I asked a lady I know recently how she became a believer. She told me that when they lived in a previous apartment, they got to know a Turkish family who were living in the same building. The family they got to know were already believers and told them the Good News and invited them along to a Sunday gathering. The lady's husband believed first and about a year ago the lady believed. She finished by telling me that if this other family hadn't happened to live in the same building she would never have become a Christian.
There are about 1 million people in our city and less than a handful of believing Turkish families. In statistical terms, the chance of finding yourself living in the same building as a Christian Turkish family is minuscule.
We're obviously not Turkish but we have the same Good News to share. So my prayer is that in 2019 we would build relationships with our neighbours and have opportunities to share the reason for the hope that we have. And beyond that, considering that the chance of living in the same building as a believer is so small, that we would be able to develop relationships with others in the community.
Humanly speaking it seems hopeless. There are so many people here who have never met a Christian, never opened God's Word, never seriously considered the claims of Jesus. There are so few believers.
But our God doesn't deal in 'humanly speaking'. It wasn't an accident that led to my friend living in the same building as a Turkish Christian family or that led to that family befriending their neighbours. Our God is sovereign and he is at work here. And knowing that gives me the faith to pray that this next year there will be people added to the Kingdom from this city - and then the impetus to get to work myself.
"And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
