A bit of a surprise this morning

This morning I had a pleasant surprise. I was reading my parents mail (we are collecting for them as they are away) and I came across the Rochester Cursio newsletter where I saw the phrase “make a friend, be a friend, win a friend to Christ”. I thought that sounded a bit familiar to me. Looking on the back of the newsletter I found an email address to a priest that I had lost contact with named Father Joe Catanise. Unlike most Baptists I really am thankful for the time that I spent in the Catholic Church where I grew up and the Catholic schools I attended. Quite frankly, the people that I interacted with there led me straight to Christ.

Now I know that my experience had more to do with my parents than my Catholic friends and extended family, but God moved me into a desire for Him and it culminated in a real relationship with Christ. He used people like Mike Haugh from Cardinal Mooney and Fr. Joe to show me genuine faith and place in me a hunger for Him. I was allowed to express my faith around people that encouraged me and wanted me to know Him in a deep way.

People are stunned by this when I tell them. They shouldn’t be. I assure them that if God can use a broken vessel like the Baptist Church to bring people into a real relationship with Him, how can we assume that He cannot redeem yet another one to save those that He loves?

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