The Missionary Mouse
It was the end of a long day; as the night deepened, all members of the family were tucked up in bed. Then my wife decided to go and get a drink of water from the kitchen. As I lay in bed, drifting off, I heard a scream—a scream that spoke of an intruder in the house: an intruder with a long tail, little ears, whiskers, and a small nose… a mouse!
At the time, I didn’t know this late-night visitor would set off an evangelistic encounter. All I could think about was, “How do I get rid of this mouse!” The next morning, I called pest control. The man I spoke to said he would be around later in the morning, so I headed off for an outreach with The Open-Air Mission, leaving my wife and children at home.
To be honest, I didn’t think much more about the mouse; for me, it was just an inconvenience. But God was at work. Providentially, that mouse was about to open the door to the gospel.
Back home, as the father-and-son pest control team went around laying baits and traps, the son, who is in his early 20s, noticed some Christian books and a Bible verse poster we have at our front door. Seeing this, he asked my wife if we were Christians, and then he began to share that he had been thinking a lot about Christianity and had recently been invited by a friend to church. His father then began to open up about how he had formerly attended church but had been hurt. Both were open and wanted to talk. My wife pointed them to Jesus. Since this was their first visit (two more would follow), we knew we would get another opportunity to share.
The next time they came around, I was present. Very soon after their arrival, they brought up the subject of Christianity. Both believed they were good people and hoped that God would let them into Heaven. I gently challenged this mindset by asking if they were as good as God, which both readily admitted they were not. The father then said, “I’m actually worried I may be going down, not up!” We were able to share the good news with them and explained that salvation is through Jesus alone. They were urged to trust in Christ, and we were able to give them a couple of gospel booklets that explained the good news further.
Why do I share all this? Talking about a mouse in the house isn’t exactly normal conversation. The reason for sharing is that I want to challenge all Christians to always be ready to speak for Christ. Evangelism doesn’t have to be an event scheduled in our diaries; rather, witnessing for Jesus should be something we look to do daily.
1 Peter 3:15 reminds us that we always need to be ready to speak about the hope we have. Yet, so often, we miss the day-to-day openings the Lord gives us to share the good news. I am not suggesting we look to invite mice into our house just so we can witness to pest control, but I am suggesting that we need to be more deliberate each day in our witness for Jesus.
Gary Cobb, who works for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, suggests praying the ‘Open Prayer’ each morning: “Lord, open a door. Lord, open their heart. Lord, open my mouth to share the good news.” Would you pray for daily openings to share the gospel?
Evangelism isn’t about programmes, though they are good; it is about always being ready to speak of Jesus. You never know how the Lord will use your daily situations to open a conversation to speak about Him. If He can use a mouse in my house, I am sure He can use you!
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Josh receives his salary from The Open-Air Mission. Any financial contributions made through this website will be allocated towards supplying evangelistic resources and addressing requirements associated with gospel-related activities.