Fiona H

The other day I asked God for an opportunity to share my faith. A few days later I was waiting to try on some clothes in Marks and Spencer’s, in a very long queue that seemed to have stopped moving. I couldn’t see anyone coming in or going out of the cubicles.

Another woman in the queue started huffing and puffing and complaining about the wait.

I looked at her. I felt sorry for her, as she seemed so stressed.

‘This is really getting to you, isn’t it?’ I said sympathetically.

‘Yes, it is,’ she agreed. She had just come from an event she’d organised at a local store where people had not done their jobs properly, and that was stressful, and she was in a rush to do something else later.

‘I used to be like that,’ I said. ‘I was always running from one thing to another feeling stressed. Eventually I became ill and had to stop working altogether.’

‘I’m always like this,’ said the woman. ‘This is my life. But you’ve got such peace!’

I started to tell her about my life, about all the many ways I’d busied myself trying to find fulfilment, and nothing had worked. I began to realise as I walked with God that my continual striving was an attempt to fill a gap in my life that could only be filled with Jesus.

The woman plied me with dozens of questions. Before we knew it, it was her turn to go into a cubicle.

‘Can you let someone else go first?’ she said to one of the staff. ‘I’ve got to finish this conversation!’

Then she turned to me and said, ‘I know this is a really strange question, but will you have lunch with me?’

I was happy to accept.

When I was in a cubicle at last I overheard one shop assistant say to another, ‘That lady just met the other one in the queue and now they are going out to lunch together to talk about Jesus.’

As I came out of the changing rooms the same assistant asked me, ‘Do you know the lady you’re going to lunch with?’

‘No,’ I said, and gave her a big smile.

We went out there and then for a fantastic meal, which she paid for, and the whole time she was asking me more questions. By the end of it, I’d had some lovely food, we felt as if we’d known each other for a long time, and she had started to find answers to her questions about life. She is now looking for a church in her area and may come to visit St Barnabas with me one Sunday evening.