Robert owned a construction business in Italy and was very successful. However, deep in his heart was a hunger for a closer walk with God, and the desire to serve God in full time ministry. Finally, one day, he left his work behind, and started serving the poor and needy, trusting that God would provide and lead.
One day, while still in Italy, he was convicted to gather supplies to help the poor in Ukraine. With the help of friends, he loaded up four semi trucks with clothes and supplies.
However, when they got to the Ukrainian border, the guards would not let them through. In fact, they were told that all they were allowed to carry across the border was two suitcases at a time. Any more than that, and they would be charged by the kilogram.
Robert and the other drivers prayed and prayed. Still the guards would not let them bring the trucks through. Finally, discouraged, they gave up and unloaded the clothes in a rental storage place. Then they contacted the pastor at the nearest SDA church on the Ukraine side of the border and told him that they’d brought supplies, but couldn’t get them across the border. They gave the pastor the combination and lock codes and then they returned to Italy.
The local Ukrainian pastor, along with six men and two suitcases apiece, went to the storage unit. Slowly, day-by-day they moved the contents from the storage unit across the border to distribute to those in need.
It wasn’t long until the head guard at the border began asking what they were doing. They told him that they were taking clothes to help the poor. “No one does this kind of thing for the poor. You can’t be serious!” the guard mocked them. But they insisted that this was indeed what they were doing.
Next he challenged them, “If you’re Christians, can you prove that there is a god?”
Right then and there, the Pastor and his friends sat down and gave the guard a Bible study on God and the trinity. The next day they gave him another Bible study, and the same after that. Almost every day for a whole month they gave this guard a Bible study on their way across the border.
Finally at the end of the month, he was so convicted that he called the other guards together (there were eleven of them) and he asked the Pastor to give the same study to his comrades. As a result, almost all the guards were so convicted of the truth that they decided to be baptized.
At this point, the head guard of customs told the Pastor, “You don’t have to take this luggage through in suitcases anymore. You can just drive the supplies through and you can take everything, and we wont charge you.
It had taken a few months for Robert’s prayer to be answered, but God had opened the door, not just for the Ukrainian Pastor and the people in need, but more importantly, for those at the border gate.
(To read this and other stories, connect here)
