Finding Jesus in the Laundromat

(This is a true story. It’s one of my favorites.)

Ernest Boggs stood next to the coin washer that held the last load of his family’s laundry. The spin cycle had just started when the bell at the front of the laundromat rang out. A rambunctious little five-year-old boy burst through the door, triumphantly winning a race against his older sister, who entered a few steps after him. Through the large storefront windows, Ernest watched their mother as she trailed behind them, balancing a large laundry bag on either hip and calling out their names. So much for a quiet afternoon.

The young mother filled the remaining washers and inserted her coins, then took a seat next to Ernest. The whirring of tumbling dryer drums was not enough to cover the silence, so he broke it. He introduced himself, and quickly found that she was kind, and easy to talk to. He shared about his family, and asked about hers. Her husband was an electrician and handyman. The young couple lived a few blocks away with their kids. They had gotten married as teenagers nearly a decade earlier. 

Conversation was light, simple, and full of interruptions. During their chatting, Ernest felt an urge to talk about Jesus. Something inside of him nudged him to do so. She was polite, but it was clear she was interested in changing the subject. As he folded his clothes and put them in his bag, he invited her to visit his church. She insisted that she would come on Sunday. The two said goodbye and Ernest left, excited for Sunday.

That Sunday morning, Ernest drove to the church early, and stood outside the entrance. He wanted to ensure that she and her family would feel welcome as soon as they arrived. When church started, he continued to wait, just in case they showed up late. They didn’t show up late. They didn’t show up at all.

This wasn't the first time he'd been stood up at church. She was just a random stranger at the laundromat. But for some reason, he couldn’t let it go. He barely slept that night, until he remembered what street she said she lived on. So the next morning, he called a friend and together they drove to her street, and started knocking on doors in hopes of finding her.

When they knocked on the young woman's door, she was quite surprised. She quickly began spouting excuses for why she missed church on Sunday. Those darn kids. She invited them in, and Ernest picked up the conversation right where they left off the week before. 

She told Ernest that she desperately wished that everything he was telling her about Jesus was true. He invited her to give Jesus a chance. So she did. She prayed and accepted Jesus right then and there. Then she asked him to come back a few hours later to talk to her husband. He agreed. When returned, he watched as the young woman helped lead her own husband to accept Jesus, just hours after she did herself. All because of a conversation in a laundromat.

Soon after meeting the young couple, Ernest's job moved him to another state, but in that short time, he was able to watch a stunning transformation in those two.

The young woman became a new person overnight, and told everyone she met about Jesus' crazy love. Supermarket cashiers, bank tellers, school teachers, and strangers on the sidewalk. She didn’t care that she wasn’t educated, she didn’t care that she hadn’t gone to Bible college. The only thing she knew for sure was that she didn’t really know much, aside from the fact that she believed that Jesus was exactly who he said he was, and that she believed his love had the ability to change lives. She unleashed Jesus' love on her family and watched it change them as they begun following Him one by one. Her siblings, her parents, her cousins, her nephews and nieces, and even her mother-in-law. She was like a walking embodiment of the domino effect.

The young woman’s husband traded his tradesman job to become a pastor at a church plant in the city. No education, no Bible college, no formal training. Just Jesus and a posse of pastors to pour into him. Together, they made it their mission to go after the city people that the suburb churches were content to ignore in the great white flight. The young couple did so because they hadn't yet forgotten that they themselves were once those very people.

During her years as a preacher’s wife and Sunday school teacher in the city, the young woman helped lead hundreds of people to Jesus, including her own children. Each of her children, in turn, carried on in the example she had been living out for them. Between the six of them, they went on to share God’s love with thousands of children, teenagers, and adults.

Today, nearly 50 years later, the young woman (not so young anymore), still lives with the same fire she had when she was 20: sharing Jesus with everyone she meets. And the number of people who have been touched by that love only continues to rise.

All because of a man in a laundromat.

~~~~~~~

I know this story well, and it is one of my favorites, because I am one of the many people whose lives were changed by the young woman, and consequently, by Ernest.

That young woman’s story has become quite a legacy in my family.

Because that young woman… is my mom.

Those bratty kids? My older siblings, of course. 

I, the youngest/perfect one, had not been born yet.

I may never meet Ernest on this side of Heaven, but I am so grateful he was willing to invite a complete stranger to church, when he could have just read a magazine to himself.

THANK GOODNESS that scenario didn't take place today, because if it were 2013, he probably would have kept to himself with his iPod, tablet, or smart phone. We don't like to talk to strangers anymore. Maybe because we're scared. Maybe because we're self-absorbed. Maybe because we're too busy (or maybe because we want to be too busy).
Regardless, I sure am glad good 'ol Ernest cared enough to talk to a stranger. 

In some sense, I owe my faith to Ernest. Even though he was only in my family’s story for a short chapter, his impact will carry on for many chapters and books to come. Our family's entire plot was changed in a day. 

Here's the crazy thing: I’m sure when Ernest chose to talk to that young lady with the rowdy kids, he had no idea that thousands of people would one day be touched by Jesus because of that conversation.

Did you catch that?

Thousands of lives forever changed. 

All because of one conversation in a laundromat.

~~~

Put your smartphone away.
Don't avoid conversation.

Don't be too busy to care.

Make the most of every situation.

Always be ready to share the Hope you have.

You never know who you might be talking to.