Ecclesiastes and God's Timing

Melissa and I woke up on Saturday and got ready to travel up to the church in Kpadape. We have our summer interns with us as well as a short-term trip. Our goal was to arrive in Kpadape in time to play a soccer game with the young people.  The trip was rather uneventful, so I listened to a podcast message about the book of Ecclesiastes.  About an hour south of the village, I saw a stream of black smoke. We pulled over as behind about twenty vehicles parked on the side of the road. The looks on people’s faces served as on omen. A five-passenger vehicle had gone over the bridge and was in flames. Two victims had already been killed. I thought the three bodies on the side of the road meant it was a total loss. A movement from one of victims showed that they were alive.  Two of the three were severely burned.  All had broken bones. I ran to get Jonas. I told him it was our responsibility to share Christ with them right away.  Jonas shared with one of the men while we cleared out the back of the van. The closest hospital was about 30 minutes away. We put a man and a lady in our van.  We stopped a car and had them take the third man.  Jonas and Naka started witnessing to both of the victims in our van. Both gave their life to Christ. The man’s first comment after trusting Christ was, “ the other two in the car did know Jesus before they died.”  Jonas and Naka sang songs about God’s love and the blood of Jesus for the rest of the trip.

            When we arrived to the hospital, both of our victims were still breathing. The third man had slipped into eternity. That was when Jonas told me that he had trusted Christ while still on the side of the road. All three had given their lives to Christ. We ended up moving them to a missionary hospital about 4 hours later and stayed with them until about 11 pm.  Please pray for our next encounter with these people. I believe they will come to our home in Aneho. We know that one of the wives is a believer, but have not been able to ask the other family members. We are looking to share with them when they arrive.

So the interesting part of the story was that the car had left a funeral on Saturday morning. The deceased was a believer and had a preacher to do the funeral. The preacher shared the gospel message both Friday and Saturday.  He even said, “some might not even make it home tomorrow.”  A family member who attended the funeral continued to tell me about what had gone on. I proceeded to mention the podcast I had been listening to. When I talked about it, he interrupted me with “Ecclesiastes 3.” It was so awesome to be talking to a believer. This man rejoiced when he heard the three had trusted Christ. God truly did have his perfect plan so that these people could have one more opportunity. I was reminded about His timing, even when times are hard.

 

JJ