While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. (Matthew 4:18-22)
I love those moments when God puts you in the right place at the right time. When you know He is already there and He has already been working. Then for some reason, He allows you bring in the catch. We had one of those days last month here in Haiti.
Our family and I had taken a trip to the mountains with some friends. While we were there a young man gave his life to Jesus (but that’s another story). On the way home, we stopped by the coast for a picnic lunch. As you can probably imagine, when you have a large family it’s hard to do anything in Haiti without drawing a lot of attention. While we were eating, we met a young fisherman named Wilkins. We shared the Gospel with him and it was clear that the Spirit of God was working. He said that Jesus had recently come to him in a dream and told him that he needed to repent and believe because the time was short. Wilkins said that he wanted to follow Jesus but churches were turning him away because he did not have the proper clothes. We explained to him, “Jesus wants to save you right now. You can turn and follow Jesus right here on the beach.” He was ready and he gave his life to Jesus that day.
Fast forward one week. We went back to follow up with Wilkins to begin discipleship but we could not find him. We asked some of his fellow fisherman and they told us that he had gone to the market. They asked us why we had come, which opened the door for us to share the gospel with them. Afterward, we gave them an opportunity to respond. When we asked what was keeping them from following Jesus, their answers were all the same: “We do not have the proper clothes to go to church.”
It was an incredible teaching moment as we looked at Matthew 4 together. We looked at how Jesus called four fishermen to follow Him and their response was immediate obedience. After we spent about an hour talking with these men, three of them turned from their sin and believed in Jesus for salvation! That makes four fishermen on this beach! We told them that we wanted to form a new church with them. One of them told us that he has a house about 100 yards away and offered his home as a place for the new church to meet. We are currently meeting with them for discipleship and worship on Friday mornings. God is so good.
– Jacob