A number of years ago, Dave and I were witnessing at a local McDonald’s. We looked across the street through the window of a laundromat and saw an elderly woman who was cleaning. We went over to talk to her. We introduced ourselves and asked if she would be interested in prayer for anything. She gladly accepted, and we prayed for her.
We continued to visit her on an almost weekly basis and listened to her share about how her life was going. She said that at some point the laundromat was going to close and the owner was going to sell the building. Once that happened, she would be out of a job and would have to live on social security only.
The day came when we went to McDonald’s, looked across the street, and found the laundromat closed up. Unfortunately, we did not prepare ahead of time in order to have any way to keep in touch with her.
Years went by until one day when I was in the downtown area of Lancaster witnessing to people outside of the Central Market. I looked up and there she came. I had to reintroduce myself because it had been a number of years since we last saw each other. At first she did not recognize me. When I said that I was one of the two guys who used to come to the laundromat and pray with her, she remembered me immediately. Before she went on her way that day, I got her phone number to stay in touch.
As I do with many people, I began to send her several scriptures each day through text messaging. At one point she contacted me with a request to help her with a specific need. Through that contact, I was able to find out where she lived. With her permission, two laborers for the harvest started to visit her nearly every Tuesday night when we have our Kingdom Advance in Lancaster city. We listen to her share whatever she wants to, we study the Bible together, and we pray together. Because of her age and disabilities, we also are involved with helping her with different needs that arise.
One day I had a perception from the Holy Spirit that it was time to ask her about making a commitment to Jesus. The next time we met with her, we talked with her about that. She said that she was ready. So with her commitment to repent, we baptized her upon her confession of faith in Jesus Christ.
Because of her physical limitations and health issues, she is not able to attend worship services at a church building. In the New Testament, the Greek word that is translated as church literally means a gathering of people. So most Tuesday nights, two or three laborers go to her house for church, a gathering of believers.