Encouragement from Brian and Doris, Edmonton

Melody* is in her 20s; her son Dave* is about 10. Rick,* her dad, had twisted both of their lives with his malign influence.
The dictionary defines a curse as: an appeal or prayer for evil or misfortune to befall someone or something. The Bible promises freedom from such things: John 8 :31-38 and Romans 8:2.
“My dad’s an atheist,” was Melody’s reply when we invited her to do a Survey. It was like she was saying, “This can’t be for me. This is not the world in which I have been brought up.” The curse Rick had imposed on Melody and Dave was, “I’m an atheist and you are too.”
Being part of a visible minority family, Rick was no philosopher. In his vocab atheist simply meant, “I intentionally exclude God from having anything to do with my life.” Who knows? His thinking may well have been caused by experience with “organized religion” i.e. folk Christianity, Canada’s popular religion.
So Melody said No to the Survey. She was afraid; just like I’d be if someone invited me to a seance.
Then we offered her an evangelistic booklet. She reluctantly agreed to take it. Curses never take away a person’s ability to choose, they just pervert a person’s interests and desires.
The further we proceeded in the conversation the clearer the conflict became. Her heart said one thing; her upbringing said something different. A battle was taking place on her doorstep between the Holy Spirit and the forces of evil.
Her outside lights were not working so communicating was something of a challenge, but God is in control even of burnt-out light bulbs. For our interview with Melody semi-darkness was the divinely ordained perfect ambience. We praised God for the semi-darkness.
After she’d accepted the evangelistic booklet we offered to show her the Life Circles. She agreed.. This may well have been the very first time in her life that Melody had heard a summary of the Good News.
“What’s in this for me?” is always the first question that pops into a listener’s mind. “This circle here represents those people who are enjoying pardon, peace and purpose in their lives. Is that something you’re interested in?” we asked her.
If you’re created in God’s image you’re interested in those things; so everyone is. “Yes, I guess so,” Melody replied.
“Maybe we can give you a brief summary of what’s in the rest of the book?” She agreed to that suggestion. We read the Great Invitation to her. We reminded her that those enjoying pardon, peace and purpose in their lives are those who have said Yes to Jesus’ invitation.
Melody wasn’t prepared to say Yes to the Great Invitation, but the curse was broken. She’d listened to a brief presentation of the Four Fantastic Facts: love, guilt, forgiveness and choice. In her heart she knew all of them. But she’d never heard God’s view of them.
Later we were able to leave her a Children’s Jesus DVD for Dave to watch. It’s a fascinating presentation; our guess is that Dave and his mother have already watched it many times.
*=not real names