Your Missionary to Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, Rob Schenck, reporting:
Once in a while there’s a nice break in the intensity of Washington. The other day I enjoyed such a break—it was the best kind. I was on my way to the airport, which I usually drive in my car from my home in Northern Virginia. This time, though, I had to leave directly from our ministry center, and, because I take the train into the city each day, I didn’t have my car. Peggy Birchfield, our chief-of-staff, arranged for what is called the Super Shuttle. It’s a blue van that picks up multiple passengers at different locations and transports you to the airport.
Generally, the Super Shuttle is full of people by the time it reaches me, but this time it was empty. In fact, it remained empty the whole trip, which is quite unusual. The driver, an obviously African man, was listening to our local Christian radio station, WAVA. That, too, was unusual. The show that was on at the time was Janet Parshall’s America. It’s a talk format on issues affecting morality and spirituality in our culture. I know Janet and have done interviews with her a number of times. When I climbed into the back seat I remarked about that, telling the driver, Mr. Ekwa, that he was listening to a friend of mine. He was pleasantly surprised, but instead of asking me a typical question like, oh, what is she like? He said, “I am listening because I feel I need to become a Christian.”
It was positively Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch!
After briefly introducing ourselves to one another (I learned he was from Gambia), I asked what led him this way. He told me he was raised in Africa, oddly, in a Buddhist home, but that he was not spiritually satisfied. One day he just thought he needed to become a Christian. Then he made an evangelist’s job very easy--he asked me, “Can you tell me how to become a Christian?”
Of course, I assured him I could. I laid out the Gospel from the scriptures, shared my own personal testimony of faith, and invited him to pray a prayer with me based on Romans 10: 9, “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
I asked Mr. Ekwa if he wished to pray this prayer with me and commit his life to Jesus Christ. Surprisingly, he hesitated, explaining that he was worried his wife would not follow with him. He expressed great concern for her and for his two young daughters. I explained to him the promise of God is for him and for his family, pointing to Acts 2:39, “For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
With this assurance, he said he wished to continue and I led him in reciting a very simple, childlike prayer acknowledging his sin, asking God’s forgiveness in the sacrifice of Christ in the Cross, and pledging himself to Jesus as Lord, the boss of his life. He then asked the Holy Spirit to come into him and help him live in a way that is pleasing to the Lord.
After our prayer, Mr. Ekwa boldly asked me for a Bible. I promised to send him one and we exchanged addresses. (He’s already received it.) We then talked about how he might find a good church so he can get grounded in his faith and lead his family to Christ.
Please pray for our new brother in Christ. Of all the things I do here in Washington and around the world, nothing is more important than being used by God to help one person find the Savior!
More later . . .
Rev. Rob Schenck
www.faithandaction.org
109 2nd St, NE
Washington, DC 20002
202-546-8329
