PART 1
When my friends and I were on the bus returning from the Main Campus to the Annex Campus [University of Uyo], I asked one of them to preach [she’s not a part of my church group]. She responded by saying that she would have loved to, but she had nothing to share. I tried to encourage her to talk about what she had read or studied from her Bible, but the words were not forthcoming.
While trying to encourage her, it came to mind strongly that I should teach the memory verse we had learnt in the church meeting the day before.
Me? Sing in a bus? My Lord… Not just any song? The great Psalm 1, which has 6 verses? What if they snub me completely?
I mentioned it to my friend, and she began to encourage me — the encourager now needed encouragement.
I thank God for boldness. I think I said a short prayer asking for it, and He poured it on me.
I called for everyone’s attention on the bus, introduced myself to them, and made it clear that I don’t do this normally, but that’s what I was feeling led to do. I gave them the mini exhortation we have been taught to give before teaching a memory verse, explaining why we put memory verses in songs: to enable us to store Scriptures in our hearts and to recollect them easily, and proceeded to the order of the day.
The passengers on the bus comprised some of my classmates, two of my friends, and the others were total strangers.
Now finding a comfortable key to sing on seemed hard, but my Abba did not put me to shame.
PART 2
At first, some were acting disinterested, but I thank God for my godly friends who jumped in immediately. With time, almost the entire bus was involved, except two guys and a girl.
I taught them the entire Psalm 1, piece by piece, and we sang it together over and over again till those learning were conversant with it. The girl beside me began to record me on her phone so she could refer to it later. It was such a wonderful experience!
When I was sure that they had learnt it, I gave another exhortation on how they can turn Scriptures into songs in their personal spaces and proceeded to teach them Hebrews 4:16. This, too, they learned with great joy.
When I was done teaching, my friend, who had nothing to say at the beginning, was strengthened to give her mini exhortation, and even after she was done, we still had like 3–5 minutes to the end of the ride.
How God slowed down time is something to be studied in the age to come! Even though our driver had stopped by the mechanic to drop off or pick up something, it was just for a few minutes. That journey had no business being that long — two memory verses (1 Chapter + 1 Verse) and three mini exhortations, and there were still some minutes if we wanted to do yet another mini exhortation…
This is to encourage us that during evangelism, when the people are calmly seated in a place, we can teach them memory verses, too. Let’s teach people to love the Scriptures. Music can be a reason someone will pick up their Bible again.
I thank God for the boldness and the many who now have His word (Psalm 1 and Hebrews 4:16) stored up in their hearts.
© GAM 2025
