Beginning With One
For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
Habakkuk 2:14
24. To All the World— Beginning With One
TO GIVE A tract to someone in Russia is always a risk. If the person you are talking to is alone, then there is a little more freedom. However, if a third person is present both are always uneasy—each afraid the other might turn him over to the secret police.
Conny and I had been in a Leningrad hotel for about a week when one morning, on our way downto breakfast, I handed the cleaning woman a tract. It was a simple tract, written in Russian, called "The Way of Salvation." It used only Scripture verses with no commentary.
She glanced at it and then glanced at the other woman cleaning the hall. She pushed the tract back to me, motioning with her hand as if to say, "That is nothing for me."
I felt sorry for her. The answer vo hurts when you want to help someone. Conny and I continued on down the hall to the elevator, heading to the dining room for breakfast. We were the only ones on the elevator and on the way down J cast this latest burden on the Lord. "Father, I can't reach this woman. Do bring her in contact with someone who can tell her the Gospel in her own language. Lord, I claim her soul for eternity."
I was shocked by the boldness of my prayer. Never in all my life had I prayed that way. Was it proper? Could I actually claim the soul of someone else? In a kind of postscript I asked, "Lord, was this wrong or right? May I say such a prayer?"
Then, even before I could receive His answer, I heard myself praying a prayer that frightened me even more. "Lord Jesus, I claim all of Russia for You."
TRAMP FOR THE LORD 287
The elevator stopped and Conny and I walked through the huge corridor to the dining room. I was bewildered. My cheeks were red and hot. "Lord, was this right? Was this too much? But no, Lord, Your Word says, 'The earth is the Lord's . . . the world and they that dwell therein' (Psalms 24:1). Surely that means Russia, too."
Still confused, we entered the dining room. It was crowded and the waiter came up and said, "There are only two of you. You cannot eat breakfast here since all the tables are reserved for big groups."
We looked around. A Japanese man had heard the waiter and motioned for us to come to his table where there were two empty places. "Just come," he said.
"We will act as if you belong to our group."
But the waiter saw what had happened and refused to wait on us. I felt unhappy and unwelcome. Turning to Conny I said, "At dinner yesterday I took some white buns up to my room in my purse. They are still there and we have some Nescafé. Why should we sit here and wait? Let us go to our room."
It was quiet and peaceful upstairs. Our breakfast tasted good although it was only dry buns and Nescafé without any cream.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Conny opened it and there stood the cleaning woman, the one who had refused the tract. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun and I noticed her heavy leather shoes squeaked when she walked. She closed the door behind herself. From her lips poured a stream of Russian words, not a single one of which we could understand. Then she pointed a finger at my brown bag.
"Conny, she wants to have a tract," I almost shouted. Conny gave her one but it was not the same one as we had given her the first time. She looked at it, shook her head, and pointed again at the bag.
"Conny, she wants to have 'The Way of Salvation.'"
I got up, rummaged through my bag, and found the original tract. I smiled and handed it to her. She looked at it and her face burst into the great light of joy. Smiling and nodding in appreciation, she backed out of the room.
I was beaming with joy too, for God had answered my prayer. I had not claimed too much after all. The first prayer had already been answered and now I was sure that the second prayer, the one the Holy Spirit had prayed through me without my first thinking up the words, was going to be given a yes answer, too.
Conny, who was as excited as I, took her Bible and read "For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (Habakkuk 2:14). What a promise—the whole of Russia under the waters of God's glory!
There was another knock at the door. There stood our cleaning woman again. She entered and put a long loaf of fresh white bread on the table. Her face was still wreathed in smiles as she refused payment for it. It was her thank offering to God.
I had never had such a good breakfast in all my life.