Sunday Afternoon At Walmart

Have you ever had the experience where you know you need to go to the store, but you just don't want to? I feel like I have that struggle all the time. It's one of those things that you just have to do, but I'd really rather spend my time doing something else. It could very well be the reason why I enjoy online stores like Amazon so much. However, there's something special to a store in person. When you go to a store in person, you get to see people. This story takes place when I had to go to a store and I just didn't want to. 

I was in the Walmart parking lot one Sunday afternoon. I was about to go into the store but stopped. I don't know why, but I suddenly had this urge to pass out GLOW tracts right then. I like carrying around these little Bible pamphlets that "give light to our world." I normally keep it on me so I can pass it out wherever I am. I'll give one to whoever I talk to or even people that just happen to be around me. I wasn't in a rush to go into Walmart, so I decided

Photo Credit: GLOW FaceBook Page

to put some of the tracts on the driver's side door handle on the cars in the parking lot. I had about a hundred tracts so I figured once I ran out, I'd go into Walmart. 

Occasionally I would meet someone in the parking lot as they were leaving or just arriving in their car. When that would happen I would talk to them for a bit. Really I just made random conversation with them or I would hand them a tract and say, "this is just a little something for you," and I'd walk away. As I was putting tracts on the door handles I saw one car parked a far off all by itself. I walked over to the car and realized there was a young lady sitting inside. I knocked on the window, the driver rolled the window down and I proceeded to hand her a tract. The second she looked at the tract tears started to fill her eyes and she said, "I can't believe I just left in the middle of church." 

"Are you okay?" I responded. "Is there anything I can pray for you?"

"No. I'll be okay. But thank you for this, I really needed it." She replied as she held up the GLOW tract. 

I prayed for her in my head as I walked away from her car. I continued passing out the tracts until I ran out. As I was about to head into Walmart, I had this overwhelming that I needed to see whether that woman was still in her car. I went on a way round about way to get back to my car so I could pass by where her car was parked and found her still there.

I lifted up another prayer as I walked over to her once again. She rolled down the window again and I said, "I just wanted to let you know that I offer free Bible studies and I wanted to ask you if that's something that you'd be interested in."

"That would be great! I used to read my Bible all the time but I stopped and I've been having a hard time starting up again." She responded. 

We made plans to meet up later that week and the Lord led in a powerful study on how we can have victory in our spiritually low points. Afterward she texted me saying, "Hey! Thanks so much for the Bible study today. I really enjoyed it. I needed that message." 

We've been studying every week since then and it's amazing how the Lord has been working on this woman's heart. Also it showed me how God can literally take any circumstance (even something you don't feel like doing), and turning it into a witnessing opportunity. 

One Man Planted, Another Watered, But God Gave the Increase

A couple months ago It Is Written's School of Evangelism, SALT had its Summer SALT session. This was by far the largest Summer SALT class we've ever had. We had students from all over the community and also from all over the country as well. We had a specific time for outreach where the students went into various neighborhoods knocking on doors. They were asking people about different interests such as health seminars, cooking classes, and finance classes as well. The last question the students asked at the doors was, "have you considered turning to the Bible for yourself," in essence they were asking them if they were interested in studying the Bible. This story started back in the middle of summer when the Summer SALT students searched for interests in the Chattanooga area.

Two men knocked on Melissa's door. She wasn't interested in studying the Bible for herself but she was interested in having a Bible study offered at her workplace. Melissa is a manager at the Salvation Army and wanted to offer classes there. Since then, I've been going down to the Salvation Army every Wednesday and the Lord has opened up doors to study with several people since then. However, God was putting the burden on my heart that the real reason why I was at the Salvation Army was for Melissa.

One week, Melissa called me on Monday telling me there was someone specific that she wanted me to study with. The Lord had something amazing planned because all of the sudden my car started acting up. By the time AAA came and revived my car and I made it to the Bible study I had about 20 minutes before our time would be up. Melissa decided to sit in on the Bible to be moral support to the young woman I was going to be studying with. As I was driving over there, I was praying that God would show me what I should study with them and if it needed to be different from what I had originally planned. He indeed had me change my study last minute and I didn't realize the impact of it until the closing prayer. As I prayed, both Melissa and the woman I was studying with burst into tears. After the study when Melissa and I were alone, Melissa said, "you know, it's crazy that you did that study, because that's exactly what I needed to hear."

Every time I go to the Salvation Army and no one comes to the Bible study, Melissa and I somehow end up in a super deep conversation. I almost feel like God has me giving her therapy sessions at times. One day, I was hanging out with Melissa in her office and out of the blue she asks me, "hey do you know anyone giving Revelation Seminars?" If you could've seen the inside of my mind, my facial expression would've had my jaw dropped on the floor. I responded, "yeah, the ministry that I work for is actually doing one this October." Melissa had been asking around for a while, "who does Revelation and Daniel seminars?" And someone told her, "The Seventh-day Adventists do." She immediately thought of me and decided to ask me the next time she saw me. Needless to say, I was amazed. God was showing me little by little why He had me at the Salvation Army this entire time.

A couple months later, God was putting on my heart to share this testimony at the It Is Written Partnership Weekend in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I got on the stage and shared this story and a few minutes after returning to my seat, I saw my friend and supervisor, Michelle, running over to me saying, "Janelle, come here, you need to hear this." I quickly followed Michelle and found a man sitting across from the program director of SALT, Greg, with tears following down his face. As I approached Greg looked up at me and said, "this is the man that knocked on Melissa's door."

Out of all the testimonies I could've shared, He had me share that one, and also out of all the Summer SALT students that could've been there in Gatlinburg to hear it, He placed the man who knocked on Melissa's door to be there.

I really believe that we really don't know the impact we may have when we are working for God, but sometimes He'll give us glimpses, like He did for the man who knocked on Melissa's door. Don't ever stop reaching out to others. God needs seed planters, He may need people to water that plant, but ultimately He is the one in charge of making sure it grows.

"I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase."

1 Corinthians 3:6