David Grant, a longtime and well-respected Assemblies of God missionary, has many stories to tell about his life and work around the world. This faithful man of God is also a longtime family friend whom I’ve known since I was a teenager.
He and his wife, Beth, recorded a recent podcast with me about Project Rescue, their ministry to sex trafficking victims, and Beth and I recorded one about women in ministry. But in another recent episode of the Strang Report podcast, I asked David to share some of his encouraging, inspiring stories of God’s work in his life.
He first spoke of his call to missions, saying his father, a pastor, loved missions, and missionaries often stayed in their home. “Instead of television, we had missionaries in our house,” he says. “And it was powerful.”
“We had one particular great missionary named Charles Greenaway, who came to my dad’s church to preach when I was 12 years old,” David says. “And he told the story of a 12-year-old boy who had no money to put in the missionary offering at the end of the service. Traditionally, in the Assemblies of God, we would pass the offering pan after the sermon and receive a missionary offering for the missionary who was there speaking.
“That night when they passed the missionary offering pan, this 12-year-old boy took the offering pan, laid it on the floor and said, ‘Jesus, I don’t have any money, but you can have me,'” David says. “And brother Greenaway said, ‘That was the greatest missionary offering we ever received, a 12-year-old boy standing in an offering pan.’
“And when he told that story, I was 12,” David says. “When they passed the offering pan at the end of that service, I said, ‘God, if that other little boy can do it, so can I.’ And I laid the offering pan on the floor, and I stood up in it.
“And the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and said, ‘David, I want you to go to India, and from 12 years of age, now, looking back on 50 years, I was on my way to India that night,” he says. “And that was the most incredible moment, standing in an offering plate—and I have now preached it for 50 years.
And David has a word of advice: “When the Holy Spirit passes the offering plate, step in. Step in because that’s your life. God is not so much interested in your money; He’s interested in you. Now money is certainly important, but you are what God’s looking for. It’s not what you put in the pan, it’s—get in it yourself. And that was the most critical moment in my 12-year-old life. It set the destiny of my life.”
For much more from David Grant about God’s work in his life and his career as a missionary, listen to the entire episode of the Strang Report podcast here. Be sure to subscribe to the Strang Report on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast platform. {eoa}
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