One Sunday morning， after I had done three speaking engagements at a church， we took a break since I had three events that evening. I was hungry and tired but decided to address the hunger first. We found a Chinese restaurant near my last speaking venue. A group of local leaders and sponsors of our tour accompanied us. We walked in， with my caregiver Vaughan carrying me.
The restaurant was not fancy， little more than a concrete floor with wooden tables and chairs. Just as we were seated， a young woman came up to the door and leaned against its frame. She was weeping and speaking in Indonesian directly to me. I felt a wave of compassion for her. I had no idea what she was saying， but I could see that she was gesturing at me and in need of a hug.
The businessmen and community leaders with me seemed to be touched by her words. They explained that this woman， Esther， had grown up in a tin-roofed shanty made of cardboard. She lived with her mother and two siblings at the edge of a garbage dump， where they foraged for food each day and collected bits of plastic to sell to the recycling factory. She had a strong faith in God， but when her father left the family， Esther despaired and considered suicide. She believed that her life wasn‘t worth living.
Upset over the departure of her father， she considered taking her life. She prayed， telling God that she could no longer go to church. That same day her pastor showed the congregation one of my DVDs. It was a black-marketed copy， one of 150，000 made illegally and sold in Indonesia.
When I’d first learned from Han-Han that so many of my DVDs had been pirated and sold， I responded， “Don‘t worry about it， praise God.” I cared more about people hearing my message than about making profits. Even on the black market， God was at work， as Esther would confirm.
Through an interpreter， Esther told me that my DVD had inspired her to reject despair. She came to find a purpose and to have hope. She felt that “if Nick can trust in God， then I can too.” She prayed for a job and fasted for six months. She’d found the job in that same Chinese restaurant， which brought us together！
After hearing this story， I gave Esther a hug and asked her what her plans were. She had decided that even though she had little money and worked fourteen hours a day， she would prepare herself to be a children‘s minister. She hoped to attend a Bible college， even though she wasn’t sure how that could happen given her situation. She was living in the restaurant， sleeping on the floor because she couldn‘t afford a place to live.
I nearly fell off my chair at that revelation. I hadn’t felt really comfortable about eating in the place. I couldn‘t imagine this poor woman sleeping there. I encouraged her to find a different place to live and to pursue her dream to be a children’s minister.
One of the members of our group was a pastor. After Esther returned to her work， he told me that the local Bible college was very expensive， and it had a twelve-month waiting list just to take the entrance exam， which very few applicants passed.
