WHAT HAD I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO?

I was in Amsterdam, Holland, at the request of an international crusade ministry. The head of the organization had asked me to come to Amsterdam to visit one of their crusades, meet with some of the leadership, and consider assisting the organization in their crusade ministry. I had been to Holland several times before and was delighted to accept their invitation.

The crusade was being held in an arena in one of the suburbs of Amsterdam. Churches from throughout the nation were involved and thousands of people were attending. While the primary crusade services were at night, there were also prayer and teaching services in the morning.

Several days into the crusade, local pastors were being hosted by the crusade ministry for lunch at the hotel where the crusade team was staying. On that particular day I was with the last group of staff to leave the arena to return to the hotel for the luncheon and we missed our assigned ride. The four of us walked to the street in front of the arena and a taxi immediately pulled up and asked if we needed a ride. We got into the car and I sat in the front with the driver, a woman, who began to take us to our hotel, about a 15-minute drive.

We were just a couple of minutes into the drive when the woman asked, “Are you Americans?” One of us replied, “Yes,” and she then asked, “What were you doing at the arena?” I replied that we were there as part of a Christian ministry conducting meetings that were open to the public. I told her that thousands of people were coming from Amsterdam, from surrounding towns, and from all over that part of Western Europe.

The driver then asked, “So what actually goes on in one of those meetings?” I took a few minutes and in very simple terms explained the flow of a crusade service: lots of good music, testimonies, a main speaker, and an opportunity for people to become Christians. I tried not to use too much Christian terminology because I knew that only a small percentage of Dutch people are born-again Christians.

When I finished my short explanation, I didn’t give the driver a chance to ask another question. Instead, I turned to one of the staff and asked her to share with the driver how and why she had become a Christian. I had learned the previous day that this particular staff member had a powerful testimony of deliverance from drug addiction.

The staff member quickly picked up the conversation and in a few minutes shared her story of how she came to Christ and just a little bit about her previous drug problem. Just as the testimony was concluding, the driver steered the taxi into the driveway of our hotel and pulled up to the front entrance.

Stopping the taxi, the driver asked, “Did you notice that we have been followed by a mini-van?” I mumbled, “No, I hadn’t noticed that!” Then the driver pointed out several miniature video cameras mounted and hidden in the taxi. They didn’t look like cameras to me!

Now she really had my attention! What was happening here?

The driver went on, “The van following us has been recording the conversation we have been having here in the taxi. I am the hostess of a prime-time television program that is shown throughout Holland. We use the taxi and pick up people in different places, video record our conversation, and then show the tape on prime-time television. Would you have any problem with our televising the conversation we just had?”

My mind immediately went into overdrive. What had I said? Did I say something that I would be embarrassed by? In just a few seconds I thought through the conversation and suddenly I was taken by the thought that God had arranged this entire event. He had ordered the conversation and I was totally at peace with what had been said. I turned to the driver and said, “I think I’m speaking for everyone by saying that we would be pleased to have this conversation presented on your program!”

A young woman carrying a clipboard loaded with permission forms came out of the van that had been following us. And we all gladly signed the forms!

I honestly do not know if the video was ever used on Dutch TV, as I left Holland a few days later. What I do know is that I am very comfortable with the fact that all of us in the taxi that day were able to give a credible explanation of our “Christian hope.”

Can you? Are you ready to explain your faith in Christ as God creates opportunities for you to do so? There’s a whole world out there that doesn’t know why you gave your life to Jesus; they have no Christian hope!

1 Peter 3:15: “If someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it” (NLT).