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Please Let Us Find Them Again
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Pocket Full of Quarters Journey 2015
Please Let Us Find Them Again
San Jose, California
By Cheryle M. Touchton
The Pocket Full of Quarters Lady
But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. Luke 15:22
Our mall evangelizing day was amazing. We'd been in the mall about an hour and had led many to Jesus. We prayed with an entire family and two groups of teenagers. Two of the teenagers didn't speak English but I had Billy Graham's Spanish Track and we walked them through the Gospel using the tract. I wish you could have seen their faces when they read the prayer aloud together in Spanish.
"Where are you from originally?" I asked a husband and wife. Their lovely baby daughter had gotten our attention.
"We're from Viet Nam," the husband said in excellent English.
"Do you also understand my English?" I asked the wife. She did. I was relieved because I wasn't carrying any Vietnamese tracts.
"Was your family Buddhist or Catholic in Viet Nam?" I asked.
"Buddhist but we only go to the temple once a year for tradition. We don't really follow it," the husband answered.
"We're Christians," I said. "May we give you a gift?" They agreed and I gave each of them a Gospel bracelet. I took my time, making sure to tell the story of Jesus and use the convicting Gospel Scriptures. They were fascinated. They knew about Jesus but had assumed people were born into Christianity the way they were born into Buddhism. When I asked if they wanted to pray to meet Jesus, they both said yes and smiled throughout the prayer. All 5 of us were deeply moved by their interest and joy. We offered suggestions for what to do next, gave a tract, and a group member told them how to find a Vietnamese church.
As we walked away, a man in our group said, "I wish I had gotten his name. They may be neighbors and I'd like to stay in touch."
"I can't believe I forgot," I said, gasping. "I try to remember to always ask for contact information from adults. Not everyone says yes but many do. I just forgot. The reason you haven't seen me ask for contact information yet today is because our conversations have either been with teenagers under 18 or with people where there was a language barrier. In those cases, I trust God and the tracts I give them."
"They went that way," a group member said. "Let's try to catch them."
We walked quickly in that direction but were disappointed not to find them. I felt sick because I knew the couple would have welcomed the contact and the help getting started in their Christian walk.
"Please God, let us find them again," I prayed.
We continued evangelizing and eventually led 12 people to Jesus. "God always puts on a show when I'm training new people," I said. "It isn't always this way."
One of our group members began pointing and said excitedly, "Isn't that them? That couple we were looking for?"
Sure enough, God had answered my prayer and we found them. As I expected, they willingly gave their contact information. They were indeed a neighbor of a member of our group and appreciated the attention. That experience gave new meaning to the words "he was lost and now he is found."
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