Amazing Divine Appointment

As usual, we planned on going down to Daytona Bike Week to share our faith with the people at the event. However, I made a huge mistake and we were there a week early. No crowds, just vendors setting up. Ron and I met with vendors and offered to help them set up their displays. I spoke with Pete and Jim, vendors who sell the Butt Buffer gel seat implants. We spoke for about 45 minutes as there were no customers to be had. Jim is a non-practicing Catholic and Pete is an atheist. I gave Jim a Gospel of John with the plan of salvation in it to read, and shared a “One Second After You Die” with Pete. It turned out that Pete is from Ephrata, PA, about 30 minutes from where I live. He agreed to read the booklet and we departed ways.

In April, I traded my H-D in on a new Indian with ABS. I wanted a butt buffer installed in this bike like I had on the H-D. I called Pete and made an appointment for yesterday and drove down to meet him. As he was working on the seat I revisited our previous spiritual conversation and asked if he had read the booklet. He had read it but wasn’t convinced. We ended up in a 65 minute conversation and I told him about my best friend Chuck, who had been killed in a motorcycle accident in 2006 on a motorcycle that I had helped arrange for Chuck to buy. I shared Chuck’s spiritual conversion with Pete and told him how much I still missed my best friend, mentioning that Chuck used to come down and hunt and always brought Maine lobsters for us to share. Pete then asked if I had ever seen an 18 pound lobster. Indeed I had at the lobster company on the wharf in Newport, RI. Pete told me that he caught one some time ago. This gave me a clue that Pete was a wreck diver, because that’s about the only place you’ll find a 100 year old lobster. I asked Pete if he was a wreck diver, and sure enough, he had been one. I mentioned that I used to wreck dive every summer out of Point Pleasant, NJ. He got a stunned look on his face and asked if I dove on the Sea Lion. Yep! That was the ship we chartered to wreck dive from! Pete said he was the first mate on the ship! We compared timelines and sure enough, we had met over 30 years ago on the boat! I continued my spiritual conversation with him and he was very open. I asked if he would listen to a set of 6 CDs by Chip Ingram called, “Why I Believe”. He said he would, so I ordered a set yesterday and will deliver them to him when they arrive.

Can you see the hand of a sovereign God in all of this? What are the chances that all of these circumstances would happen to bring us together at this point in our lives? I added Pete to my daily prayer list and I am trusting that all of this happened for a reason – so Pete would surrender his life to Christ in repentance and faith and be saved. I’ll let you know what God does with Pete down the road.