We first met Johan and his wife when we visited their area a few years ago. At that time, we were impressed with their passion for sharing the gospel in the region. Johan works as a rubber tree plantation manager. He looks for ways to help the workers improve their lives and shares Jesus with any of them who are interested.
Tang, a local young man, began working for Johan and noticed how Johan’s family was different than other people he knew. Johan was happy and treated his wife and children well. As Johan’s family continued to live out their faith and began sharing the gospel with Tang, he became very interested and decided that he wanted to follow Jesus, too. Tang began attending church and helping with community service activities. He was very happy even though his decision also brought him heartache. Tang’s parents were very upset that he had become a Christian. In fact, one night, they called the police and asked them to arrest Tang.
When the police arrived, they asked Tang, “Are you doing drugs or some other illegal activity?”
“No,” he replied. “My family is upset that I have been going to church and helping other people in the community.” Of that, he was guilty.
Before the police left, they said to his parents, “Call again if he actually does something illegal.”
But even this conflict with his family did not dissuade Tang from his newfound faith, and he wanted to share it with others. One of the friends that he shared with was Sabin. Sabin also accepted Jesus and began attending church. She couldn’t keep the good news of Jesus’s love to herself either and began sharing her faith with her family. Two of Sabin’s brothers have now chosen to be Christian. Her older sister wants to join Sabin in coming to church but can’t yet because her husband won’t allow her.
Sabin asked us last week to join her in praying for her brother-in-law to accept Jesus. Sabin also asked us to pray for her former boss and his sister. She wants to share the peace and joy she has found in this life, as well as her faith in eternal life for those who love their Creator.
Evangelism works best when people who have accepted the free gift of salvation passionately share it with those they care about and seek to meet more people with whom they can share. It’s like a gospel chain, connecting from link to link. Who will be the next link in your gospel chain?
