"Wasting Your Time"

Growing and maintaining relationships takes a lot of time and emotional energy. It seems that many of our friends have had lots of problems that they have shared with us lately. A good friend miscarried her first baby. The neighbor's termite-eaten house blew down. Unemployment and hunger are huge problems here among our people. The good news is that as we have been sharing in their physical needs, God has been opening doors to share spiritual truths. We have had friends over for dinner and to watch the Jesus video with us. We have had invitations into many homes to have tea. Often God has directed the conversation so that we are able to share some spiritual insight to get people thinking about searching for Truth. We have been able to pass out some more scriptures and some cassettes. We would like to ask you to pray for us to have wisdom and discernment in all of these relationships.

As I was driving to visit my friend Miriama* one day, I was thinking about my relationship with her. I was wondering if I was "wasting my time" on our relationship because she just did not seem interested at all in anything to do with what I believed. When I arrived at her home, we had tea and a very nice chat. I found out that Miriama* had viewed the Jesus film on local television the year before and that she was currently listening to some scripture tapes that someone had given her! She said she was enjoying them very much, but they were hard to listen to because they were not in her dialect. I felt very reprimanded and wondered who I was to question God in bringing me into this relationship. I have since been able to give her the audiocassette of the Jesus film in her dialect. We continue to be very good friends and I am excited about beginning to share Bible stories that I am learning in her language with her. Pray for God to open the heart of this friend.

We* and Mohammed* (a believer) have a joke about "wasting time." Mohammed* says he is glad that someone "wasted time" in order to share the Gospel with him. I know most of you reading this live in a fast-paced culture. I want to encourage you to "waste time" on someone. It may make an eternal difference!

*Name changed or withheld for security purposes