This is not a Lawyer joke . . .

Did you hear about the French lawyer who met the American missionary on the steps at the Goethe Institute in Germany? Today, during one of the breaks at Goethe, I spoke with Sabastian, a French lawyer in my class. As we chatted, he told me that on Nov 29, the 1^st Sunday in Advent, he and his wife were going to have their son baptized. Wow! talk about an open door to share!

I told him that I thought that it was good that he wanted to have his son baptized. This gave me an opportunity to share the Gospel with him, right there on the stairway between the ground floor and the first floor.

I explained that as Baptists, we do not baptize infants, but wait until we are old enough to choose for ourselves to be baptized. I explained that we do not sprinkle water on the one being baptized but that we are completely immersed in the water. I told Sabastian that baptism did not save us, but that it is symbolic of what we believe – Jesus died for our sins, was buried and on the third day rose again. We are buried with Him, by immersion in the water. Our coming up from being immersed is symbolic of being raised to new life in Christ.

Before we had to go back to class, I was able to explain to Sabastian that we must accept, by faith, that Jesus has died for our sin and that it is only by faith that we are saved. He was very interested in our discussion. When I spoke with him later, he confirmed that he was Catholic, but his wife was not. If I had to guess, I would say, she is like so many of the folks around us, without any religious faith at all.

On the other hand, did you hear about the three Saudi Arabian dentists . . . Paula and I continue to share ourselves with the Saudi Arabian couples. Of this group, three of them are, in fact, dentists. They have come to Germany to further their education and to study in their chosen specialty. What began as Paula sitting with one of the women in her class during the lunch break has blossomed into a regular “lunch bunch.” We all share our mid-day snacks and are learning about each other’s cultures. Spiritual matters are a regular topic of discussion in English, German, Arabic and sometimes a combination of all three. Two of the women are pregnant and this gives Paula, in particular, an opportunity to share with them from a mother’s perspective. All of the Saudi couples are about the same ages (or younger) than our kids. Parenting across cultural lines allows for us to share God’s insights as parents.

Please pray that I will have further opportunities to speak with Sabastian about the things that really matter . . .

Please pray that God will place questions in Sabastian’s mind regarding salvation for which he will need to find answers . . .

Please continue to pray for our lunch group from Saudi Arabia that we will influence their lives even as they return to KSA.