“I’m a practical sort of person. I come from a farming background, so I’m good at fishing and hunting, and fixing things. I’ve always been fixing things – cars, houses, lawn mowers. It’s my way of helping people, although sometimes it feels small. But a few years ago, I went to a reunion on the other side of Sydney. It was for my wife. She’s a nurse with the Australian Nurses Christian Movement and they had a big reunion. So I went with her, even though I didn’t know anyone, and I knew I would be a fish out of water. But we sat down for lunch and a gentleman came walking up to me. He said to me, ‘Do you remember me?’ I didn’t know him at all. Then he said, ‘I remember you very well, because when I was a teenager you picked me up in your car and took me to the youth fellowship. It changed my life, thank you.’ I still had no recollection of him and I only vaguely remembered his name. But I realised that it’s not always the big things that we do that God uses, but our faithfulness in the little things – like fixing things or picking people up in our car. Jesus said, ‘The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.’ (Mark 4:31-32). God takes our little things, and he makes them grow.”
Willem’s story is part of Eternity’s Faith Stories series, compiled by Naomi Reed. Click here for more Faith Stories.