How a Rented Bathing Suit Opened Up a Conversation For Eternity

"You can always rent a bathing suit."  The words hung in the air like the smell of rotten fish.  Rent a bathing suit?  I'd sooner die.  And yet, there were my husband and our friends already enjoying the hot springs for which Aguas Calientes was named.  We had just finished hiking the Inca Trail for 4 days and exploring Machu Picchu.  This was our reward.

After a minute or two of watching them in the water, I sheepishly asked the Peruvian Hot Springs Policewoman where the used bathing suits were.  She pointed in the direction of a pile of $1.00 suits I swore I would never touch.  Never swear.  Moments later I was wearing what amounted to a bikini with a strip of material connecting the top and bottom and partially covering my belly. Except I have a long torso, so I had to hunch over to keep the bathing suit covering the right places.  I quickly walked to the hot springs, my friends cheering and stated, "We will never speak of this again."  I plunged into the brown water.  My English friend Sylvia assured me, "Trust me.  If you get any disease, it will be from this water... not from that suit."  That's comforting.

As it turns out, God used the $1.00 rented bathing suit and our time in the brown pool for eternity.  There, in the water, my 25-year-old London friend who was traveling the world for 8 months by herself, opened up.  For some reason, our other friends soaking with us, never came over as Sylvia shared how her Jewish mother recently became a Christian after reading the Bible.  "She seems happier and has more friends since her conversion."  Then she asked, "How about you?  Are you religious?"

"No," I answered.  "We're not religious," knowing the preconceived notions that go along with that term.  "But we do believe the Bible is true.  And my husband and I both decided years ago that Jesus is God, and we have decided to follow Him and to live our whole lives for Him."  I shared about our pastor who is Jewish and came to believe in Jesus from reading the Bible as well.  Sylvia said, "Yeah, I wonder if I should read the Bible too."  "Do you have one?" I asked.  "No, but I figure if I walk into one of these Catholic Churches in South America, maybe they'll give me one."  I told her that our pastor always says, "Follow a dead god, and you'll end up just like him.  Follow the living God, and you'll end up just like Him."  She listened carefully and never looked away.

That evening we took the train and bus back to Cusco where we said goodbye to Sylvia and the other friends from our trek for the last time.  As we hugged goodbye, I handed her a Bible wrapped up in a map of Machu Picchu.  It was our travelers' Bible.  Even before we left for Peru, my husband and I had said that maybe we'd find someone to give this to on our trip.  Did we ever.

Since then, I've heard from Sylvia on Facebook.  She thanked me for the Bible and said she's on the beach now in Lima with plenty of time for reading.  I guess that rented bathing suit was worth every penny!

Lucy

Comments

[Thomas More]

Great story Lu. Now post the pictures.

Will definitely be worth more than 1,000 words.

[Lucy]

Not on your life, Thomas!

[nico2]

A very nice post!

I hope you don't mind a few questions.

First, I've often heard Xians describe themselves as "nonreligious." I'm not sure why Xians describe themselves thus, however. Does the term "religious" carry some type of negative connotation of which I'm unaware?

Second, I confess that I'm sometimes hesitant to encourage people simply to dig into the scripture, especially when I'm confident that they have little understanding of how the church has interpreted the text. There seem to be so many ways to misunderstand it! Do you have similar reservations?

[Thomas More]

Nico2,

I think in my area of the world "religious" has taken on a negative connotation with non-believers. Thus the word does not attrack the non-believer to enter into any serious conversation about faith or religion. Hence, avoiding the word. Similarly, while you might be happy sometimes, you probably don't describe yourself as "gay" on those occasions; the word has shifted meaning or creates ambiguity as to what you are actually saying.

Religious, meaning holy, sanctified, set apart, is fine. I just don't think people hear that. They hear: preachy, not fun, stick-in-the-mud, judgmental, etc. No point in starting a nice conversation about personal faith to have it derailed into you being something you are not.

As to your second point, I generally agree. I'm reminded of the Ethopian eunuch who had the Scriptures explained, as did the men on the road to Emmaus. But I'm also personally aware of a few people I know that did a "tolle lege" and "discovered" the truth without instruction (one, by the way was a travelling salesman who would just read the Gideon Bible in each hotel room he stopped in.) Thus, all things are possible.

As for what is best, I benefited, and I think most would, by a mature Christian's guidance. Not every situation allows for this though--such as some treks to Machu Picchu, I suppose.