The Gospels tell us a story about how Jesus sent his disciples into a town to the marketplace. He, on the other hand, met a woman at the well and helped her discover the truth about himself. When the disciples met back up with Jesus, all they could talk about was food, but Jesus rebuked them and told them they weren’t sent to the marketplace to get some vegetables, but rather to make the most of spiritual opportunities all around them. You’ve probably read this John 4 story before, but I think we sometimes miss that last challenge: make the most of opportunities no matter the time or place.

…you could touch all corners of the earth if you simply opened your eyes to the need around you.

Walking into College Station, Texas, for the first time, most would undoubtedly describe it as a very stereotypical college town. It’s calm, friendly, small and so...normal. It’s surrounded by many small farming towns, which gives it a good Southern charm. It’s not really the first place people would think to expand their experiences of cultural diversity. For as long as I can remember, I’ve known that I’ve wanted to take my gifts and understanding of who God is to bless as many nations as possible. I’m sure you can then imagine that after moving to College Station, I never foresaw this as a town I would invest in for long, with its seemingly limited access to other cultures. After teaching in the area for a couple years, I decided to resign so that I could take more active steps toward getting overseas. It was at this time that I began to learn just how wrong I was about my little College Station. I joined a nine-month training program in the area made up of a community of individuals all desiring to go overseas. It was at this time that I found out just how much opportunity was all around me.

About a month ago, some women in my community decided to host a party for our non-Christian friends. I looked around at these beautiful women from China, Iraq, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Brazil all gathered together. It was at this time that I met Aisha (whose name I’ve changed for confidentiality). She told me about her love for painting. I asked her what she liked to paint, and she told me, “Women experiencing freedom.” My jaw dropped to the floor as this Muslim woman began to show me powerful images of women breaking chains. I asked her what freedom meant to her, and she said, “Women making their own decisions — moving where they want, marrying whom they want and doing what they want.” I then asked her if God spoke to her while she painted, and she answered with, “Every time.” I was once again reminded that God is always already at work in our friends’ lives. It is our joy to get to intersect our friends at these times to help them identify that work as God’s hand and the great love He has for them. I’m convinced that it will be women like Aisha who will discover the truth of who Jesus is and lead the next generation of Muslims into the true life of freedom with Christ. By the end of the night, many women had expressed interest in reading the Bible, and one Chinese woman had committed her life to following Jesus.

I remember sitting in a Hindu temple one night, surrounded by all my Indian friends, in the middle of Texas. The next evening I was in the home of a few of my Iraqi friends eating kebabs. The next week I was eating hot pot with a group of Chinese. College Station is home to thousands of international students, many of whom are from nations who have little or no access to the gospel. I was finding that even in a small city in Texas, you could touch all corners of the earth if you simply opened your eyes to the need around you. I was learning how to obey Jesus’ challenge to his disciples. We are always surrounded by hungry souls that long for the taste of truth, not physical food. Over and over I find myself asking, “Will I be the Samaritan woman who wasted no time in telling her town about Jesus and saw a community transformed, or will I be the disciples who missed the harvest because they got distracted by the produce on aisle 4?” Who will you be?