No mind is too rigid, no heart too hard to resist the transforming power of Christ.
Avowed atheist teacher Kim Menon realised this when she found herself believing and accepting Jesus Christ after experiencing the heart-felt love of Christians and seeing her mother miraculously healed through the prayers of her Christian friends, the Baptist Press News reported.
The kindergarten teacher from Seattle, Washington said as a child she thought Christians "just weren't intelligent enough" and "were predators who didn't really care about who I was."
In 2013, Menon met pastor Andy Brown who had just moved in from Camden, Arkansas, to Seattle to plant churches. Brown had enrolled his son to the kindergarten school where Menon teaches.
Menon also met Larry Bailey, mission pastor at Central Baptist Church in Jonesboro, Arkansas, a sponsor church for Brown's mission.
Without identifying himself as pastor of The Landing Church, Brown volunteered to do the landscaping at the school and other projects as part of his ministry's community service.
Bailey also volunteered to help Menon by making copies, grading papers, helping with projects—anything to be of service.
Bailey said at first Menon was suspicious. "She said, 'I don't get it. You fly all the way from Arkansas to Seattle to make copies for me. Why?'"
He simply replied, "Because we want to love you and show you that God loves you too."
"I had never met anyone who did things like that without wanting something in return," Menon said.
For more than two years, the Brown family continued ministering to the school and helping Menon, among other teachers. They invited her to birthday parties, neighbourhood get-togethers and holiday events. They also continually invited her to church even though Menon kept saying it would never happen.
But despite Menon's refusal to go to church, the Browns showered her with affection, and she eventually fell in love with the family.
When Menon confided that her marriage was falling apart, the Browns showed her that they would love her no matter what.
The turning point came when Menon's mother became very ill after a series of heart attacks. On the day she was scheduled for heart surgery, Menon felt her mother needed a miracle to survive, and she called Brown and asked him to pray for her mother.
Brown then called everyone in the church, emailed and posted on Facebook so that every believer he knew would pray for Menon's mother.
The miracle came: When the surgeons opened up Menon's mother, they found nothing wrong with her.
Menon was stunned. None of the doctors could tell her how her mother had been healed. But deep inside, she knew who healed her mother: God.
She then decided forthwith to abandon atheism and embrace Jesus Christ, bringing along 19 of her unsaved friends to her baptism. She is now the part-time children's minister at The Landing Church.
"My life has changed immeasurably," she said. "I used to omit the words 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance. I was for gay rights, and now I have a different definition of marriage—God's definition. I didn't even know what a Gospel tract was three years ago, and now I'm handing them out."
