“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9, KJV)
The largest tree in our front yard was dead. It was a giant of a tree! Two men who had a tree service came to evaluate the condition of it. Right away they started to work on taking it down. They said that it had been dead for some time and that it was a very dangerous tree.
At the same time, the yard was being serviced by two men, because the roof gutters needed cleaning. I had prayed with one of them the first time he serviced the yard and he believed in Jesus. The other man who came with him had a very serene personality.
My husband and I took turns talking with the four of them. We’d talk with the yard-service men for a little while, then with the tree-service men for a little while.
One of the men with the tree service was quite free-spirited. He made very humorous remarks. The other one had a serious personality. The man with the sense of humor was talking on an iPhone and said, “Where two or three of us are together, the Holy Spirit is in our midst. I have to get back to work.”
The man with the serene heart that was with the yard-service took a little break under the trees. We talked a bit. I asked him, “Do you know God?”
He responded, “I am Catholic, but sometimes I visit a Pentecostal church. But, you know, they only read the New Testament. I just don’t get it.”
I asked him, “Would you like to know the difference between the two?”
“Yes,” he replied, ready to listen.
“The Catholic Church believes there are many mediators between God and man. The Pentecostals believe that the only one between God and man is His Son, Jesus. Do you know why?”
“Why?” he asked.
I began to explain in the simplest way I could. “Because Jesus is the only One who died on the cross for our sins. In the Catholic Church, you have priests to whom you have to confess your sins, but they can’t forgive you to make you right with God. Only the Son of God, Jesus Christ, has the power to forgive sins. The worship of statues and the use of beads to pray is practiced. When Jesus was hanging on the cross for our sins, do you think He was thinking about being in the Catholic Church or the Pentecostal Church?”
“No, He wasn’t!” he said.
“You are right. He was thinking of you and me, because He loves us. He wanted us to be with Him for eternity. And He gave His blood to cleanse us from our sins,” I said to him. He listened intently.
I then shared with him my testimony of my almost entering the convent to be a nun and how I asked God to tell me who He was, and the Lord Jesus spoke to me to tell me that He was the Son of God, that I could not enter heaven but through Him because He had died on the cross for me, and His blood cleansed me of my sin. The man was silent. The Spirit of God was working in his heart.
I then asked, “Have you ever asked Jesus to be your own personal Saviour so that you will go to heaven?”
“No, I have to say that I have not,” he said. I saw that he was in deep thought.
“Would you like for me to pray with you to ask Jesus to be your Saviour?” I asked him.
“Yes, actually, I would like to do this.” He was ready to pray. We both started praying, and this man believed in Jesus as his Saviour, giving his life to Him. When we finished, he said, “This makes you feel so liberated.”
“And you are free!” I told him. I asked him if he had a Bible and if he would like for me to give one to him.
Very interested, he said, “Yes, please, I would like to have a Bible.”
I went inside and marked inside the Bible where he should start reading. Then I went back outside to give it to him. He took the Bible into his hands as if it were a treasure. He went to put it his car then went back to work.
I then focused on the tree-service men. They had already brought the tree down and were cutting it up in huge chunks to make firewood out of it. The man with the sense of humor spoke very loudly and said that his mother was from Spain, his father was German, and he was a Jew, Jew for Jesus! My husband and I could relate to this. We didn’t talk much. We just listened to him. He was so funny and was serious about the Lord.
I asked the man who worked with him, “What about you? Is Jesus your Saviour?”
“I grew up Episcopalian, and yes, Jesus is my Saviour,” he answered. I was not convinced.
“How do you know?” I asked him.
“We can go on and on about this,” he sarcastically commented.
“No, when it comes to Jesus, you can’t go on and on about Him. He is either your Saviour or He is not.” My husband was standing beside us as we talked.
The other man yelled out, “That’s right!”
I went inside, because I needed a little rest. After a while, I went outside again. My husband was talking with the man who had said that Jesus was his Saviour. My husband was an Episcopalian before he was born again.
Suddenly, the man with the sense of humor dropped his saw and headed toward my husband. “I want you to pray with me to keep my home,” the man said, as he walked, reaching out his hands for my husband’s hands. They held hands, bowing their heads, and my husband prayed for God to help this man keep his home. The man went right back to work afterward. My husband then continued to talk with the other man.
It was getting late. The two tree-service men said their good-byes and their thank-yous and left.
We asked the two men who serviced the yard to come in and eat with us, because it was late and, surely, they were tired and hungry.
The man with whom I had prayed brought the Bible and asked, “Will you please write in it the prayer we prayed together?” So, I wrote it out in Spanish and underlined the scriptures that he had prayed and bookmarked the pages.
My husband sat with both of them, as I served them. Then I went to the living room to rest, while they talked. After they were done, they thanked us and went on their way.
As we were closing the front door, my husband began to share with me the conversation he had had with the Episcopalian man. He had shared his testimony with him and explained that when he was Episcopalian, he thought that God was way up there and one day we would be with Him wherever He was. But, when he was born again, the Holy Spirit came to live inside of him. And he has lived his life for Christ since then. The man said, “I am not born again.”
My husband said to him, “Well let’s pray now so that you can be born again and have the Holy Spirit inside of you and eternal life with Jesus.” The man prayed with him.
Afterward, the man said, “This is so awesome!” He now had peace.
I was overjoyed as my husband shared this. “You did it William! You prayed with him and Jesus saved him!”
Smiling he said, “I learned from the best!” I then shared with him that the serene-hearted man had prayed, and he too was saved. He rejoiced! We both smiled, rejoicing together, thanking the Lord!
“Abba Father, what a day You had for all six of us! Thank you for that huge tree that was dead and for the roof gutters that needed cleaning! It was what You used to fish for the souls of men who came to our yard! Jesus, You have made us fishers of men! You used both of our salvation testimonies! What a delight it was for both my husband and me to be used of You to pray with two souls who are now saved! The Holy Spirit had them already prepared to hear about You! There were six of us in the yard that were saved because of what you did on the cross, Jesus. Oh, that You would fill our yard with more lost souls! More, Jesus, more!”