Here are two stories that I've recently read. The first is from the Epilogue of A Faith Worth Sharing by C. John Miller and the second from The Gospel and Personal Evangelism by Mark Dever. Both books I highly recommend. The one by John Miller was one of the most thoroughly enjoyable and readable books I have read in a long time.
THE SALVATION OF MR. YORK
One day when Jack (John Miller) was a young pastor in California, he received an unexpected call from the hospital. Jack had known the man's health wasn't good, but he wasn't prepared for this message: "Come to the hospital quickly. Mr. York is dying!"
At the hospital Jack received his second shock. the sound of Mr. York's breathing was horrible. This non-Christian man was dying from lung congestion; he was suffocating and had already lapsed into a coma.
Jack said, "The whole scene left me dismayed. My impression was of tubes and hospital paraphernalia everywhere. Here I was a young pastor who had never been plunged into anything like this before. To top it off, I didn't know the patient all that well. Once or twice I had talked to him about Christ, but his response had been vague. So what should I do? How do you minister to a man who seems unconscious? No seminary course had prepared me for anything like this."
He wrote about his encounter with Mr. York, "I was convinced that God's sovereign plan governs everything. But what kind of web was the Lord weaving here? When I leaned my heart on the Almighty, the deep waters of death seemed less threatening. Then God began to bring to mind things I'd heard from a Christian nurse when I was a student at San Francisco State.
"She said, 'Don't assume that a person in a coma or apparently unconscious is beyond all communication. Sometimes the patient who does not speak or show signs of listening can still hear you. Don't be misled by appearances.' then she gave me some specific guidelines to follow:
"1. Read to the patient a short, familiar passage of Scripture, a few verses that sum up the gospel (John 3:16).
"2. Speak rather loudly and briefly, close to the patient's ear.
"3. Repeat the process several times, using as much as you can the very same words each time you speak."
With these thoughts in Jack's mind, he asked Mrs. York's permission to speak with her husband about his need for Christ - and to speak loudly. She consented and Jack read Scripture very loud and fired off a two-minute sermon setting forth the way of salvation. he did this repeatedly.
For a short time, hope was renewed for Mr. York's recovery, but his life energy continued to drain away. Then, suddenly, a few days later, Mr. York raised up in bed, tubes and all, and said, "tell Bob I'm saved!" Then he slipped back into the coma. the next day he died. Mrs. York said "Bob" was a Christian neighbor who had been sharing the gospel with her husband.
This experience had a tremendous impact on Jack. Now even the comatose heard the irresistible message of grace from him. Many seriously ill people found hope as Jack told them about the forgiving love of the Father and the sacrificing love of the Son. (A Faith Worth Sharing, pp. 131-133)
THE STORY OF LUKE SHORT
Luke Short was a New England farmer who lived to be one hundred years old. Sometime in the middle of the 1700s he was sitting in his fields reflecting on his long life. As he did, "he recalled a sermon he had heard in Dartmouth [England] as a boy before he sailed to America. The horror of dying under the curse of God was impressed upon him as he meditated on the words he had heard so long ago and he was converted to Christ - eighty-five years after hearing John Flavel preach." The preacher, John Flavel, had been a faithful evangelist eight-five years earlier. And he was wiser than to have thought that the day he preached the sermon, he would quickly see all its fruit. (The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, p. 81)