Impacting The World from Your Own Kitchen

I’d like to take you back with me about 37 years. I had been a Christian for a little more than two years. Debbie and I had recently moved into our new house, and wouldn’t you know it…our new refrigerator broke. When the repairman arrived, he assessed the situation and told me it would take him about two hours to fix.

So there I was…my day was already jam-packed, but this much I knew. In the next two hours, nothing was more important than telling this guy what Jesus had done for him.

Now, fast forward 37 years. It’s a Saturday afternoon and I receive an email from someone whose life has been transformed by what happened in my kitchen during those two short hours in 1977.

As you read this, be reminded that God is purposefully intersecting your life with people who need you to tell them about Jesus!

The Email From James

Hello Pastor Harrell,

We have never met, but I wanted to take a moment to share a few things with you. I just listened to your sermon titled Nothing More Important Than This from 2/1/15 and was greatly moved by the truth contained in the preaching and by the power of the examples given. I want to fill you in on a few details that you may not be aware of regarding one of the examples you made. We never really know how deep an impact we make when we share the gospel, and the story I will share is only the tip of the iceberg, but sharing the gospel changes lives and changes the world.

In 1977 your refrigerator broke and a repair man, Doug Fyffe, came to your house to fix it. You recognized that God had placed this man in your path for something much more than a broken fridge, and you took a few minutes to share the gospel with a good man who grew up in and out of church but never accepted Christ. That day, he bowed down next to his toolbox and gave his life to Christ, because the gospel was shared with him. He started attending Kansas City Baptist Temple on your invitation. A few months later he shared his testimony in the varsity class at KCBT, after he was finished, a young lady, Linda, introduced herself and briefly thanked him for his testimony. Doug fell in love with Linda, married her and has been happily in love and married to her for 37 years, all because the gospel was shared.

Doug and Linda have three children of which I am the eldest. I grew up in a christian home and accepted Christ as a young boy. God sent me to El Salvador and all over central america to make disciples, evangelize and train men. Now there is a reproducing ministry going on in El Salvador.

On Monday, my wife and I and our two children leave for Asia as missionaries. We will have to opportunity to share the gospel with many who have never heard the gospel in their life—all because someone shared the gospel. Doug’s middle son is plugged into a church in Kansas City ministering and serving those in our community that nobody wants to touch, addicts, homeless, broken and hurting people, seeing and hearing the gospel—because someone shared the gospel with Doug. His youngest son is plugged into the same church, ministering to high school students as a counselor and mentor. Investing in young souls for the glory of God—all because someone shared the gospel with Doug.

Doug continues to serve in church. He continues to work the same job, having passed up many opportunities for promotion to an office and desk job because he loves going into peoples homes and meeting them and serving them. Doug has probably been into 100,000 homes in the years he has worked for GE. He has shared the gospel in many of those homes and some have placed their faith in Jesus as well. All this, because YOU shared the gospel with my dad. I am not surprised that Doug has passed on job opportunities, greater pay, greater reward in this life to stay in a place where he gets to go into homes and meet people. It was in a home, next to his toolbox where his life was changed, and it has been in homes next to his toolbox where he has been able to see other lives changed. He passed on things that this world has to offer because there is truly nothing more important than this.

I know that ministry is hard sometimes but be encouraged. I have no idea the impact your ministry has had on the world, or on eternity, I don’t even know the full depth of impact it had on Doug Fyffe, heaven will tell. But I do know that the power of the gospel, spoken by one faithful servant changed Doug’s life and the life of his family forever.

Thank you for being obedient to go with the gospel, even in your own home. You have impacted the world from your own kitchen, and all the Fyffes are praying for opportunity to continue impacting the world for the glory of our King.

James Fyffe