Tomorrow, as we celebrate Thanksgiving, my former teammates in America will travel back to Romania for a special time of giving thanks. They will celebrate 25 years since the ministry I was part of began. I will deeply miss being with them, and I’ve second-guessed my decision not to go quite a bit these past weeks. But I will join them in my heart, thanking God for what He did and continues to do. He took the most ordinary among us, called us to follow him halfway around the world, and somehow used us.

We bore fruit, and that fruit remains to this day. That fruit has borne fruit of its own that has remained and has borne more fruit that has remained, and on and on.

There was nothing exceptional about any of us. God is the one who did it all. If we hadn’t gone, he could have had the rocks proclaim who he is.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem to the praise of the crowd, on the day we celebrate as Palm Sunday, he said, “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out!” (Luke 19:40)

Steve’s ministry with prisoners over the years has mostly been one of encouraging Christ-followers and helping them grow strong in their faith.

The past few weeks, one of the young men in our local prison, a Moor, has been seeking and devouring everything they can tell him about Jesus. On Monday night, he told Steve that he trusted Christ! Here’s what happened:  He opened a dictionary randomly and his eyes landed on the word “evangelism.” He read that it means “spreading good news” and he realized that everything he knew about Christ was “good news.” That was the final nudge he needed to give his life over to Jesus as his Savior and his Lord.

Years ago, a friend told me that he became a Christ-follower after watching the movie, “Oh, God!” with George Burns playing God. God had prepared his heart, and he was ready to trust him.

God used a dictionary. He used an irreverent film. And he used us, ordinary warts-and-all, in-way-over-our-heads missionaries.

He can make the rocks cry out if he needs to.

Happy Thanksgiving!