A Whole New Life

The following letter was written to man known personally to a member of our staff. It is not made up, not a ruse. He found a cell phone in a taxi while visiting New York City with his wife, called a number in it to get the address of the owner, and returned the cell phone to her in a package. In it he included a note and a tape. That was in 2002. He received this letter a couple of weeks ago.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. ----

Some years ago, while I was in New York City, you found a cellular phone in a cab and sent it back to me with a small note asking me to read John 3:3. You also sent a tape regarding the book of Romans. I have included copies of the envelope all of the items came in as well as a copy of the note, so that you can verify the authenticity of my testimony. You sent the envelope to Alina Marlo, my real name is _______ . Marlo was the last name of my roommate at the time.

While you do not know the circumstances of my visit to New York, I now feel compelled to let you know the impact of your obedience to the Holy Spirit. I have kept your envelope and your note as “keepsakes” and small treasures, knowing one day I would gain the courage to share with you in more detail the impact of one person sharing Jesus with a total stranger by the simple act of kindness in returning a cell phone.

I am certain that at this very moment, while you are reading this letter, the particular circumstances of your life over the last seven years may have been trying you by fire. However it is important for me to let you know that no matter what your circumstances have wrought, I ma the fruit of a seed you planted in New York City in the summer of 2002.

What you do not know is that I was a stripper on a temporary assignment from Los Angeles, at a strip club in New York City for a lot of money. Stripping was my profession. It paid extremely well and afforded me the lifestyle I felt I deserved; all the while knowing my soul was being tormented by evil forces that appeared to be outside of my control.

Through a series of circumstances, I came to see your note and the tape you gave me as a hand pulling me out of an ocean of despair and a life of sin. I not only gave my heart to Christ in Las Vegas, October 2005, I was befriended by a couple much like you in a Starbucks 5 years ago when I was homeless and living in my car because I refused to go back to the lifestyle. They invited me to church and I began to grow in Christ. I got a job and I also became a stable productive Christian witnessing to other strippers and women who had been broken by a life in the clubs and prostitution.

In ministering to other women, I found my calling to intercede in a life of prayer for others. I have been in the last six months enrolled in “Fire In The Night” internship at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, MO and I know the joy of living humbly and sacrificially. I also know how to live in abundance when God chooses to shower me with His blessings from people I have never met or know very well. He has always provided for my needs. All I have to do is yield to Him.

I have been very blessed to have had some wonderful mentors in Christ who chose to disciple a young woman through a most difficult period of her growth. It has not been an easy road but it has been fulfilling beyond measure. The purity of your act of kindness is continuing to bear the fruit and the fragrance of the brokenness of Christ Jesus is always with me.

As I was rummaging through some of my belongings in storage the other day, I once again came across your note, the cassette tape and the envelope they had been mailed. I had kept them in a small box. I was overwhelmed with the sense that I had never taken the time to thank you personally for your act of kindness nor tell you of the fruit it bore.

Your gift of kindness was like the alabaster box broken at the feet of Jesus by a woman most thought would be undeserving to be in His presence. I know that woman; I have felt her pain; I have felt her sorrows and I have felt her joy in knowing her sins are forgiven.

Please forgive me for not writing sooner to thank you for sharing Jesus with me. Perhaps my former fear of rejection was too great to take the chance in telling you what kind of life I lived before Christ.

I am hoping this letter and these words of encouragement find you at a time when you can appreciate their sincerity. To that end I am giving you my present address, my email and my personal cell phone number so that if you wish you may contact me; if you feel led by the Holy Spirit. There is no obligation.

In closing, please know this: if for some reason you choose not to contact me, I will still be forever grateful for your obedience in sharing Christ with a total stranger. You are on my prayer list and I will continue to intercede for you, hoping that you will someday come to know that sharing Jesus in a package while returning a cell phone you found in a New York taxi, continues to bear fruit through my life, even seven years later. Your ministry of kindness was not in vain; for I am part of your living testimony that the Gospel of Christ is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes. I believed you.

In Him,