Flight home provides witnessing opportunity

Evangelizing did not stop when the Alabama team boarded the airplane in Maracaibo, Venezuela, to return home. God had one more divine appointment.

During the chartered flight, one of the flight attendants approached Alabama Baptist evangelism director Sammy Gilbreath and asked about the group. She had already commented over the public address system about the loving spirit of those on board.

Gilbreath explained the group was composed of Alabama Baptists from all walks of life who had spent a week in Venezuela telling people about Jesus Christ.

The young woman, who at one time lived in Birmingham, asked if he would tell her about Jesus, and Gilbreath agreed. The two went to the jump seats where flight crew members sit and Gilbreath shared the plan of salvation with her using the gospel tract used in Venezuela.

When he asked her if she wanted to receive Jesus Christ, she said, “Yes.” Gilbreath reported “that she prayed the most beautiful, most meaningful prayer” with tears in her eyes.

She immediately told the flight crew chief that he had to hear what she had just heard.

As Gilbreath sat in the jump seats with him, the flight crew member said that very morning he had prayed that God would lead someone to talk with him. His life was coming apart, he confessed, because of a divorce. The man was not scheduled to work that day but got an early call when the scheduled crew member became ill.

Gilbreath again shared the plan of salvation and the young man prayed to receive Christ. Before the airplane reached Birmingham, all four flight crew members had sat in the jump seats next to Gilbreath who presented the plan of salvation to each one. All four prayed to receive Jesus Christ.