A New Mission Field? By Lisa Burkhardt Worley
Some missionaries are called to third world countries. Others feel a tug to Europe or South America.
But I am beginning to wonder if I am a missionary to Cab and Uber drivers.
I am always on the lookout for divine appointments and I had just traveled round trip via Amtrak from New York City to Baltimore, Maryland. A train is a great place to start a conversation with someone, but I didn’t sit by anyone on the way to Baltimore, and on the way back to Manhattan, the gentleman next to me kept to himself. Being somewhat of an evangelist, I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t share about Jesus. Isn’t there anyone I can speak to about you, Lord?
After arriving at New York’s Penn Station, I jumped into a cab to head to a restaurant uptown, when I noticed the driver was playing Christian music on the radio. I asked him, “Are you a Christian?” He responded, “No I’m a Muslim, but I love Christian music. I play it all the time.” I knew in my spirit that this was my divine appointment and I prayed for the correct words.
I told the cab driver I loved Christian music as well, and asked if he ever read the Bible. He responded that he reads the Bible alongside the Quran every day and added that prayer was extremely important to him.
“People always ask me to pray for them,” he said.
“So what do you think about Jesus?” I asked.
He told me he loved Jesus but did not think he was the Son of God. I asked him, “What is preventing you from taking that next leap of faith? If you love Christian music, you love the Bible, you love Jesus, and you love to pray, why is it that you do not believe Jesus is God’s Son?”
It was then I shared the gospel message with my new friend, that “God became man in Jesus Christ. He lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died, in our place. On the third day he rose from the dead, proving he is the Son of God, and he offers the gift of salvation to everyone who repents and believes in him.” I told him that God loved him so much that he placed me in his cab to share this free gift with him.
He was not ready to pray a prayer to receive Christ at that moment but I suggested an apologetics book for him to read. I also asked him to pray that if Jesus was indeed God’s Son and the Messiah, that He would reveal himself supernaturally. He seemed open and agreed to pray for that to happen. I am confident God will answer in an undeniable way.
Before we arrived at the restaurant, the song “Waymaker” by Leeland came on the radio and we both began to sing and worship. As I left the cab, this joyful driver said, “God loves you” and I replied “God loves you too” and I knew the Lord had placed me in this particular taxi as a messenger and to water a seed that had already been planted in this man’s heart.
God loves His people. He does not want anyone to perish and He will use us as human invitations to invite others into His family through belief in Jesus Christ. We never know when or where it will happen. We just have to be ready to share.
“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect…” (1 Peter 3:15).
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).