the first step

Do you ever get nervous about taking that first step in a spiritual conversation? I know I do. You just never know where it may lead.

About a week ago a man came to our door and told us that another man would come the following morning at 7 am to start work on our porch. Our landlord has promised that our really cool deck would be finished last Fall. We live in the Black Forest area of Germany so we really need our porch when it starts getting warmer. We have a good view. The next morning at 7 am a guy shows up at the door and says in simple English "good morning". I return the greeting. He then askes if I speak English and I then recognized his accent. I said - "si, pero yo hablo espanol tambien. Tu hablas espanol?" (I speak English but I also speak Spanish. Do you speak Spanish?) He said in Spanish - "Yes. I am from Spain. I am from Andulacia". We both lit up. I was so happy to find a Spaniard in Germany and he was happy he could speak his home language even if it were with a person (me) who mostly thinks he knows spanish. smile

I told him about my secret stash of spanish coffee. I still prefer the strong spanish blend. I am a coffee snob. I made him a cafe con leche and we had coffee together. At that point I did not care about my porch and that I was keeping him from working on it. I was having a blast. I felt a nudge and I think it was the Holy Spirit asking me to take a step and to talk to this guy about spiritual things. So I was dusting off my spanish and was preparing to go down that road. He asked me where I work and what I do. I explained my job. I do not use the word missionary but I told him that I work for an organization that is Christian. He then lit up again when I told him that my kids went to a certain school. He said that his pastor's kid attended that school. He then proceeded to talk to me about his church and Jesus and invited me to his church which is a German church. I was floored.

Susan and I attended that church the next Sunday and we talked more. It was great fun and I hope to spend some more time with him in the future. I tell this story for it speaks to me loudly. It was totally unexpected. In reality I thought that the Lord was wanting me to talk to him to help him see Jesus. Afterall less than two percent of the people in Spain are Christ followers. This time I actually did what the Lord asked me to do and that was to initiate a conversation with the guy. The Lord took care of the rest. I would like to think that I encouraged him that day but I know that he encouraged me.

An important facet of living life intentionally is to be ready to listen, act or speak as the Lord leads in whatever moment you are in. I am so far from being an expert at this but I hope I am learning "poco a poco" (little by little).