Tell Them A Story

When I am preparing a message for Sunday morning, my question is always, “Lord, what do you want your people to hear?”

Before last Sunday, He said, “Tell them a story.”

When I remembered something that happened in Washington D.C. some years ago, I heard the Holy Spirit say, “That one. That’s the one.”

Well, when I got going on Sunday, the story was a small part of the message because the subject matter awakened a fire in my spirit.

The story begins when I was asked to do a Reach For More event in Fort Wayne, Indiana some years ago. We had a meeting of pastors and leaders, secured a date at the coliseum, and began the event process.

The pastors failed to engage, however, and we had to cancel the date. We set another date and again failed to build momentum, so I was forced to cancel that date also.

At that point, deeply discouraged and disgusted, I told the Lord, “I’m done with this city,”. . . and I went home.

But God’s response was, “Oh no you’re not. Go back and try again.”

Well, this time I dragged my feet. I had spent a lot of time over a year and a half trying to get an event going, then coming up empty. I was very disgusted with the leadership in Fort Wayne.

Then one day I got a call from Sujo John. Sujo was in the first tower on 9-11 on the floor just beneath where the first plane hit. He has an amazing story of how God delivered him from death. We had used Sujo in three large events as a featured speaker, and Sujo and I had become good friends.

“Brother George, are you going to the national convention?” was his question. The Assemblies Of God National Convention was in Washington D.C. in about two weeks.

“No, the ministry doesn’t have the funds for me to go,” I replied.  

There was a pause on the phone. Then he said, “I’m supposed to pay your way . . . (the Lord was speaking to him). Again, he said, “I’ll pay your plane fare.”

So I went. The heart of the story I told on Sunday came out of these circumstances.

I used a taxi to shuttle back and forth from my hotel to the convention, which was sometimes several times a day, between the sessions I wanted to attend.

On one of these taxi trips, masses of youth were moving between buildings at the convention as I got into the taxi. There were about two thousand young people there.

The taxi driver took a look at this great crowd of young people and was quite struck. “Look at all these young people! What is this thing?”

I informed him that it was the Assembly Of God National Convention.

“Young people interested in church? It’s hard to get young people interested in anything.”

Well, I didn’t have much time to think about my answers. It was a short trip to the hotel, so I just reacted to his questions.

“They know Jesus as their Savior and they are excited about that.”

“Wow!” Evidently, he had never seen anything like this.

So I don’t know how I got to the closing question. The words just kind of tumbled out of my mouth, not knowing exactly where they came from. The Holy Spirit does that.

“If you want to accept Jesus as your Savior, we can pray right now.”

He wanted to, even though he was very nervous about taking much time, because he was supposed to keep going at this job.

We bowed our heads, and I led him through the sinner’s prayer. I got his phone number and when I got back home, I located a church he could attend in Washington D.C. Then I mailed him a Bible.

Personal witness has always been very hard for me . . . terrifying might be more accurate.

I don’t know how to start the conversation. I am afraid of rejection. I am afraid the person will ask a question I can’t answer. I think I am very bad at witnessing. In my life, the people I have led to the Lord can be counted on both hands, because the number is less than ten.

The point of my message was that I am very bad at witnessing, but when I have dared to open my mouth, the Lord has done great things. God has given me success. The follow up is that every Christian should share their faith and attempt to lead people to Christ.

On another occasion, I was traveling to Kansas City to visit a friend. I stopped at a rest stop in Iowa and there was a young man sweeping at the other end of the pavilion. God had been urging me to share my faith all that summer. It was a great effort, and I was exhausted.

This time I thought I would get off easy, so I just laid a tract on the display. Immediately the young fellow protested, “Sir . . . Sir, you can’t do that. What is that you put there?”

I was caught. I explained that it was a gospel tract . . . and I launched into a 30 second story of how I had given my life to Christ.

Immediately, he said, “Can I do that?” I said he could bow his head, ask Jesus to forgive him of his sins, and ask Christ into his heart. He did that and when he looked up, there was an unmistakable glow on his face. His first question was, “I want to read the Bible. Where should I start?”

Back in the car, going down the road, my head was spinning. “Did that really happen back there?”

But it had. God had taken my fumbling and turned it into the salvation of a young man. 

Once, a man who was bringing evangelical events into cities, said to his audience, “There is very little evangelism that takes place in America.” Somewhere there is a statistic (I think it comes from Barna Research) that only two percent of Christians today have ever personally led someone to Jesus.

A few years ago I heard on KTIS Christian radio an author talking about evangelizing the world. He said, “At the rate we are evangelizing, it will take 10,000 years to evangelize the world, but if each year, every Christian would lead someone to Christ and mentor that person, it would take only 33 years to evangelize the world.

So, what is the conclusion? I challenged the congregation to at least think about doing personal witness, talk to God about it, consider doing it. Is that too much to ask? The message was well received because this congregation is alive and hungry.

If you will just venture out and dare to open your mouth to share the gospel with a non-believer, you will be amazed at what God will do.

Two things happened as a result of my trip to Washington D.C. Sujo told the Lord he wanted to lead a taxi driver to Jesus, like Brother George did. In the next few weeks, he led three taxis drivers to Jesus.

The second thing is that I met up with the lead pastor of Fort Wayne, who again expressed an interest in doing the event in Fort Wayne. Efforts were rekindled. The event turned out to be the largest I ever did, reaching about 23,000 people through school assemblies and the large evangelistic event at the coliseum.  

Always be ready to give an answer to the reason for the hope that lies within you.

1 Peter 3:15 (NIV)

Preach the Word, be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage–with great patience and careful instruction.

2 Timothy 4:2 (NIV)

In His Service,

George and Lorraine Halama

Photograph taken by Lorraine