The Salvation Army Chatham

We all need encouragement and sometimes it comes in quite unexpected ways. Greg Davis recently (October 2008) testified in one of our Sunday evening meetings to a discovery which brought him great reassurance and wanted us to share it.

Greg Davis

Greg said:

Some of you will be aware that our Corps held a “Contagious Christianity” Course recently. I didn’t go but my teenagers did and told me all about it (it must have been contagious, because they told me and now I’m telling you!)

One of the things that they learnt on the course was the concept that we may feel discouraged about the fact they we seldom see someone coming to faith as a result of our contacts and evangelism. The course explained that whilst we might seldom be the final link, we might unwittingly be a link in the chain of events leading to that person being saved.

The trouble is we seldom get to know in this life, where we were in a given chain and how the story ended.

I recently was privileged to find out that I had indeed been a link in such a chain.

17 years ago I was working in a bank with a guy called Mark. He was searching for meaning in his life and at the age of only 19 was already wasting it by using drugs “whenever possible” and depending on alcohol to get him through the day.

I knew Mark had been searching for faith and had gone to the Philippines but out of the blue the other day I found myself wondering what became of him. I ‘googled’ him and came up with a link to his Church’s website in the Philippines! Mark had been saved, went to Bible college, became a missionary and is now running his own church. Great news!

I looked at his church, they were running an Alpha course, and worked with young people and visited the inmates of the dreadful prisons in the Philippines. There was also a link to Mark’s story…

I started reading his story. He explained how he had been depressed and dependent on drugs and alcohol but he also said:

Living in what was really fear and torment with what seemed no future to my life I turned to a previous work colleague for help who I knew to be a member of The Salvation Army and a Christian. He encouraged me to begin reading the bible and for the first time in what must have been ten years I took my red plastic covered Gideon bible out of safekeeping and began to look through the pages. My friend, who also had a Gideon bible, encouraged me to read from the section at the front where it listed selected verses for different needs and I looked up the selection for direction.

I opened the bible to the book of Proverbs and read this verse:

Proverbs 3:5-6
5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. (King James version)

The words seemed to leap off the page and I began to keep a diary and wrote these verses on a large sheet of paper and placed them in my kitchen where I could see them everyday.

Well, I was thrilled to bits, because I was that Salvationist who, 17 years earlier, had spoken to Mark and encouraged him to read his bible. I had proof in this lifetime that I had been a link in the chain of events that led to Mark being saved and becoming what he is today.

Mark

I am so grateful to God for the opportunity to be encouraged that our witnessing is not in vain, and that God uses all these little contacts to his own purposes.

17 years after I witnessed to Mark I discovered that I was a link that helped him find God, get saved and go on to become a minister and run a Church.

• I wonder how many times I’ve been a link and never known about it?

• I also wondered how many times I should have been a link and didn’t do my part….

I hope this story encourages you. We might not always see a result from our witnessing at the time, we might not ever get to know the outcome, but God does work in peoples life’s through the little things we do.

Greg made contact with Mark and told him of the discovery he had made. Here is a small part of Mark’s reponse.

The Lord is faithful and we continue to move forward in what we believe is His plan for our lives. Enjoying the challenges and blessings of living and running a church in the Philippines.

Glad you were able to testify of your witnessing to me while we were together at Chatham and thanks for being used of God to do that! These are the seeds that bring a harvest and as I look at what God has done in giving me a family and a ministry here I could not have imagined back then in CHATHAM the wonderful things that God prepares for us. Jeremiah 29 :11. So thanks again and may it encourage us all the more to share the love of God.

MAY IT ENCOURAGE US INDEED!