Content with Jesus

I decided to walk the 6.8km to our church's Saturday-morning men's breakfast, instead of driving.

Before leaving the house I did something else I'd never done before - I put my Cebuano New Testament in my back pocket.

Along the way I prayed a prayer of consecration to do the Lord's leading. 

Straightaway I felt led to turn up a side-street.

I saw a woman washing-down a caravan, and stopped to talk.

I soon realised she was from the Philippines. 

She'd only just arrived in Australia, she said.

Turns out she was from a remote part of the Philippines - from a town where I happened to have spent some time many years ago - and she spoke Cebuano.

She expressed how distressed she was - feeling misunderstood and roughly spoken-to by her new husband, vulnerable and alone.

I sought to comfort her. 

I showed her the Cebuano New Testament from my back pocket.

I don't know if she realised what the odds were of her meeting a Cebuano-speaking Australian who'd been to her remote town and who happened to have a Cebuano Bible in his pocket, within days of her arriving in Australia.

But we conversed in Cebuano (as best as I could) - as if that's just what you do on the street in Broadbeach, QLD.

I invited her to our church's Filipino service the following day.

Sunday came - she turned up. The women in the Filipino congregation hugged her and loved her - and our Filipino Pastor at the time prayed with her at the front. 

I can't recall exactly how I got home from the men's breakfast that morning - but it didn't really matter - I felt deeply content with JESUS and His love.