Just Across the Room

Have you ever had the privilege of having someone come across your path whom you are prompted to help in a significant way, even though you may never see or hear from that person again? This happen to me with a gentleman named Mr. Charles that I met over a year ago. I met Mr. Charles as I was preparing to get ready to go to work. An unexpected knock on my door changed both his life and my life forever.

Mr. Charles was an African immigrant who came to America to make a better life for his family. His good intentions were met with evil opposition as the family that he came to live with, held him captive, abused him and refused to allow him to work other than to watch their kids and to cook and clean their home. One day he managed to escape and he reached out for help as he knocked on my door. I listened to his story and was almost brought to tears. I felt that I had to do everything in my power to help him and that is what I did (with the assistance of my neighbor…shout out to Mr. Green) for the rest of the day and well into the evening.

That day, I took Mr. Charles to get something to eat….we went to 2 police stations…we called several agencies and we reached out to a local Catholic Church (Mr. Charles had begged to go to a Catholic church as that was his denomination at home). We were turned away and rejected everywhere we went…until I took him to my home church. There my Pastor took time out of his busy day to sit and to talk with Mr. Charles and to make provisions for Mr. Charles going forward. I also had the privilege of leading Mr. Charles to Christ. As he invited God into his life to be his Lord, his entire appearance changed. His face lit up and he smiled as bright as the sun that was in the sky that summer day.

Mr. Charles’ plan was to go back to his homeland. Until then I would see him in the neighborhood off and on until I stopped seeing him at all. I often wondered what happened to him. I wished for the best, but I was not certain that he was alive and well.

That was until about 2 weeks ago. I received a phone call out of the blue one evening and it was Mr. Charles. He was calling me from back home in Africa. He said that he was so grateful that I took time out to allow myself to be used by God to help him. He expressed his eternal gratitude and said that he had been looking for my number for some time because he wanted to say thanks and to let me know that he was alright.

My heart was overwhelmed with joy as I spoke with him. It was amazing to me that just doing what was right and what I was led by God to do, made such an impact on someone else’s life.

I was reminded of this story last week at Bible Study. We are going through a series entitled “Just Walk Across the Room”. The focus of the study is evangelism. Some of the keys to successful evangelism are:

*Being yourself
*Being friendly
*Being available
*Taking a risk to help and to reach others
*Listening to and responding to God’s “prompts”
*Identifying the correct approach

In this case I “walked across the room” to help someone in need and he responded to the call of God. I was the only person at that time who could have done what I did through the power of God to reach Mr. Charles. My life experiences had equipped me to respond to this “interruption” in my life and to see God’s larger plan. My plan was to go to work. God’s plan was that He had work for me to do.

As you reflect on your life, think about those people who “walked across the room” for you. They didn’t consider helping you as an interruption…they considered it an opportunity. Think about where you would be right now if the people who have made the most significant positive impact on you in a personal way, were too “busy” to do so.

A seed of friendship (or an act of kindness) often blossoms and assists others in making life changing decisions to establish genuine relationships with God.

Someone walked across the room for you…Who is waiting on the other side of the room for you?

Be Blessed,
B