I went to visit my aged Mum (88) in Whangarei for Christmas.

On the way there, just south of Wellsford, I rounded a bend and there in front of me was a man coming out from the deep bush which lined the road.  As soon as his feet hit the road, his thumb went out. It was 7 am.

After a positive experience picking up a hitch hiker a few days ago, I immediately pulled over for this man too.  Let’s call him Mike.

Wow! What an interesting story he had to tell!

He was 32 and European. He had spent the night sleeping in the bush, warming himself around an open fire.

Making a bed for himself out of punga fern leaves, his pillow had been his tiny bag.  His only clothing was what he had on him, which amounted to jeans, tee shirt, sweat top, shoes and socks. No sleeping bag or blanket for him.

I asked him if he’d been cold overnight, and he said ‘a little’.   Overall, he said, it was a beautiful experience: shooting stars, only the sound of the crackling fire, and the unique smell of virgin bush.

He was headed to Paihia for the new year, en route from Raglan. Mike had a seven year old son called Andrew.  For the first five years of his life,  Andrew had lived with his mother. Year five was a bad one.

Mum got into drugs, particularly P, which led to depression.  During year five, she turned up at Mike’s door, with Andrew, saying she couldn’t cope looking after Andrew any more. So, now Andrew was living with Mike.

To look after him properly, Mike left his job, and started receiving a benefit from the government.  He’s lived like this for the past two years. He and Andrew, he told me, had become very close.  Over the new year period, Andrew’s Mum had agreed to look after him, allowing Mike some ‘time out’.

Now this is where it get’s interesting.

About an hour after pick up, I turned the conversation around the spiritual things, and showed Mike the gospel presentation on my iphone that you can see at www.biblein11.com.  I was able to plug the iphone into the car’s stereo system, so the sound was like a movie theatre!

As he watched it, I did the usual thing, which was to stop it after the section on the Law. I asked him three questions, and he admitted he was a thieving, lying, murderer, as I was. I then explained how he could be forgiven in my own words. To see what I said, please click here.

After the explanation, Mike watched the second half of the gospel presentation on my iphone. In effect he was now watching on video what I had just explained verbally.

At the end I asked him where he would go if he died tonight. He said hell, and this disturbed him – so he said.  He then asked me how to turn and surrender, which are the conditions for forgiveness.

I explained these to him so that he understood what it meant to be a Christian. At the end of my explanation, I asked him if he wanted to turn and surrender right now.  He said yes, so I led him through a prayer of forgiveness. I prayed, and he imitated what I prayed.  At the end of the prayer, he gave me a beaming smile, and we shook hands.

I gave him the follow up booklet HOW TO BE SURE OF GOING TO HEAVEN WHEN WE DIE’ pointing out the web address www.biblein11.com at the back, the genuineness test on page 26, and ‘what he must do now’. To read this booklet, please click here.

Then Mike said some more interesting things.

When he left Raglan yesterday, he told his Mum and sisters he was going up north to do some soul searching. Seriously, this is what he’d told them!

He then told me another side to what he’d been thinking in the bush overnight. He told me he’d asked himself ‘what the #@$% am I doing!  I have no money, I am sleeping in the bush around a camp fire, I am cold and hungry, I am separated from my partner, I am have a seven year old son, and I have no car or money, and I am living on a benefit.  What the #@$% am I doing! I am going no where!’

He then expanded on his money situation. ‘Payday’ from the government was Thursday. This encounter was happening on Monday. I asked Mike what he planned to do for meals and accommodation between now and Thursday. His answer? ‘I have no idea’.  His  last meal was lunch time on Sunday. He was now very hungry.

He also told me that during his 32 years on earth he’d ofter asked the question ‘what is life all about?’ and various variations of this question such as ‘what’s the point of being born?’

Until today, he’d never thought about heaven or hell, or what happened after death. The gospel ignited these realities into life.

What’s really interesting is that he went to St Paul’s Collegiate in Hamilton for five years, an Anglican school. Here he’d sung hymns and listened to the bible being read regularly in chapel times, but it meant absolutely nothing to him because he couldn’t understand it. My experience of talking with teenagers who have been to denominational schools is that ‘the religious program’ in these schools has often unwittingly inoculated them against Christianity. Far too many leave school thinking Christianity is non-comprehensible and therefore irrelevant.

This is a tragedy without parallel.

For Mike,  5 years in a religious school did not light his spiritual candle. The bible in 11 minutes video did.

This is a crucial point for all of us who are in the business of communicating Biblical truth (e.g. denominational schools, Christian schools, pastors with their sermons on Sundays, youth group leaders etc etc), not just those engaging in evangelism.

In Matthew 13, in the Parable of the Seed and the Soil, the abundant fruit came from the person who heard the word and UNDERSTOOD IT!  I can’t emphasise the importance of this strongly enough. It’s crucial we communicate the gospel (indeed all biblical truth) succinctly, logically, accurately, and meaningfully. This is why I am such a big proponent of the gospel presentation at www.biblein11.com.

A big reason why non-Christians don’t respond to many of our gospel messages is that they don’t understand them!

It took literally years to write the script for www.biblein11.com.  The research and study which was required to decide the content was enormous. The testing on non-Christians was endless.

There was no point in producing a presentation which was biblically accurate if it didn’t capture and hold the attention of non-Christians.

Likewise, there was no point in producing a presentation which captured and held the attention of non-Christians if it wasn’t biblically accurate. Both considerations are crucial.

It’s not enough to spout bible verses at people. It is crucial to package our message in terms and ways non-Christians can understand.

When we arriving in Whangarei, we stopped at a cafe and enjoyed a ‘big kiwi breakfast together’.

Among Christian friends, I would have said that in buying a meal for him, I was ‘watering’ the gospel just planted. I got such joy from doing this.

I had ‘ploughed’ the spiritual soil in Mike’s heart by learning about his life in the first hour of our journey, just listening and taking an interest.

Then I planted the seed of the gospel and harvested.

So, there’s the whole process: ploughing, sowing, watering, harvesting and discipling. The discipleship started with the follow up booklet. He said there were churches in Raglan and he would connect with one.

When I finally did drop him off on the side of the road, I also gave him $20, with the proviso he didn’t use it to buy cigarettes.

It was an incredibly life giving and rich morning for me and for Mike, making the festivities and pomp of Christmas pale into insignificance.

The cost to me personally? $15 for his breakfast, and $20= $35. This is absolutely nothing compared to what Christ did for me. And you know what? It was by far and away the best experience of the day, even though I love my Mum and her and I had a great time as well.

So, should Christians pick up hitchhikers? You know the answer.

What are the lessons here?

(1) Without taking risks (e.g. picking up hitch hikers) for the sake of evangelism, the Christian life will soon become meaningless.

(2) God is sovereignly at work in the lives on non-Christians. Mike was ‘soul searching’ and God used me to pick him up. If I’d been thirty seconds earlier on a two hour trip, I’d have missed him. All we need to do it join in, and find out what He’s up to! And in doing so, we’ll discover joy unspeakable.

(3) Our money, cars, time, resources, belong to the Lord. They are not our own. We are stewards of them for His glory. They is little point in having them if we don’t use them to get involved with non-Christians to further the Great Commission.

(4) Meaningfulness is absolutely crucial as we try to communicate Biblical truth with non-Christians.

p.s. I know the bible says ‘don’t let your right hand know what your left hand is doing’ and here I am in these testimonies appearing to glorify myself.  In order to encourage the church into evangelism there is no way around this. I don’t mind losing my reward if it encourages and helps other believers.

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