Godly Encounter

2/5/15                      Herman                     about 30
I love to hear people’s “stories” – the milestones in their memories of how God has been working in their life.  A question I often ask in my outreach conversations is “Have you ever had any sort of supernatural experience?” and, actually, I have been surprised that maybe only one in ten have had one.  Those who have usually have multiple stories to tell, and most seem to have had experiences with some sort of ghostly apparition, usually at home.  Also, they usually occur at some random, unexpected moment and not as the result of purposely seeking it out, say through a séance or something of that sort.  Today my outreach initiative brought me to a McDonalds where I met Herman, who initially told me of his distrust in the Bible and belief in reincarnation.  His supernatural experiences include several encounters with deceased persons he has known, all in dreams but very real to him, and two encounters with what he believes to have been Satan himself.  The interesting thing is that although these encounters seem to be of an evil nature, the effect they have had on Herman is that he has a solid awareness that there is a spiritual plane of existence parallel to the physical, and he definitely believes in God as a result.  He was totally open to our conversation and wanted to have a better understanding of the Gospel.  As he described it, his encounter with the devil was designed to scare him away from God, but from the effect it had on him, this purpose backfired.  From his sense of gratitude he expressed and the things he said as we parted ways, Herman believed that our conversation, too, was a supernatural encounter, only this one was from God.