Pastor Steve May writes:

I decided to buy a banjo while I was in Brazil, even though my limited knowledge of Portuguese makes shopping a challenge. I also have a limited knowledge of the Brazilian banjo, knowing only that it is much smaller than its American counterpart and has fewer strings—not much on which to base a purchasing decision. Nevertheless, I went looking.

There are plenty of music stores in downtown Rio de Janeiro, but, unfortunately, the salesmen knew as little about the instrument as me. Most didn't even know how to tune it, let alone play it. They just pointed at one on the shelf and told me the price. I made a stab at playing one, but it was an awful noise. Must not be a very good banjo, I reasoned.

I visited three or four shops. With each stop, I found myself a little less inclined to buy. And then I found the right place. This salesman knew a little English, and more importantly, he knew the banjo. He grabbed one off the shelf—the same make I had seen earlier—and began to make the little instrument sing. He showed me how to tune it, he showed me a few chords, and he had a good instructional book to get me started. The longer he played, the more I began to believe that I, too, could play the banjo. I shelled out the money.

My point is, that banjo didn't sell itself. What's more, a banjo poorly demonstrated is even more difficult to sell.

The truth is, as much as I wanted a banjo, I would have gone home empty handed that afternoon if I hadn't found someone who could get me started in the right direction.

When others see you living out your faith, they glimpse the difference that Christianity can make in a person's life—and they long to experience that difference for themselves.