Ridgell's Originals

Gary became a Christian at a young age but wandered away from Jesus by the time he was grown.  Stayed away a long time.  But he married a faithful Christian, Jana.  Gary refued to have anything to do with Jesus for a long time, but a year or so ago he started having conversations about Jesus.  Before long, he was coming to church.  Then part of a small group of men that regularly have breakfast together, talk about Jesus, and pray with and for each other.  That's a good story.

 Uliana is a Russian lawyer practicing in California and Texas.  She was dating Gary's son and wanted to meet his parents so she came to Abilene.  Gary and Jana brought her to church one Sunday and that is how my wife and I met Uliana.

She was raised Russian Orthodox and has interest in Jesus but had never done much about making a true commitment  She was especially interested in baptism as the way to die with Jesus and be raised to a new life.  So over several months, Uliana and I would email and text about Jesus and about what her Jesus journey might look like.

Marsha and I drove from Abilene over to Arlington so meet her at a Starbucks and talk in person about it.  Three hours.  It is possible that I have a loud voice, so Marsha and Uliana still laught about the Starbucks Bible class.

So a couple of weeks ago, Uliana called Gary and Jana to tell them she wanted to come to Abilene and be baptized.  So we baptized her in the Country Club swimming pool.  It was wonderful.  Her first words when coming out of the water were "I am born again."  That is a good story.

And here is why it is a great story.

God used Gary to reach Uliana with the good news about Jesus .

All those years of Jana waiting on -- and praying for her husband.  

Gary coming back to Jesus.

Uliana searching.

Gary connecting us.

All so one more soul could be reached.

Only God.

# posted by Steve @ 5:00 AM