Union Bulkships
by John Edwards
"Forasmuch as ye know
that your labour is not in vain
in the Lord"
Our local Christian book store once held an all-night clearance sale, and it was after midnight when I got to have a look.
As I browsed the shelves, the Holy Spirit impressed upon me, by an inner witness, to walk around to the next aisle.
Though I wasn't sure why, I followed the leading.
When I got to the next aisle I noticed a young man perusing the pages of a book entitled: "The Aldersgate Experience of John Wesley."
The young man looked a little bit 'rough' so I wondered at his inner heart, when I saw his attraction to such a profound title.
After we begun to talk, he recognized me.
"You once came to the shipping company where I worked. You handed me a pamphlet. Do you remember that?"
He reminded me that about a year before, I was at Union Bulkships to collect a Delivery Order. After I handed over the Bill of Lading, their computers temporarily went down. So while we waited, I began sharing Jesus with him. Soon the computers came on again, I collected my papers and had to go - but not before giving him a Gospel tract that my friend Paul Murphy had prepared entitled Break Free. The pamphlet included the testimony of our friend Paul Chan, and a prayer for salvation.
That night in the bookstore the young man went on to tell me: "After you left my office, I read the pamphlet you gave me and I thought to myself, 'This is what I've been looking for.'
Then when I got home I phoned my friends, who I used to do drugs with, and said, 'Come around here and read this – I think I've found what we've been looking for.'
My friends came around and when they read it, they each agreed: 'Yep. This is what we've been looking for.'
We agreed we had to find a church service to go to. So we grabbed the Courier Mail and looked-up the ads for the churches, and ended-up at Mansfield Christian Outreach Centre. That night they had a guest speaker, Helen Ivicevich who began her sermon by riding a Harley in full leathers down the aisle of the church. It related to us perfectly. That night we all got saved.
We kept going to church after that, and one by one many of our other friends started coming and gave their hearts to Jesus too. I started a home group which the church called 'The non-Christian's home meeting' because so many of my non-Christian friends were coming."
I think he said that up to thirty people had come along so far.
I was glad to hear of the effects of handing-out one Gospel pamphlet.
If I hadn't followed the inner prompting of the Spirit in the bookstore that night, I would never have learned the end of the story!
"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord" (I Corinthians 15:58).