I currently work at our local Four Square Supermarket. There are lots of regular customers who like to stop to chat and tell me about their day and so forth.
One Sunday when I was walking past the shop on my way to church, an older lady (to whom I will refer as Mrs. M.) who often talks with me remarked on my outfit and asked if I had been to church. I said I was on my way to church, by which she knew which church I was attending. (It's a small fellowship recently begun, called Highway Pentecostal, with the sign out by the main road every Sunday.) The next time Mrs. M. came into the shop while I was working, she asked if I liked that church, and proceeded to remark on the sad state of the traditional churches and ended by talking about how she wasn't really religious but that she was a good person and didn't do this or that... I felt an enormous opportunity had been dropped in my lap, and I kind of knew what to say, but I feel hampered by the fact that it's my workplace and that when I'm in uniform I represent the shop, and not only my Lord. And frankly, I prefer such conversations to be private, and right then I would have had another customer listening, as we were right next to the checkout. I was also conscious that we could be easily interrupted and she might get only half the story. All I did was make her feel welcome to come and visit our church any time, for which she thanked me and said she might do that.
Since then I have been tussling with myself over whether I was right to not pursue the opportunity. I kind of hoped I might bump into her on the street and be able to renew the conversation, but that didn't happen. Well, this morning I was putting it before the Lord and strongly felt that I needed to do something about it, and that I wouldn't be able to rest until I had. So I asked him to help me accomplish a meeting and an important conversation.
I had been given a dozen and a half of fresh backyard eggs, and set out to give some of them to a wonderful old lady in our church, Helen. I also wanted to ask Helen to pray with me about the situation, since I had already told her about Mrs. M.'s comments. I was also planning to go to the library to do some things online (which is where I am now), which is what actually got me out of my house, hehe.
Helen didn't need the eggs, so I said I would find someone else to give them to, perhaps one of the staff at work - and I might bump into Mrs. M... Then I told her what I wanted to do. Helen knew where Mrs. M. lived... just four houses away!! So, after getting Helen to pray with me, I biked the short distance with the intention of giving Mrs. M. the half dozen or so eggs and with the hope of being able to talk to her about Jesus. I didn't even know if she'd be home, but she was, and she came out and was delighted to receive the eggs. We stood in the sun and chatted for a bit, and then I said I'd been thinking about what she had said the other day (I think that worked particularly well 'cause it showed I'd been listening and thought her comments worth thinking about) and proceeded to show in brief how God is holy and we've broken his standard (the Ten Commandments) so he can't have us with him, but that Jesus paid the price for us and rose again. All of which Mrs. M. listened to and seemed to be agreeing with to some extent (it worked as a conversation rather than a sermon). So then, pointing out that going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going into a garage makes you a car (we were standing right next to her open garage, hehe), which she seemed to think was a bit far-fetched as an analogy, I emphasized the fact that Jesus is the only way to God ("no one comes to the Father except through the Son, Jesus"), and that we must each make a personal decision to accept his sacrifice in our place. I think I said that part at least twice. After which she closed the topic by saying that she would go and pray that God would make her washing machine work, and we finished the conversation with the eggs again. Very smooth ending, it was.
I jumped back on my bike, rode straight back to Helen to tell her, nearly in tears from excitement! Lord, let the words of my mouth produce a meditation in Mrs. M.'s heart that brings her to You.
