By David Bruce
A trainee missionary was doing pre-missionary work with my cousin Hector Bruce, the minister of Oamaru Baptist Church (1974-1980).
Each Monday morning, he was assigned to go and visit a grumpy old lady who complained every week about the buses in Oamaru that park outside her house, screech the brakes as they stop, vibrate the land and then blow out clouds of toxic diesel fumes, when they leave.
She spent the whole visit talking about the buses—they became a real “thing” in her mind—and she could not focus on any other subject.
It really became a psychotic mountain she could not cope with. If she does not get help, she will end up in a mental institution! – It became that bad/serious!
One visit, after listening to this diatribe, the young trainee had enough to blow his brain, and he spoke sternly to her: “Do you believe that God could move those buses?” (He really meant, “Do you think God could take those buses out of your brain?”)
Being a church member for decades, she had to agree that God could do anything.
“Well then, let us pray and ask God to remove those buses from this Oamaru street,” the trainee said.
He was surprised to see her at church next Sunday. She was so different.
She told him excitedly that, since he had prayed for the buses to be removed, “NO BUSES HAD BEEN ON THE STREET!”
Not only that, but the council had erected a big sign at the end of the street that said, “NO HEAVY TRAFFIC ON THIS STREET.”
Her faith in God was transformed, and she saw God’s power, interest, and love for His hurting people.
The missionary trainee told this story at Church Street Bible Chapel (in Timaru).
I have no reason to doubt a word: “WHO IS SO GREAT A GOD AS OUR GOD? Nothing is too hard for Him.
