New Child of God

By June Sparks, Sydney Labouring Community

“In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Luke 15:10

There is rejoicing in heaven and in our house! We have spent time over the past several weeks meeting with K and N to read the Gospel of John together. The short story is that K prayed to receive Christ a couple of weeks ago.

In our small group during first term, we were studying Mark. Mark 4:26-29 describes growth like this: “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

The Long Story

We have been scattering seed in the lives of K and N over the past 8 years. During that time, we have watered the seed in different ways. I initially met K and N while out walking. Over time N stopped walking, but K continued on and we met and talked occasionally. Some of those talks were significant gospel conversations that felt like a whole watering can had been poured into the soil. Others were more like a consistent slow drip-feed keeping the conversation moving ahead with bite-size gospel soundbites.

Over time I introduced Dave to K. K asked questions, trying to see if Dave and I believed the same thing. Dave was able to share his testimony, and we went home rejoicing for what God was doing. In the past four months or so, things seemed to move forward quickly. Dave drove K to an appointment to have his cataract removed. To us this was a small thing, but it seemed to have an impact. A few weeks later he drove him to have his other eye done. While they drove back home, K told Dave that he did not like a Bible Study they had tried. Dave said, “you know the four of us – June, N, you and I – could get together and discuss the Bible. We would love to do that with you.” K didn’t say much right then. A week later, N called and said they did want to read the Bible with us and asked, “How soon can we start?”

We began reading John together on January 10 and are up to Chapter 5. It is exciting to watch each week as we get together how their understanding is growing. K makes sure each week that we summarise what we’ve learned so far, not wanting to miss anything.

We looked at Chapter 4 over a fortnight and shared the Bridge Illustration both weeks.

On the second time through Dave asked where K thought he was at. He said, “I’m in the middle”. Dave asked if there was any reason to not cross over to God’s side right now. He said, “No”. So they prayed together and K came to Christ right then and there!

It is still early days, and we are working with him to understand fully what it means to follow Jesus.

Pray for K to grow in his newfound faith and for protection from the enemy placing doubts into his mind.

We praise God for the way His Spirit works in hearts and for the privilege of partnering with God and with you in the gospel here in Sydney!

David and June Sparks labour in Sydney, within their church and local communities. Find out more about their ministry by clicking on the related posts and visiting their Staff Profile page.