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