No one would ever describe John as subtle. Not by his raucous laughter, and certainly not by the way he bounds up the stairs at Granny’s House every day. Even when he’s trying to be quite, our African friend from Burundi is loud.
As is typical, I heard him long before I saw his bright-eyed face appearing at the office door. Moments later, he walked in and noisily plopped into a chair beside Crystal, our new mom-volunteer who had just signed in to begin the day’s volunteer duties.
“Granny Pam!” he nearly shouted. “I need to know about God…” he said. “I got this Bible, but I need to know God.” John is Ira’s friend and, before, the two of them enjoyed making mischief together. But Ira’s dramatic transformation at KAA had peaked John’s interest in God.
It’s not very often that someone makes that kind of unvarnished inquiry, so I quizzed him to see exactly what he had in mind. “The Bible?” I said. “There’s a whole lot about God in that book...what do you want to know?”
“Everything!” he said. “I want to know everything… like, how YOU got God.”
Since he said “Everything!” I began sharing the unabridged version of how I became a Christian decades ago. He seemed fascinated, listening carefully to every detail. As he sat pondering what he’d just heard, I turned and faced Crystal, who was sitting there savoring the leftovers of what I had just shared with John.
“Crystal?” I asked. “I know you’re excited about going to church and everything, but have you ever had a time in your life when you knew you believed the Gospel, that you had given your life to God... that you were forgiven?”
“Oh yes!” she said with a beaming smile. “It happened the first day I went to church a few weeks ago.” I still recall that day when she sat crying throughout the entire worship service. On the way home she said, ”for the very first time in my life, I didn’t want to leave.”
There’s hardly ever a subtle moment with John, and there’s nothing subtle about God’s passionate desire to claim the hearts of the ones He loves on Trinity Place. Ira, Crystal, John - all three like dominos falling into the grace of God... -Granny Pam
