God is in my garden

The first week of July our town is always buzzing. Roskilde doubles in population and I stay home from the office to sell showers in my basement to young people attending our famous music festival. I have worked like crazy all Spring translating testimonies for the new Metal Bible, which is also being released at this year's Festival where the main music theme is Metal. A team of fiery evangelists led by great friends of mine, Roul and Birgitta Åkesson, are walking around handing out Bibles at the Festival parameters. Dax from our church is part of the team and he reports to me daily (read: turns up for lunch) because I am dog-sitting the dog that he is looking after for a week. (The poor dog has been sublet and might end up with an attachment disorder, but that is a different story). I really wanted to join this evangelism team and have fond memories of a few years ago when our whole church was out there with the same group, doing Servant Evangelism and giving away Bibles also. Now I have to stay put, this is the busiest week of the year in my Bed & Breakfast. This week only I am selling basement showers to dusty, friendly young people. Some of them return each summer and call me their Festival Mom. I make a sweet dollar at it, selling coffee and muffins and set up a make-up mirror and cell phone charging panel in my shed. They love my flush toilet. And I give them the New Testament text tucked in between colorful testimonies, one of them my own. Hardly any of my guests turn down this gift, they like the personal twist of my story in it. A guy who showered here yesterday and got a Bible then had read my story in his tent last night and had questions when he turned up today. We have lots of conversations about faith while they sit around and wait for the shower. "Have you ever received a sign?" asked a young man today and I explained to him how God is very much part of my life every day, intervening in big and little things. "For example an amazing thing happened just yesterday" I told him. And now I am going to tell you too, because it really was an amazing turn of events that only God could have orchestrated.

Dax came for lunch yesterday and was sharing excitedly about all the young people that they had shared with and prayed for. He had been teamed up with someone from another local church who shared his passion for spreading the good news. And I told him that this other local church is really reaching people. "For example that traffic cop on that TV series, do you know who that is?" "Yes, he lives in my suburb." "Well he got saved at that church a while back and is now a Christian". It was just a quick comment in a long conversation over lunch and Dax headed back for another round in the field.

An hour later he called me, all panicky. "There are big strong Festival bouncers here, all of a sudden they are saying we are not allowed to stand here, we need a permit. At first one guy came and I told him I was not the leader of this outreach, but I was sure the leader had his permits in order. A little while three big strong menacing guards came and told us to pack up and get a move on quickly. And we are all shook up because they were so angry. Can you call the county and find out how we get a permit?". I did some phoning around and kept getting redirected till I finally spoke to the right lady. Except she was not really that right, she was also menacing and hostile and did not want any group to do any outreach of any sort. "But they are not setting up a table, they are just pulling a small trolley around, handing out free stuff". "They are not allowed to be anywhere in town, the streets get too congested". She only got more irritated when I mentioned that we had been allowed other years, so finally I hung up and phoned Dax and told him that we need a miracle because we are hitting closed doors. Dax prayed in the street, I prayed in my garden. And all of a sudden a police car rolled by Dax and in it sat Vlado, the Christian policeman that I had just told Dax about over lunch. Vlado rolled down his window and yelled "Keep up the good work" and Dax told him about their new problem. "You are very much allowed to be here" said Vlado, "and if anyone gives you any trouble, just give them this". He gave Dax his business card. And the team kept sharing their faith and their Bibles yesterday and today and did not get any more flack. An amazing story of God making a way where there was no way. A lunch conversation turned into a miracle. Yet another fingerprint of God in my life that I could share with a young man between showers today.

Because God is in my garden.