Conversing With The Unchurched

Tricia (my hot wife) and I have had two separate opportunities to have God-centered conversations with some unchurched people in the last few days. This is good for me, because it's been something I've been asking God for (opportunities) lately...the only way it seems these conversations happen when you're fulltime church staff is when you're incredibly intentional about finding them.

The first was with a woman named Dianne. We met Dianne through an unfortunate circumstance...good friends of hers were vacationing on the OBX last week when the husband suddenly died, leaving the wife all alone and 7 hours from home. Dianne was in need of a ride to the OBX to be a friend and help the wife home, and through some very clearly God-orchestrated situations, we were able to give Dianne a lift. We spent most of the 6 hour trip talking, and spent much of that time talking about NHC and the stuff that we get to be a part of here on the beach as well as Tricia’s upcoming double lung transplant...from that part of our conversation, Dianne asked us about our faith. If I remember her correctly, her basic initial question was, “As a Christian, do you believe that you faith is the only way to get to God, and why?”

What a great question, and certainly one that, from my experience, is one of the first questions being asked by those who are seeking. This question gave Tricia and I a completely open door to share our personal God stories.

The second opportunity that God gave us also came completely unexpected. Tricia and I are helping to organize a Great Strides Walk for Cystic Fibrosis that will be taking place in just a few weeks. Back in January, when we first began on this particular journey, a local newspaper reporter, Paul became interested in our efforts and wrote a story about Tricia and our walk. Through the grapevine, Paul heard about Tricia’s upcoming surgery and contacted us this past Monday asking for another interview for another article. We immediately drove to the newspaper office, along with Sophia, our CFF Special Events Coordinator and spent about 45 minutes explaining the upcoming surgery and giving updated details about the walk. Through a series of questions, we were able to share how our “positive attitude” is simply a result of our faith in God. Both Paul and Sophia and anyone else within earshot heard about what God has done and is doing for us, as well as about what God will do for us no matter what happens to Tricia in the coming months.

So, basically, thanks, God, for giving us these opportunities. We pray that you were pleased and that those we spoke with this week will remember what we said and that you will use it for Your glory.

Nate

PS. I’ll work on getting a link for the newspaper article, which came out this morning.