What if he had said YES?

 I have asked myself that question numerous times concerning a man that rejected the gospel in Tanzania.

On our recent trip to Tanzania, Teresa and I went on a motorcycle ride/evangelism trip with James and Paulo (our translator).  We went to tell the Zaramo tribe about Jesus and pass out bibles.  On our way back from this evangelism trip, we stopped on the side of the road for a break.  In the 5 mins that we were stopped, an older Tanzanian man (I cannot remember his name so we will call him Steve) came walking by.  I looked at James and said, "tell him the story."  James spent the next 10 mins telling Steve the greatest story ever told.

James has an amazing passion when talking about Jesus.  His voice has a sincerity that draws people in.

When the story was done, James asked Steve if he would like to accept Christ as his Lord and Savior.

We had been telling this story all day to the Zaramo people, and we had met with incredible success. This time was different. After hearing the Gospel story, Steve told to James, "I do not need to be forgiven; I have no sin."

I do not know if it was pride or culture that kept this man from admitting his sin, but no matter what James said after that, Steve would not bend his knee to Christ. His heart was hard and could not admit  his faults.

Right after that, another man named Simon approached on a bike. It was my turn to tell the story of Jesus, and Simon gladly accepted the offer of forgiveness. He gladly accepted the rule of Christ as King.

I know what you are thinking.....its obvious that I must have been better at telling this story than James. Normally that would definitely be the case, because lets face it; I'm kinda awesome...but on this occasion it was the same story, the same road, the same culture, but two very different outcomes.

Just like everywhere else in the world, some people do not want to admit weakness and submit to a higher authority. Others recognize that they are not complete without the saving graces of Christ. From the moment that I was reborn in prison until now, I cannot understand why I went so long denying the truth of the Gospel. Because of that, I now have a desire inside of me to help people see that truth.

At that moment there was nothing we could do for Steve but pray. We promised both men we would come back to their village and give them bibles, as we had already passed everything we brought that day to the Zaramo. For the next 3-4 days, I thought about Steve a lot.  Why would he not admit his sin?  He had no idea of the ramifications of rejecting the Gospel, and there was no way for me to spend the weeks or months or years needed to walk him through that choice.  We literally had to leave him in the dust of those motorcycles and move on.

What if he had said yes?!!!!?

Steve is in the trench coat, Simon is next to the bike.

Almost a week later we went on another mission trip out to the Zaramo, this time in a mini van on a dirt road loaded down with hundreds of bibles.  As we were on our way, I asked if we could try to find Steve. It took us well over an hour, 4 villages and miles of walking and riding to locate him.

When we finally found the three-hut village where he was, James told Paulo evangelize and pass out bibles, that we would stay in the van.  James is always encouraging people to step up and take the lead (just one of the reasons why people are willing to follow him across an ocean and into the wilderness at the drop of a hat). We approached a group of 12 gentlemen hanging out around a fire.

We told Paulo to present Steve with a bible and ask him if he had time to reconsider.  After about 15 minutes, Paulo said that Steve was shocked that we actually tracked him down to give him the bible. Steve said that he was unable to stop thinking about the Gospel ever since that day on the road.  It was this restlessness that allowed him to admit his sin and ask Christ to be his Lord and Savior.  He thought he had missed his chance at redemption, and was glad we stayed true to our word in tracking him down.  I could barely contain myself!!  I was not ready for a yes.  We collected all of the water we had (abut a cup) and Paulo prayed with the man and baptized him right there on the spot.

However, if you look at the picture below you will notice two men: the man in the trench coat, Steve, who had originally rejected the gospel and another. The second man heard the gospel while Paulo was talking to Steve.  He stood up among the men and said he wanted to be saved.  Steve's initial rejection of the gospel and us finding him again allowed this man to hear about salvation.

You see, God can to use our stubbornness to progress His Will.  The same happened to me.  I was so stubborn towards God's truth that I found my self incarcerated in prison for almost a decade, but it was in prison that I was saved and eventually helped many see the light of the Gospel.  What if Steve or I had said yes, the first time we heard the Gospel?  It made me realize that we should never write someone off as a lost cause, because one "no"  can turn into a "yes" for many in the future.

Keep telling the greatest story ever told and you are bound to see the unreachable get reached.

Steve in the same trench coat and his friend

The Faith of A Child

On a camping trip to Inks Lake this weekend I was confronted with a scene of indescribable beauty.  There by the shore of the lake, was my 6 year old step daughter reading a book to a young boy of the same age.  He was from a neighboring campsite and within minutes they had become close friends.  Something I wish adults could do as easily as these two did, but that is another discussion for another time.  The sun had just come up, the weather was perfect, and we were busy packing up all of our gear to begin the drive home.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw these two children by the water and I stopped to enjoy.  Here we were so busy with the stuff of life that we could not enjoy the life we were so deperately tying to live, but these two youngsters had it figured out.  What I witnessed was serene, remarkable.  My step daughter was teaching this boy stories from her children's story bible.  There in that moment all of eternity stopped existing and all that was left was innocence.  She was not trying to convert this boy, she wasn't trying to become a preacher, and she was not wanting the whole world to see how productive of a christian she was.  All she wanted to do was tell her new friend about a God that created the heavens and Earth and about a Savior that laid down His life for us all.  I don't know what they talked about, and it doesn't matter.  I saw Jesus in her at that moment. She displayed no denomination, no tradition, just pure selflessness. My first reaction was to take pride in how well I was modeling Jesus to her since becoming her step dad.  My pride swelled up and I wanted everyone to see it.  Hence the photo.  Believe it or not, that's exactly why I started writing this blog post.  However, once I started I got convicted and had to change the purpose of this post.  Never in my 5 1/2 yrs of being a christian have I ever done what she did.  It made me laugh to think of her teaching me, of her showing me how to be like Jesus, that is exactly what she did.  I can tell you all about doctrine, and theology, denominations and traditions, and I have even discipled many people, but I have never done anything as pure as that little girl did on the edge of that lake.  I am in awe of it even now.  I want my heart to be like hers, I want my mission to become like hers, and I want to be that innocent in my purpose.  She fulfilled the great commission without even knowing what it is. She showed me that I have a long way to go to have faith like a child.  They say it took Picasso years to learn how to draw like a child, how long will it take for us to have faith like one.  I pray that it will be sooner rather than later.  When she got in the truck, there was no mention of what she had done, if I had shared the gospel with that boys family you can believe it is all I would have talked about on the way home.  Lord God, please allow me to die enough to self to become like she was in that moment.  Let us all be willing to tell people about You the way she did, please destroy the walls we put up keeping us from that quick friendship and renew in us a steadfast spirit able to operate in innocence.

Thank you God for letting me see that moment in time.
I will forever be changed.
Eddie Franz

From Prison to Mission

I was standing in my cell being counted.  The guards were counting us to make sure none of us had: broken out of the cell block, climbed up and down a 15' wall, and then scaled not one but two razor wire fences with 10' of razor wire between the fences.  Not really a necessary count considering no one had ever escaped this federal prison, but one of at least 5 daily counts none-the-less.  During this particular count I made sure I the guards did not see my face as they walked by my cell.  I possessed 2 huge shiners (black eyes) that I did not want them to know about.  If they would've seen my black eyes I would have been taken to the hole for at least a month, or forced to tell them about the fight I was in. If you understand prison there is really no choice here.  So for obvious reasons I gave the guards my back. It was at this moment that something inside me broke.  Maybe it was my pride or maybe it was my heart, either way I was done.  I grew instantly and insanely tired.   It was in this brokenness that I realized  my entire adult life had been an act.  "Acting" tough and "acting" cool for over a decade was exhausting, and I was obviously horrible at it.  It go me nothing except a nine year prison sentence.   I was tired.  I had know idea who I was, or who I was supposed to be, but at that moment I decided to begin the task of finding out.

Thats me front left.

The guys in these pictures  were my friends/brothers.  They were closer to me than anyone I had ever met.  We would bleed for each other, to the point of death if need be.  That was even our motto, "till death."

Thats me on the left

How could I walk away from a group of men that put their lives in my hands and vice versa.  To this day I love these men and pray for them, but I was changing inside and it was my destiny to travel a different path.

Months after the fight I was transferred to a minimum security prison. (where the inmates were different than the guys you see in the pictures.)   Not better or worse, just different.  They were men that I didnt care to impress.  It sounds great to not have to impress anyone, but I was used to the attention that I got from doing crazy things, trying to impress.  The aloneness I felt at this new prison was staggering and profound.  It was that aloneness though, that removed the other voices long enough to finally hear God's.

There was a group of men who came to this prison every Thursday for no reason except they cared. They usually taught bible studies, but one Thursday they showed a movie and some inmates invited me, to which I replied, "no thanks."  The movie was, "Passion of the Christ" directed by Mel Gibson. The christian inmates continued to pitch it to me by saying, "Mel Gibson made it, so it has to be good."  Say what you want about the sanity of Mel Gibson, but the irony of a man who starred in Lethal Weapon being the one responsible for me hearing the Gospel, is not lost on me.   I left the movie asking myself,  "was it true?"   I had to know.  So I went on a search for the truth and found only Jesus.

Fast forward 4yrs.  Still in prison, but my entire life was devoted to serving Jesus.  As much as I used to be devoted to destruction, I was now much more devoted to life.   I modeled my life after Phillipians 2:17  but even if I am poured out as a drink offering for the sacrifice and service of your  faith I will rejoice.  It is amazing the difference Jesus can make.  People saw life in me where before only death was visible. I truly was a new creation.  Little did I know what God had planned next in life.

Fast forward 2 more years.  Not in prison.  I married an amazing woman and was blessed with two of the best step kids you could ever ask for.  I was serving at my home church, WBCC,  and feeling like nothing could be better.  That is until I head a sermon from James Myers on Missions.  He preached an entire sermon with a coke bottle on the podium, and the entire time I am wondering why.  At the end he says that one day he was in Tanzania looking for a group of unreached people, he came across a man who had never heard the name of Jesus Christ, but he was holding that bottle of coke.  So in about 100 years coke was able to do what 2000 years of evangelism was unable to do.  It struck me at that moment that we as christians are making the Holy Spirit look weaker than Coke.  That to me was unacceptable.  My wife turned to me at that time and simply said, "we have to go."  I agreed.

Next time I will tell you all about this trip, and who this man with me is.

Once again thats me on the left.

Eddie Franz