The Hidden Listener

 

 

On our missions trip to Mexico in 2009, most people listened to our gospel message and readily accepted Christ.  There were a few resisters, however and this is what happened in one of those encounters.

My wife and I were accompanied by Pastor José Patiño, the pastor we knew in Ejido Janitzio #2 as we went from house to house.  This village of about five hundred souls is located between the  embankment of the canal delivering Colorado River water to the fields of the Colorado Delta in Baja California Norte and the raised highway that leads from Algodones on the California border to its end at Mexican Highway 2 outside San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora.  It is a village of dirt roads and ramschackle dwellings.

As we moved along one of those roads we were invited to enter a rather nicer house.  There we met two younger men and a middle-aged woman. As I began to to share the gospel with one of the men, he immediately began to resist the message by throwing out a number smart remarks mocking the message.

I worked a while with him but got nowhere. My wife who was acting as my “spotter”, noticed that the woman was listening intently to the word of Christ. Barbara directed me to her and she immediately accepted Christ and was gloriously saved with tears in her eyes.

Fortunately, when I turned away from the resister, Pastor José, took up the conversation and kept him busy so we could get on with soul winning.  After we left that house we ran into the second man, who had left to go to the little village store.  As he was returning we stopped and led him to the Lord before he could get back into the presence of the mocker.

I have found that when sharing in a group where there is a resister, there may be someone hidden, as it were, nearby genuinely listening. That is why it is important to have a spotter with you when you do soul winning to be aware of what is happening in the surroundings.  That person should be praying, listening and, above all, looking. I expect my spotters to interrupt the presentation in this type of situation.

 

 

Copyright © 2020 by John St. Clair