Paul Washer shares the story of his uncle Jim's conversion, who was a violent and angry man before his encounter with God. Jim was on trial for murder when a postman who had been delivering his mail for years shared the gospel with him. Despite losing everything, Jim's life was transformed and he became a businessman and pastor who introduced Paul to missions. The story highlights the many ways in which God spreads the gospel and calls believers to invest in others. The upcoming conference, White Unto Harvest, will explore the different ways in which God fulfills the Great Commission.

Our Lord's last command is our first priority. In the church, in the family, in the city, to the ends of the earth. Join us in October for White Under Harvest. So, Paul, I was really delighted just a few weeks ago to take my wife back to the place where the gospel came to her family in the 19th century. Because a missionary got on a boat in the 19th century and went to the island of Barbados and shared the gospel with my wife's great-great-great-grandfather.

And he was really converted, so I took her to all these places on the island of Barbados where they were married, where they preached the gospel in the marketplace, and all kinds of things like that. And we had such a wonderful time thinking about how wonderful it is when the gospel comes to your family or to yourself what a treasure it has been. And we were able to just recount all the wonderful things that God did because that missionary that probably risked his neck at that time in history to go, you know, such a long way. So There's so many stories about the beauty of the gospel. So, tell me about your uncle, the salvation of your uncle.

How did that happen? My uncle, Jim, he was like a father to me after my father died. And He was a very unusual character. My wife used to say that he was like a cartoon character, that things happened to him that happened to no other person. Well, when he was a young man, he went into the Army, I think, at 13, and he was up, I believe, on criminal charges there.

And it may have even been, I'm inclined to believe it was for murder. He was thrown in prison. A lot of things happened there. He was put in solitary confinement. He was just a violent, angry man.

And then he was discharged. They found out he was just a kid. And went down to Miami, became just a criminal, and was known as one of the meanest men in Miami. And he was on trial for murder. And he was my dear, dear uncle, again, like I said, like a father, and he told me, he said, Paul, I really wasn't guilty.

I think he did kill a man, but it was self-defense or something. While he was on trial for murder, he was sitting in his office and a postman that had been delivering his mail for years and years, came up and just sat down beside him at his desk. And you just didn't do that to him. He was a very evil man. And the postman said, Mr.

Washer, you are without a doubt the most evil man I have ever met in my life. He goes, but my wife and I have been praying for you ever since I've been delivering your mail. And my uncle was converted. And he ended up being acquitted, lost everything, But then God rebuilt his entire life. He was a businessman.

He was also a pastor in Miami. And he's the one who actually introduced me to missions and took me to Peru. I was a farm boy from Illinois and it was the first trip I'd ever made. He took me to Peru and that's where I got the burden for that country. So he was in so many key places in my life and it's just so amazing the story of redemption.

You know, one of the things that I like to point out is that there are many people who are very clean and precise and yet they're probably not even converted. My uncle was, until the day he died, like a bull in a china shop, but tenaciously holding onto Christ, knowing that the salvation was grace alone, and that he needed Christ, and all he had was Christ. And it was just such a reflection of the way, you know, God will save and change a man. It was one of my favorite stories. Yeah.

You know, there's so many ways that the gospel is spread. You know, in my wife's family, it's a missionary that shows up on the island of Barbados. A postman, it's remarkable. There are just so many ways that God chooses to launch the Sowing of the Seeds. And it launched you into Peru.

Postman works to launch evangelists into Peru. It's just wonderful. I always tell people, I like to look at it now. Pardon my, but I always like to look at it almost as like, do you remember Amway? You know, that if someone sold something, it was also yours if you got them into Amway or something like that, you know?

And that's the way we need to look at things is that if I invest my life, even the smallest portion, and another person who then bears fruit, it's almost like Jacob. I can tell them to lay that fruit in my lap at this one. You know, so many people are competitive in such a wrong way. One of my favorite, two of my favorite truths in the Bible has to do with Laban and has to do with King Saul. And I think that when Laban saw Jacob coming, if he'd have said to himself, well, this is the blessed of God.

I'm going to do everything in my power to make him fruitful. I'm going to help him. I'm going to encourage him. What would Laban's life have been like when Jacob went back to the Promised Land? If King Saul would have said, you know, I've blown it.

I've disobeyed God. I've lost the monarchy. But it's been turned over to David. And I'm going to help David be as fruitful and successful as possible, even if it means carrying his bags. How different his life would have been.

And it's the same way with us. If we will invest, then the fruit that has borne those people that we've invested our life in a sense is also our fruit. It's just a beautiful story, the way that the Lord multiplies what we do. It's so amazing. So, we're going to do this conference coming up in October 25th to 27th called White Unto Harvest.

And What we're going to try to do at this conference is try to explain the many, many ways that God has ordained to spread the gospel throughout all the earth. Just in this short conversation, we've itemized a few, but there are so many ways that God has used to fulfill his commission, you know, his last command. And how do we make it our first priority? With the gifts that God has given us, the various stations in life that we exist in, or our very personality, the geographical location, everything has been designed by God to cause the spreading of the good news and to fulfill the Great Commission. So that's what we want to try to do.

We want to try to talk about all the different ways that we can think of that God glorifies himself in the spreading of the good news.