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Preaching the Gospel
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Preaching the Gospel
I met Angie and Wayne at a campground in Fort Wayne, North Carolina. Hapless was in need of water and I had his hood up. “Do you need help?” Wayne asked.
“I’d love help,” I answered gratefully.
“I don’t know much but I’ll do what I can.” We needed to make sure that Hapless didn’t have a leaky radiator so Wayne crawled on the ground and looked under Hapless. “I don’t see a leak,” he reported. I wasn’t sure how bad a leaky radiator was but I was sure that Hapless didn’t want one. Wayne might think he didn’t know much but he surely knew more than me.
Angie kept offering suggestions and I was impressed. “How do you know so much about cars?”
“My daddy made me learn. He said I was off by myself too much not to know what I was doing,” she replied.
“I used to drive a big bus,” I responded. “I’m also a piano teacher and this was a traveling music school. It was a 10-year-old school bus and was always breaking down. One day, Daddy stopped by when I had the hood up, trying to jumpstart that sad bus. I asked him, ‘Why didn’t you teach me how to do this?’ His response was, ‘Because I thought you were going to be a girl.’”
Angie and Wayne were quick to say they were Christians. “We go to Biltmore Baptist Church in Ashville, North Carolina,” Angie said. “We met there.”
“I never thought I’d like a big church but I love this church,” Wayne reported. “Our pastor preaches the straight word of God.”
They have a heart for missions. “We just got back from a mission trip to Guatemala. A very pregnant woman came in and I got to help deliver her baby,” Angie said in awe. “I’d never done anything like that before. These people had nothing. I can’t wait to go back.”
Wayne added, “When we retire, we want to do missions 6 months a year. We have to stay home sometimes because I have a new grandson. Angie is Granny Annie. She’s the best step-grandma ever. This baby loves her and will always go to her.”
“We went to New York just a few months before 9/11,” Wayne continued. His eyes misted. “We left spiritual tracks all over that city. When I saw all those people die, I wondered if any of them had read those tracks and accepted the Lord. You never know.”
I looked down the side of the hill and saw that it was lit up with lightning bugs. God gives me a delight each day and the lightning bugs were my delight that night. “Look at that!” I exclaimed excitedly. “I haven’t seen those for a long time. Insecticides kill all of ours.”
“We have plenty of those back home,” Wayne laughed. We stood around my picnic table for an hour sharing family stories and the love of Christ. What was striking about Angie and Wayne was how much they cared for people. You could see it in their eyes and hear it in their voices. They take seriously the scripture that says those who don’t believe are condemned (Mark 16:15-17) and want to do something about it.
Jesus told us to go into the world and preach the Gospel to all creation. “I’m not good at talking,” Wayne said. “I guess I have to live it.” Whether Wayne knows it or not, he is preaching the gospel continually.
Mark 16:15-17
Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. NASU
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