It all began with a phone call in April, 2023. “Hello, this is Sure Notch Tree Service, may I help you?” This was a typical request for my son’s business. A man was asking if Robert could come and do some tree work for him and his wife. Ironically, they lived only a couple of blocks away. The work was scheduled for the next day.
Robert learned that the man’s name was Dan. He was retired from the railroad and lived in a beautiful home. After the trees and bushes were trimmed, Dan was settling the finances with Robert. He happened to mention that his wife, Donna, was an accomplished pianist. He also added that she only played sacred hymns. This intrigued my son and he answered, “Well, that interesting because I play guitar and I only play sacred hymns.” The invitation then was offered that he should come to their home that evening and play along with Donna.
Robert came home and told me of his encounter and this opportunity to spend the evening singing and playing hymns. During our morning family worship, we often prayed for divine appointments such as this. In Acts of the Apostles, Ellen G. White writes on p. 56:
“Every worker who follows the example of Christ will be prepared to receive and use the power that God has promised to His church for the ripening of earth’s harvest. Morning by morning, as the heralds of the gospel kneel before the Lord and renew their vows of consecration to Him, He will grant them the presence of His Spirit…As they go forth to the day’s duties, they have the assurance that the unseen agency of the Holy Spirit enables them to be ‘laborers together with God.”
Of course, he knew that I would love to join him. We went to their house and had a wonderful time of worship together. Donna could indeed play very well. Robert strummed the guitar and sang with me. Dan sat on the couch taking it all in and being blessed by every minute of it. Even though we had just met, we all felt very connected and agreed that we should get together again. Little did we know how short our time together would be…?
The following week we received a phone call from Donna. Dan had become disoriented and began falling. She called 911, and they took him by ambulance to the VA Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. Several tests and scans were done. The results were not good and showed that he had brain cancer. Surgery was scheduled to determine the kind of cancer and to what extent it had spread. After surgery, they were told that the cancer was fourth stage and terminal. This news was sudden and, as you can image, very devastating.
The next Sabbath, I, my son, and an elder from our church went to the hospice center to visit Dan. It was such a different setting but we sang the sacred hymns that we had sung at his home. He kept mentioning that he felt so peaceful even under these circumstances. We were able to visit him again but we realized his time was short. Six weeks from his cancer diagnosis, Dan passed away.
Donna asked Robert and me to sing at the funeral. The finality of life was then realized by many of his family and friends. After the service, Donna asked what church we attended. He told her that it was a small SDA church plant right here in town. Donna and her late husband were members at a local Assembly of God Church. Attending church on Saturday was a new idea to her, but she was interested to visit after experiencing the love we had shown to her and Dan during their difficult time.
Donna became a regular at our church and Thursday night Bible study. She was amazed at the truths she was learning from the scriptures. She still attended church on Sunday but became more and more convinced of the sacredness of fourth commandment and God’s Holy Sabbath. The Holy Spirit was working on her heart and mind. God then led me to give her the Great Controversy. She read it in a week and placed an order for the entire Conflict of the Ages series. These are her words: “All my life I thought I was a Christian and had read the entire Bible, but I have found that I don’t know anything!” She agreed to do bible studies with me and we have begun our journey through the Search for Certainty lessons. With each lesson she is learning about the Origin of Evil, the 7th Day Sabbath, the State of the Dead, End Time Prophecy, the Three Angels’ Message, and more. As the weeks go by, she is eager to accepting all that God is revealing to her.
God used the Holy Spirit to bring Donna and our family together. He loved her and knew that she, when presented with the Truth, would wholeheartedly accept it. Ellen G. White in the Ministry of Healing p. 159 writes:
“There is no limit to the usefulness of one who, putting self aside, makes room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon his heart.”
In his book, “Christ’s Method Alone,” p. 43 Philip G. Samaan examines each different step of Christ’s method of successfully reaching people. They are as follows:
1. Christ mingled with others as one desiring their good.
2. Christ sympathized with them.
3. Christ ministered to their needs.
4. Christ won their confidence.
5. Christ invited them to follow Him.
6. Christ promised to make them “fishers of men.”
Day by day in our relationship with Dan and Donna, God led us through these steps. She still speaks today of the love she felt with our first encounter. She was astonished that we, as complete strangers, would be willing to come to her home and enjoy an evening of singing sacred hymns together. She was overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and concern when Dan was diagnosed and that we would drive over an hour to the hospice center to minister to him in his hour of greatest need. We had won her confidence and she accepted our invitation to come to church and bible study.
“A fundamental part of Christian witnessing involves how we come across to people – how we listen, how we care, and what impact we make on their lives as a consequence of their being around us. It is relating to others, those we rub shoulders with in everyday life in such a way that they clearly sense the love and power of Christ flowing from our lives to theirs.”[1]
In these critical times of Earth’s history, are we as Seventh day Adventists open to the opportunities that God presents to us to be a part of someone’s life, to share the Gospel with them? Even if it is inconvenient or out of our comfort zone, do we allow God to use us to bring others to Christ? In Matthew 4:19 Jesus tells us, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” He wants all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Let us all commit to be laborers together with God so the final chapter of this sinful planet is able to come to an end.
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Karen Phillips is happily married to her husband, John, and they are enjoying their new home in eastern Kentucky, USA. She enjoys spending time with their four children and three grandchildren. Along with additional staff, they operate an international ministry called HeReturns. Her passion is to serve the Lord in any capacity and to be a conduit to save lost and suffering souls.
[1] Philip G. Samaan, Christ’s Method Alone, p. 16-17
