You never know...

It was late this past Saturday night when the phone rang. All the kids had long been “tucked-in” for the night. I made my way toward the phone and was surprised by the voice on the other end. The person on the other end, wasn’t any where near “could it be” orbit. It was a friend of my who is a professor at a college in the region. After offering a few apologies for calling so late, he began to share the reason for calling.


“I have a young lady at my house from Jamaica. At one point in our conversation, she began to talk about a guy named Jerrell.” How many Jerrell’s does any one person know of? They indicated to her that they knew me and that I actually lived near by. “She went on and on about you,” they continued. “She says, that it is because of you and your influence that she is a Christian, given her life to God and now a student at Taylor University studying Psychology and Biblical Counseling.”

They went on to explain that they were going to be a the Deaf Church in South Bend Sunday morning and what it would mean for her to see me in person. They really didn’t have to say any more, I was there.

So, I worked out Sunday morning that I could slip into the service at the Deaf Church before I had to be at Calvary to take care of my responsibilities. There, sitting on one of the seats was Tashi Bent, junior at Taylor University, native to Jamaica. The first thing she told me after giving me a big hug was,

“I just wanted to tell you thank you. Back at camp in 1997, you came to Jamaica. It was during that week in one of the services that you were preaching that I made a decision to give my life to God and follow Jesus…Thank you for coming. Thank you for what you said…”

How cool is that!

We never know…