[1]ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (BP)–Hired to haul out empty boxes and bags of trash, a man working through a temporary employment agency accepted Jesus minutes before an Elizabethtown, Ky., LifeWay store opened in March.
Having worked alongside LifeWay’s store set-up team, Jason Steinrock had come to a realization of his need for Christ.
As people began to gather at the front door to be among the store’s first customers, Don Murray, a regional director for the LifeWay chain, talked with Steinrock in the store office.
Murray said the set-up crew was also part of the story, even though they didn’t realize it.
For instance, two store sales associates — Mary Van Meter and Barbara Kerfoot — each woke up the morning of the store opening with a burden to pray for Steinrock, but not knowing why.
That week, Steinrock had been eager to join in the store staff’s conversations and devotions held each morning, so much so, the staff thought he was a Christian.
[2]Actually, the young man was struggling inside spiritually. As the LifeWay team waited for Murray and Steinrock to leave the office, they prayed for Steinrock.
“The whole chain of events was the work of the Holy Spirit in this man’s life,” Murray said.
With only minutes to go before the store was to open, the two men came out of the office, grinning. Murray introduced Steinrock as a new brother in the Lord.
Mindy Barmer, another LifeWay employee, recalled that Steinrock said he had been “amazed how we cared for one another — like family. He said he didn’t have that kind of relationship in his own family, and he wanted to be a part of ours.”
Elizabethtown store manager Jonathan Gallegly said to his staff that morning, “If we ask God to work through us, he will honor that request and minister to others.”
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Tjornehoj is communications and public relations coordinator for LifeWay Christian Stores.