During my husband's medical study, we kept Saturday for family outings. We cycled to many beautiful parks around Adelaide, enjoying exercise and fun with our three small children: two on my bike and one on Gwenda's. We were often accompanied by Jim, a fellow student with his wife and little toddler, Jimmy.

We often sat by a stream while the children played, throwing pebbles into the water, playing ball, or gathering plants and mosses for miniature gardens. While sitting on the grassy banks, we had long discussions on spiritual values. We often prayed for these two good friends and their little child, Jimmy.

When both men graduated, Dr Jim, his wife and Jimmy went to Darwin to practise medicine. The aboriginal people deeply appreciated his kindness and compassion. We grieved on hearing that Dr Jim died of a heart attack while preparing to leave for Papua New Guinea, where he would also bless the indigenous people.

For many years we lost contact with mother and son. Then Jimmy, a young man, telephoned. I invited him to visit: and over Sunday lunch he told the following story.

'I was disillusioned, my life empty and purposeless, and frustrated. Discouraged and dissatisfied, I went into my father's library. I selected Phillip's translation of the New Testament, which you had given and inscribed, and read it right through.

I saw myself as a helpless, hopeless sinner, realising how much I needed the Lord Jesus to forgive and cleanse me. No one told me, I just knew. I felt the peace of God flow into my heart as I read. '

Soon after this, Jim met Christians, whose warm friendship and fellowship strengthened him, teaching him how to study his bible.

This experience greatly encouraged us. We could not convert the small boy, Jimmy, now a man. But the blowing-like-the-wind of the Holy Spirit flowed into the heart of this young man, turning a rebel into a family-of-God person. While our part was small, we learned that a sovereign God acts in love, transcends all time, circumstances and distance to transform a once-small child. Our children's playmate on the creek banks had grown into a mature man in Christ, usable and fit for the Master's service.

Be encouraged.