Hope for Salvation

Submitted by Adam…I spoke with Grandma J today after our worship service at a local nursing home. She said she was able to enjoy the singing time but she didn’t understand the message because she doesn’t understand English. So I offered to summarize the message for her in Mandarin. After I read the Bible passages on the bulletin and summarized the message for her, she responded by asking, “How can one be called a sinner if one hasn’t committed any crime?” (The word for “crime” in Chinese is the same word for “sin”.)  At that moment, I was really surprised by the fact that I had her attention long enough that she was thinking along with me.

To appreciate this, you would have to understand that she is very easily distracted. Even as she is talking to you, she is constantly looking around for random distractions. On several occasions, she started offering us water or juice to drink just because she saw one of the caretakers bring in drinks for the residents, and then she kept insisting that we get something to drink. Another time, as I was pushing her around the building, I saw a phone on the wall and I told her that I recognized the model of the phone. We kept going but she thought that I was looking for a phone to make a phone call. And so as we passed by room after room, she kept asking people whether there were any phones in the rooms, even as I had explained to her that I didn’t need to make a phone call. Once she is fixated on something, it becomes very hard to draw her attention away from it.

Going back to that moment, I was really excited to explain to her that what we mean by sin is not the same as doing bad things, but rather a separation from God, or a broken relationship with God. That got her thinking and she seemed to have more questions. She saw that I was kneeling on the floor and wanted me to sit on a chair so we went to the lobby. Unfortunately, as soon as we got to the lobby, she was distracted by other things again. Nevertheless, I am still thankful that God has given this opportunity for her to think about spiritual questions, and I pray that there will be more opportunities for her to hear and understand the gospel and make her decision to accept Christ.