God Sends Him Help, Two Nights in a Row!
Friday night May 9th, we were trying to decide where to go evangelizing. We were praying about it and decided to go to some new apartment buildings near Walmart on the east side of town.
Jude & Bekah had a conversation with a young man named Noel. Noel has been going through a hard time. His wife filed for divorce from him, and she won’t let him see their 3-month-old daughter. He has been struggling a lot.
They encouraged him, prayed for him, and gave him a Bible. They also gave him our outreach sheet with my (Ryan’s) number on it and invited him to church. Noel said that it was perfect timing for them to stop by.
"Your Timing was Perfect!"
Shortly after they left Noel’s house, Noel contacted me and asked for more information about our church. I gave him all the information and passed along Jude’s number too.
On Saturday morning, May 10th, Jude got a text from Noel thanking them again for stopping by and saying that he was eager to come to church on Sunday.
Saturday night we needed to head to the west part of town to go meet up with a woman named Lupe that we met the week before. (SEE STORY HERE) She has been struggling with her relationship with her son and rarely sees her granddaughter. We were going back over to bless her with some gifts before Mother’s day.
After we spoke with Lupe for about 15 minutes, we needed to finish up some houses in that neighborhood that were left from last time.
We sent a couple of groups down the street from Lupe’s.
Jakin and Andrew came to a house three doors down from Lupe’s and started talking with a guy named Carlos. Jakin mentioned we were there to pray for people and asked Carlos if he were to die tonight, what reason would he give God to let him into heaven.
Carlos needed to step away from the conversation for a few minutes to help a neighbor get a ball from his backyard. When he came back to the door there was another guy with him. This man asked Jakin if he was part of the Stahl family. Jakin said yes, but didn’t think anything about it. Then he said I met your brother last night.
It turns out, that this man with Carlos, was Noel. Carlos is his brother and he was visiting him on Saturday night, one day after he met Jude at his home.
Carlos isn’t very spiritually interested at all, but he couldn’t help but be intrigued by the “coincidences” of these two meetings.
Think about God’s timing. He is constantly pursuing his lost sheep. He sent someone to Noel’s house on Friday night. Then he sent someone to his brother’s house 10 miles across town on Saturday night. God works in amazing ways.
Noel came to church on Sunday, and he said he was really glad to be there. We invited him over for lunch after church. We were able to ask more questions and really got to know him. After lunch Laura was asking him questions about his faith and if he had ever surrendered his life to Christ. Had he ever repented and asked God to take control of his life.
Noel said that he had prayed at work on Thursday. He works overnight at the county detention center. He was overwhelmed with what was going on around him. He told God he wanted to change his life, and he needed help. This was Thursday night, but he was praying to God at about 3:00 AM on Friday morning, May 9th. God answered his prayer by sending help to his house that very night in the form of Jude and Bekah, but also the next night, 9 miles away in the form of Jakin and Andrew.
Not only that, but God had also worked out the conversation between Josh, Josh, and Lupe so that they weren’t able to finish the block which allowed us to complete it on Saturday AND have the second conversation with Noel!
God is working; He is always working!
It gets even better… as we talked with Noel on Sunday, we shared the gospel with him and shared about God’s amazing love and forgiveness. He left that conversation on Sunday with a better understanding of God’s love. It also motivated him to forgive people that had hurt him and to ask for forgiveness from people he has wronged. One of the persons he talked with was his wife.
By the time he came over on Monday for a Bible study with our sons, he had been talking with his wife, wanting to work things out. His wife also allowed him to spend time with their daughter that very night.
The story is still unfolding, but please keep Noel in your prayers!