Waco, Texas Jan. 14, 2013 Jim Raines:
Jim, I was telling you the story of a missed opportunity in Colorado this past summer. I will try with this letter to reconstruct what happened in hopes that it will help someone.
MISSED OPPORTUNITY:
As I go out and about I am always praying that God will give me the opportunity to witness to someone. On just regular paper, I print up a stack of Romans Chapter 10 with nothing else on it except the scripture from the King James Version of the Bible.
I carry these in the front seat console beside me and when I get a chance I will give some of them out or leave them different places.
This summer, I went to Colorado with my Son and some of the Grandkids. We were staying in a campsite up on the Conejos river there in Colorado.
Late in the evening a group of about 12 people came into the camp. Looked like 2 or 3 adults and the rest probably teenage boys. Of all the goings on, you never heard the like, cussing, hollering, loud music, and just downright bedlam in what had been a very serene, calm setting. This went on for hours after dark. Needless to say, it was kind of disturbing to say the least. I wanted to go over and somehow shut them up, but instead I started to pray that God would give me the opportunity to witness to them. I did not want to go over in their camp, as I didn’t feel that would be proper. They finally calmed down and we got a little sleep.
The next day we went to Antonito New Mexico and rode the little train up through the mountians and then stayed at Antonito that night. We were going back to the campground the next day. That night I kept thinking about the kids in the camp and prayed that some- how God would give me another opportunity to witness to them.
We were going to a camp site just beyond the one we had been staying at where the boys were.My son was pulling the travel trailer and one of my grandsons and myself were following him. Just as I came to the campsite where the boys were a pickup pulled out pulling one of their trailers. I stopped, He stopped, I asked how they were doing and if they were leaving and he told me that they were from Santa Fe N.M.and were going back home. There I was. There they were. All that I had to do was pull some of the printed papers from my console and give them to him.
As I pulled away, without giving him the brochures, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I answered
your prayer. Why didn’t you give him the scriptures? I looked in my rear view mirror and they were going on down the road, without the witness.
Since then I have done some soul searching. I know that we pass opportunities by each day to witness to someone, and yes, of course our life is a witness but Jesus said.”Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.” So we must do what we can.
Jim: thanks for letting me share this story. You may feel free to edit it anyway that you need to .
Rodney