
great right now! I am also thankful for
a bolt that “just happened” to fall off my car and directly led me to go pray
with Desmond on that Thursday instead of that Saturday. I had no idea at the time, but that Thursday morning
would be the last opportunity I had to speak with Desmond.
