Told You So!

At the end of my last post, I wrote "I'm sure I'll have more stories to write down by tonight!"  and I am happy to report that I was right!

That night, Monday night, I was at the apartment with the family and our friend, the woman I've mentioned who's a translator and has helped them a lot, came over to visit.  We were all sitting in the living room together talking about what had happened while I was away, and the woman asked me about the funeral.  I told her it was sad but that my Great Grandma was almost 97 so it was her time to go.  She asked me if I was close to her, so I said yes...then I paused for a minute trying to decide how to explain my Grandma's role in my life in a sensitive way.  

I said, when I was ten years old I started thinking about death and I was scared about what would happen to me when I died, so my Grandma--and here the woman interrupted and said, "ah yes, she told you to be good right?"  Assuming that's the answer my wise Grandma gave me, but I said, "No, actually she told me I could never be good enough.  That there was no way for me to be perfect and that God required perfection."  

At this point the rest of the family was like hey stop leaving us out just because we don't speak English, so the woman translated everything we had said and then told me to continue.  So I said my Grandma explained through the scriptures that the Messiah had come to be perfect for us, to be a perfect sacrifice to cleanse us and give us freedom to come to God.  

Somewhere about this point as I was waiting for our friend to translate, it hit me that I was telling them THE GOSPEL! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!  I'm so glad I didn't realize before it was happening otherwise I probably would have tried to manipulate the conversation or make it happen my way, when God knew exactly how to bring himself into the conversation.  His the best evangelist ever! haha!

So then I said that my Grandma read verses from the Tawrat, Zabur and Injil (Torah, Psalms, and New Testament), that showed that Cisse was the Messiah the world was waiting for! (Cisse means Jesus, the C is sort of silent so it sounds like "eesay")  I prayed with my Grandma that day and gave my life to Cisse and promised to follow him.  The family started talking back and forth and asked "How do you pray?"  So I started explaining that it's like a conversation because God is real and alive, so I talk to him like he's my friend or father.  When our friend translated that, it didn't seem to make sense, so she said, "Why don't you pray and show them how you do it."  I was like suuuure!  How do you say no to that!?

So I prayed a short prayer thanking God for the family and all that he had blessed them with here in America and asking that he would continue to bless them.  She translated the prayer for them and they said "Fian, fian" "good, good"  Ha!

I think that was just about the end of the conversation...that's even a bigger highlight than my roommate telling me she loved me!  Or the two year old girl crying when I left the house and yelling "Sister!" and running to me when I got back!  Oh wow.  I love them so much!

A side note, when I spoke at my Great Grandma Gwen's funeral on Saturday, I said that her legacy would live on in me because of her obedience in leading me to Jesus, that every time I tell my testimony, she would be mentioned because she took me seriously when I was ten years old.  Two days later...I shared that testimony with 9 eagerly listening lost sheep.  When I told this story to a friend they said, "Maybe that's the reason God kept your grandma here so long, so that you would have the opportunity to share with them."  It may be true, because it was such a personal story, they didn't raise any arguments-even the woman who tried to convince me to be a Muslim a week earlier didn't say anything to contradict me!  I was able to share the truth in light of how it has changed my life instead of preaching at them.  Thank you God that you are a marvelous conductor; you see the end masterpiece and use us weak beings to create it!