He was eating a small lunch of carrots and ham sandwiches with his fellow missionaries when he noticed a figure move in the distant prairie. A lanky, hunched over Native American man began to approach their wooden picnic table, but suddenly stopped 20 feet away.

“Can I come closer?” he asked softly, visibly shaking.

“Yes of course! We want to talk to you,” replied junior Jonathan Kaye.

He took a seat at their table and introduced himself as Tony. From that point, his timid demeanor quickly vanished. He entertained the group with a song in his native tongue of Oglala and began sharing a narrative of his life’s events.

He eventually got to the chapter of his story where he fought and killed many people in the Vietnam War. Overcome with guilt and desperate for salvation, he had exposed an inner demon from his past life to this group of virtual strangers.

He truly believed he would never receive God’s mercy for his wrongdoings, despite trying so hard all these years to seek His forgiveness.

Knowing what they had set out to do, Kaye and his fellow missionaries formed a circle around Tony, bowed their heads, placed a hand on his head, and began their prayer.

“Thank you Lord for the opportunity to speak with Tony. Thank you for giving him the strength to come talk to us, and for the forgiveness You have for him.”

The man who had previously bowed his head down in shame now lowered his head for a different reason. Overcome with emotion Tony began to weep.

He expressed his gratitude for the experience and was sent on his way, back into the distant prairie.

Although they would never see him again, the group knew at that moment that their small prayer circle would play a large role in Tony’s perspective of God and the afterlife.

Yet Tony wasn’t the only person impacted by this event. Kaye knew he had reached a pivotal moment on this mission, learning something that will inspire his drive for future missions to come.

“I realized I could have an impact on people through Christianity,” said Kaye. “I really look forward to travelling to other countries on these missions, when I’m in college.”