Evangelism

As Segun and I continue to go out together for Evangelism, we continue to see God’s grace.

West Linn:

One day in West Linn, we visited the food truck court and spoke to a few individuals, one of them being a new Christian who had recently moved to the area, English a secondary language, and openly shared her story of coming to Christ through watching a YouTube video of a Pastor’s preaching of the gospel. And since, God had been speaking to her through His word powerfully. We rejoiced with her and Segun and I encouraged her in the grace of God, praying with her. A nearby lady who was ordering food I engaged in conversation who, she too, a Christian, requested prayer for her son, who was ‘figuring things out.’ I got to learn of her very musical family and that, having grown up in church and her entire family being very involved in ministry, singing gospel music in the choir was particularly where she experienced God’s presence and peace. From there, a group was enjoying time together nearby, and they were uninterested to engage in conversation about Jesus. From them, a man with a helmet and a walker approached, who we greeted, and was ‘getting breakfast’ and said this was the first time he had eaten today. Conversation was challenging for him to follow, but he enjoyed Segun’s children and encouraged Samuel (his older son) to be a good big brother to the younger, and we blessed him and continued on. Each person God knows how to reach, whatever the barriers, and just being present and willing to bring up the name of Jesus can be the spark that God uses to ignite a flame of faith.

Will

We continued on down the road, and as we walked, we saw a young man sitting on a bench, who looked reflective. I engaged him, and asked how things were going. He was unusually authentic, sharing that things were ‘stormy’ and that he had just come from a therapy session exploring challenging family relationship dynamics that he felt little hope to reach reconciliation in. Like a therapy session, I provided him space and helped facilitate some of his processing. Sharing of his pursuit of buddhism, his challenges with relationship struggles, and feeling grateful for the space to openly continue his processing with a random stranger, I then shared with him that we happened to be Christians out sharing the hope found in a relationship with Jesus, and that I was a therapist who happened to have come from similar relational challenges and a background of spiritual ‘exploration’ but had a dramatic conversion to Christ, sharing briefly my testimony and how God had brought about changes in relationship dynamics by looking to Him for help, offering if we could pray for his situation. Where normally it would seem he would not be as open to engaging with Christianity, this seemed to have set the stage, and we invited the God of Hope and Reconciliation to work mightily in his relationships and show that He is involved and cares. He thanked us, and we left mutually blessed, continuing on our way.

Reconnecting

We often meet the same people on our evangelism outings. A handful of people come to mind—the jogging lady, the hispanic youth and his sister, the store workers, our eccentric mathematician friend (Jonathan)—it feels a unique experience to build community on the basis of consistent evangelism! On another day to West Linn, we greeted the same man who had the helmet, who recognized us. This time, somewhat more open to conversation, he shared (with some difficulty) that he desired to have autonomy because he cannot drive (likely due to his condition) and so desired a travel trailer that he could hitch to a bike and sleep in. He then shared about his experiences growing up working on vehicles with his friends, his dad, and fun times, all a bit scattered and piece-meal in descriptions but the theme of appreciating past memories was the connective thread, which in joining with him and giving him space to remember was a blessing. The time was sweet as Segun’s kids played and after awhile 2-year-old Joel came up and gave him a hug, which the man received. We prayed with him, blessing him in the Name of Jesus, and continued on.

El Roi (The God Who Sees)

We often ask the Lord that we would be His hands and feet. On one particular day, we stood on a sidewalk talking outside a store, and greeted a few people who busily made their way past despite offers to share the good news. One lady, however, was particularly desirous of good news, sharing that she was not from the area and, although generally well in appearance, shared that she was feeling especially lonely and struggling to make ends meet. She was a Christian, but due to experiences with others had found it hard to entrust herself to a church, and so lacked community. After praying together, Segun asked if there was anything she needed, to which she responded that a little bit of gas money would help her get back to where she lived (about 30 minutes away). Not carrying cash, we offered to get cash back from a store purchase, and as we all went inside, we asked if there was anything we could buy her. She shared that she hadn’t eaten breakfast, and a deli sandwich would be gratefully received. In ordering one and approaching the self check out, she then shared that this very day marked when her father had passed away a year prior, reflecting why maybe today she felt particularly lonely. I letting her know that we believe God was showing His care for her today in particular by orchestrating our meeting, hearing our prayer to ‘be His hands and feet.’ Segun slipped his card to me to pay for the sandwich. Mutually grateful, she blessed us and, leaving, we continued our walk down the sidewalk, Segun echoed a truth that our family had just read in Bible the night before, about working hard in order to be a blessing to others in need.

Earlier that same outing, we had met with a woman who was encouraged by our sharing the good news, and, an english-second language individual, shared a prayer request for her son, and offered to give us $20. I couldn’t accept her money as it felt as it were an exchange for prayer, which I encouraged her to bring with to our church’s sunflower festival and use possibly to purchase flowers for herself or a gift for others if she desired. Reflecting later that if we had received her money, it fluidly could have been used as a blessing to the lady requesting gas money, but then we likely would have missed the opportunity to connect more with her in the store and the information she shared about that day being the anniversary of her father’s passing.

So many people and stories. Just recently, we met a father of one of the students at our school, who we invited to an outdoor family-friendly church event that he wasn’t aware of and thought might be fun. We met a believing man who shared his story of losing his son, his dad, and his own health for a season recently and yet in his recovery was still connected to and caring for his mom, and was a blessing to an elderly neighbor of his by clearing his overgrown property without pay (I shared a Bible Project video with him I had recently watched that came to mind). And we met a young writer who, in just coming upon the final paragraphs of a book he was writing, despite not now being a believer, was willing to receive prayer. A store worker on his break willing to engage with us for a moment, happened to unsolicitedly engage on the very issue the tract I was holding was about. A mom at the park with her two children was fun to engage with as I facilitated discussion with the kids present (us and hers) through Bible pop-quiz questions (which they were really smart at!).

Bus stops, park benches, playgrounds, really anywhere is a great place to lift up the name of Jesus, share the gospel, encourage, exhort, and pray.

Thank you Lord for being with us wherever we go!

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