Jesus accomplished this great ministry while on earth.  When He left this earth, He commissioned His disciples in Matthew 28:19-20,   ¹⁹  Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”   We have a commission or assignment to complete with our very best efforts.  We must share the gospel of Jesus Christ with our family, our community, our country, and our world.  We don’t choose what we want to do.  We are obedient servants who follow Jesus wherever He is working. I’m going to share a quick version of a happening on our anniversary trip to Mexico back in November and then we’ll close. 

Unfortunately, I’m always partially disobedient to God.  As I packed for the trip to Mexico, a voice kept telling me to pack a copy of my book, Testify: By the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of Our Testimony. By the way, you can purchase the book through the church office.  All proceeds go into the church-wide mission account.   Back to the story in Mexico…..My response to packing a copy of the book was, That’s silly!  This is a vacation, a break from “the writing world!”   The voice continued to bombard my mind, so at the last minute, I threw in a couple of business cards that advertised all four of my books.  We arrived in Mexico and settled in at our home base in Cancun with a moonlight dinner on the deck.  A young man, possibly in a management training program, waited on us that night.  He told us he had just started college with a major in Tourism.  He was such a gentleman with such a pleasant attitude.  We continued to build a relationship with this young man and other young members of the staff throughout the vacation and any time we ate at the facility, another young man waited on us. 

On the next to the last day, Jerry slept in and I went on downstairs for the free breakfast.  This young man appeared as waiter at my breakfast table that morning.  Every time he came to my table, he would share a little more about himself.  Come to find out, he came to live in the United States in California with his mother when he was only four years old.  He went to elementary, middle and high school in the United States.  As a teen, he  joined a gang and became a very bad person.  He told me this over and over again….he was a very, bad person.  At the end of my breakfast, I finally asked him what was it that he did that was so bad.  He shared what he had done that was so bad……illegal possession of drugs and guns.  He was injured in a shootout and hospitalized.  While in the hospital, the police told him that he could choose to go to prison in the U.S. or volunteer to be deported to Mexico.  He chose deportation and, at this same time, he chose to turn his life around with God at the head of his life.  I left the breakfast table and Jerry and I go about our day in the town of Tulum.

This young man, between the ages of 18 and 25 years, had a strong story or testimony to share.  Jerry and I discussed his situation throughout our day.  I could not get him off of my mind.  I was wishing I had a copy of my book….remember my disobedience earlier in the story…..the book would have given him “a heads up” on sharing his testimony.  Jerry suggested that I give him one of my business cards. That evening, as I walked into the hotel lobby, the young man approached me with a listening ear. Was it written on my face…..remember the writing on the wall?  I didn’t have to look for him; he was at my side.

I told him that in the morning, he had shared his story with me and now it was time for him to share his story with others.  I gave him the business card.  He began to cry and thank me over and over again.  I think God was already working in his life and someone else, mother or priest, had already discussed with him on sharing his story to help other young people.  We don’t even know his name, but we have his picture and we pray for him on a regular basis.

This was all God asked us to do…..trust, obey and act.  All was in God’s timing and plan, not ours. We don’t know his name; we don’t know what his future holds.  We reacted when God called……we shared the Light of Christ…and we were blessed. The next day was his day off and we didn’t know that until the next day; if we would have waited until the next day, the personal contact would have been too late.  He would have missed the encouragement and affirmation of faith and we would have missed the blessing.