By Claudia Koenig
We were on a flight. My husband was sitting in the middle seat on one row, and I was in the middle seat of the row across the aisle.
As a young Asian lady started to sit on the window seat next to my husband, he looked at me and asked me if I would like to exchange seats with him. I knew what he was thinking: this might be a soul for Christ. So, we exchanged seats.
The young woman was talking to her family on her cell, telling them that she loved them. After she finished her call, she began to unwrap a new device to plug into the seat in front of her to watch a movie. My thought was, “Oh Lord, if she watches a movie, I won’t have an opportunity to talk with her.” I had to be quick. So, I said, “You are really up with all the technology.” She smiled and said, “Yes.”
I asked her what she did for a living. She explained that she was in finance and had to travel to corporate offices. We talked more about her work. Then she talked some about her family and shared some photos. I shared photos as well, and she talked about her move from one state to another and her hopes for future plans. That is what gave me the opening to share with her that God had a plan for her that was bigger than the one that she could imagine. I told her that her mind could only go so far, but God is a big God and had more for her than her imagined future. She thought for a moment and said she really would like that. I said, “Well you have to know God first, so you can talk to Him about it, and Him to you.”
She then talked about being born and raised in Taiwan and attending a private school during her school years. She said her husband also had been raised in a private school. She didn’t say what kind of private school, but I imagined it was Catholic.
We talked about different topics, enjoying our conversation, as we continued to get to know each other. As we became friends, I kept telling her about Jesus and what He had done on the cross and His love for us. Soon, she became very interested in knowing Him. So, I asked her if she wanted to pray to invite Him into her heart to be her God and Savior. She was very delighted, as she made the decision. So, we prayed and she gave her life to Jesus for His glory.
She then opened her heart and talked about being in a Catholic school and what she did not agree with: forgiveness of sins and confessions to man, because man could not forgive sin and not knowing where people go after they leave this world. I told her that Jesus, Son of God, had been given all power in Heaven and on earth, and He had the power to forgive sin. I told her that God says that if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to remember our sin no more. She placed her hand on her heart and said that she could believe and accept this, and that she knew in her heart this was right. This made her more in love with the God in whom she had just believed.
We talked about reading the Bible and sharing it with her husband and son. I told her she could respond to them according to what God said. I suggested that she get a Bible for her young son and that both of them read and discuss what they learned, so they would have something to talk about together. She said she really wanted to do that and promised she would. She said, “Now I have someone, I can talk to. I can call you and ask you about the questions I may have. Then she said, “I am so happy I met you.” She was full of joy! She said, “Once I was on a flight and there was nothing, no movie, no music, and NO YOU to talk with!” We both laughed.
“Abba, Father, thank You that you watch over everyone who boards a flight and you seat them where You desire, so that those who know You may have the opportunity to tell the specific people who sit next to them about Your Son.”
“Jesus, may we whom You have chosen to know You take the opportunity to tell those beside us about You.”
“Holy Spirit, thank You for putting it in my husband’s heart to exchange seats so that this young woman might hear about the Son of God. Thank you for helping start a conversation with her and for holding the conversation between us until she gave her life to Jesus, and thank You for a new friendship for Him.”
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John1:9
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 1 John 4:2
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Galatians 5:1
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Romans 3:24
If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. John 8:36