“That’s funny! I was working for a vicar just yesterday, and now I’m working for you. Maybe there is a higher power after all!” the man exclaimed.

He was one of the workers who had come to replace our fence after a windstorm had torn it down. When they stopped for a break, I brought them hot drinks, and we started chatting about our professional backgrounds. I had just answered the workman’s question about what I did for a living.

Now he continued, “I’m a recovering alcoholic and drug addict. I’ve been clean for four years now, thanks to a group that a church has been running to help addicts. Now I’m beginning to run a recovery group of my own, and I’m starting to think that maybe there is a God, too.”

“Maybe God is trying to say something to you, sending you to two pastors in a row,” I said. “Maybe He is prodding you to look into Christianity a little more seriously.”

The following day, another workman came to our house to repair our boiler. Again, as we chatted, he asked me what I did, and I told him a bit about the church.

“Oh, do you work for the church that’s down the street?” he said.

“No, I’m the same faith—Seventh-day Adventist—but I work for a mission organization.”

“Huh. I’ve done a lot of work for Adventists, repairing their boilers,” he said. “I was actually born and raised a Methodist, but I don’t really go to church anymore. Maybe I’ll check out your church sometime.”

“You’d be very welcome,” I responded.

Later, I reflected on how unusual these conversations were. European people are not generally so open to discussing religious matters, so to have two such conversations on consecutive days was an encouraging reminder that the Holy Spirit is at work. We just need to be willing to be used.

Please continue to pray for us and for the career and student missionaries in our territory. We want to be attuned to the Holy Spirit’s leading in our encounters and speak to the hearts of those whom God is gently leading.

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