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Las Vegas Winners

[1]

"We will be landing in Las Vegas in approximately twenty-five minutes," the pilot announced as I made my way to the forward galley area. Four flight attendants were closing things down for the landing when one of them said to me, "Someone on this plane told us that you should talk to us."

I had no idea who had said that and I laughingly replied, "Did they say what I should talk to you about?" Another attendant responded, "They said you would know." Then it dawned on me that someone on the plane was arranging a witnessing opportunity for me.

As soon as I mentioned the Lord, one of the two male attendants made a hasty departure but the other three, Dan, Shirley, and Jean drew closer, expressing genuine interest in what I was saying.

At that moment, the plane hit some turbulence, and the pilot instructed everyone to be seated for the remainder of the flight. "If you are interested in what I am talking about and have the time," I invited, "I will wait for you three inside at the airport gate lobby and finish our conversation." All three excitedly agreed.

Our grown son Matt and I waited until the last person came off the plane followed by the three attendants.

[2]

They sat across from me as I leaned forward and opened my hand before them and took about six to eight minutes to share the gospel on my fingers as I spelled out F-A-I-T-H. In the middle of all the noise of the airport lobby, with hundreds of noisy slot machines and gamblers, and with some of their airline employee friends looking on, they bowed their heads and prayed aloud to receive Christ as their Savior.

I suppose I was trying to give some sort of explanation when I said, "I know this seems weird and strange that an unknown guy just out of nowhere talks to you about something so personal as… ." They stopped me, saying, "Oh, no, this is not you, because we had already been talking about these things earlier in the week. No, this is the Lord at work!" Then we all broke out into happy smiles, stood, and headed off on our separate ways. The three turned back one more time before they towed their black bags out of sight — waved, mouthed the words "thank you," smiled, and vanished into the crowd.

As Matt and I walked on by all the airport's bright lights and noisy gamblers shaking hands with their one-armed bandits, we agreed that we were the biggest winners in the entire place. We had just seen God at work, changing lives!