We landed at San Francisco from LAX, then took a bus across the tarmac to meet our plane for Beijing. We handed out million dollar bills to everyone during the ride, including a flight crew on their way to South Korea. Then we were loaded like cattle onto a freight elevator. “This is a great time to do a third-person,” I said to team members, Sandy and Herminda.

“What’s a third-person?” Sandy asked.

“That’s when you have the opportunity to give a Gospel presentation to a believer while in a crowded place. The crowd is forced to listen as you talk clearly and loudly,” I explained. “I’ll ask the questions and you be the ‘sinner.’ Okay, Sandy?” She agreed. Not everyone was loaded in yet, but I began my line of questioning: “If you were to die today would you go to Heaven or Hell?”

“I think Heaven,” Sandy answered dutifully.

We had limited time, so I had to work fast. “Would you consider yourself to be a good person?”

“Yes, I do,” she replied.

“Ever lied?”

“Yes.”

“What does that make you?”

“A liar.”

The crowd spoke softly as they conversed—and eavesdropped—at the same time. The last of the passengers boarded the elevator. “Have you ever stolen anything?”

“Yes, when I was little.” Sandy played the part of the sinner perfectly. Herminda, the kindly grandmother, looked pretty sinful herself as she looked on.

“So what does that make you?”

“A thief.”

It was perfectly quiet now as the elevator doors shut everyone in—a captive audience! “Jesus said that even if you look at someone with lust, then you’ve committed adultery with him in your heart. Have you ever done that?”

“Oh yes.”

A male flight attendant from San Francisco with perfectly coiffed, highlighted hair, started a conversation about homosexuality—some coincidence, huh?

“So by your own admission, you’re a liar, thief, and an adulterer-at-heart; and you have to face God on Judgment Day. If God was to judge you by the standard of the 10 Commandments, would you be innocent or guilty?”

“Guilty,” Sandy said with dead-on earnestness. The elevator started moving up.

An irritated flight attendant tried to interrupt my conversation. “He’s preaching to us, you know!” she said to no one in particular.

I kept on. “So would you go to Heaven or Hell?”

“Have you ever been there?” the angry stewardess asked, telling me in so many words to go to Hell. She dripped with sarcasm, spewing her venom. “Have you ever been anywhere?”

I smiled gently, acknowledged her comments, and continued talking. “Does that concern you to know that you will be going to Hell if you died today?”

“He’s ignoring me!” Miss Angry Attendant hissed, stating the obvious.

The elevator stopped and the doors opened. Everyone piled out quickly—very quickly!

“Should we get off here too?” I asked a friendly crewmember.

“No,” he replied. “You go up.”

“We go up and you stay down?”

We went up.

Before boarding our plane to China, I remembered that I had about a hundred million-dollar bills left in my pocket, and I needed to get rid of them quickly. I walked over to an adjoining terminal and put a bill into the hands of every passenger waiting to get on their plane—to South Korea!

I sure hope they tip their friendly flight crew!

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