Amazing! He just made a new years resolution to keep the seventh day Sabbath! He didn’t know many sabbath keepers, but his study of the Bible had led him to this conclusion. I would never have expected to meet him. I prayed for divine appointments, but I didn’t expect this!

It was January of 2013, and I was aboard a plane bound for Seoul, where I had a connecting flight to Bangkok… I was with a group that would number nearly 25 people, all interested in mission work.

When Matthew sat down next to me, I would never have guessed the conversation we would have. We started talking about small things, but then the conversation turned towards spiritual things and he began sharing the things he was studying. We talked about prophecy for a while before he asked me what I believe is the mark of the beast! It was a big question! I knew I would have to lay groundwork before I could even say anything about it specifically. So I started to lay the foundation moving along as quickly as possible to avoid getting bogged down. He listed very intently. Soon I had covered the main points…

All at once I had an idea:

“I have a book that explains much more about this” I said, pulling it out of my backpack. “Have you ever seen this book?” I asked holding out the Great Controversy.

“Yes, actually I have it. Some girl came to my door selling books for her school tuition. She was going to some college in Arkansas. Her name was Lorina Mitchell. I remember it because she wrote it on the receipt.” He said.

“Really? My brother goes to that school!” I responded, so amazed!  Here I am flying to Asia and next to me is someone who bought a book from a canvasser at my brother’s college! It’s not a large university.

“Have you read the book yet?” I asked, interested even more now.

“Well, I started in the first chapter, but I didn’t get any further than that,” the reply came.

“Why don’t you jump ahead a little bit, to say the Reformation. I’m sure you’ll find it more interesting.” I suggested, going on to say that it explains many of the things we had been talking about, in more detail.

“I’ll have to do that!” he sounded more interested now.

I laid my head back in my seat, in wonder at God’s handiwork! Matthew was on his way to Ho Chi Minh city to meet a Vietnamese girl he was interested in… But God decided to put him in the seat next to me to give us an opportunity to talk about spiritual things! What a wonderful God we serve!