Yesterday I was sitting in a waiting room while my husband got an x-ray. Sitting beside me was a black lady who was doing the same thing. She was on her phone a minute or two and then turned and apologized for not saying hello immediately. She said in the country she came from you always say hello to people you meet.
She spoke English with an accent so I asked what country she came from. She said they were from Kenya and had been in the US a long time but now were going back to do "charity work." From then on, the rest of the things she said were about how they want to tell everyone about Jesus and what He has done for them. She knew her Bible well and quoted Scriptures freely, saying people are too materialistic and that is not what life is about. I agreed with everything she said. She put me to shame. When have I ever had a conversation with a stranger that was all about Jesus and spreading the Good News?
The early Anabaptists in Switzerland were passionate about evangelism and spread their faith everywhere they went. They were not fazed by the high cost. If a man was ordained he could expect to be executed in about six months. As persecution drove them to more tolerate areas of Germany and France, they accepted the terms of not proselytizing and kept to themselves. When our ancestors came to America, they continued the isolation from society and became known as "the quiet in the land."
Sad to say, too many of us are still quiet. We don't see meeting a stranger as an opportunity to share our faith. And I am as guilty as anyone. I never asked the lady what her name is but her enthusiasm for sharing her faith will stick with me. Silence is not always golden, sometimes it's plain yellow.
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