Evangelism

Hello Readers,

This is going to be a full blog post to read! I am very excited to tell you about my adventure that the Institute sent us on as a class! As always I hope that this post provides insight, challenges, and encourages you in your daily walk with Christ.

We were given the challenge to go and evangelize to the town of Branson. Wow, was I so scared when I sat in class and our president told us the heart of this assignment and gave us the layout of what we should ask while talking with people. I knew this time would come and I have learned a ton in being prepared for this specific day, but still very anxious. I had no idea where I was going to go. I HATE the smell of coffee so I knew I wouldn’t be able to go there and talking with people. I had the awesome opportunity to go with one of my classmates and after driving around for a little bit found our self in the parking lot of the hospital here in town!

We were given 5 questions to ask people to open up spiritual conversations.
1. Who is God?
2. Who is Jesus?
3. When do you become a woman?
4. Do you attend a church?
5. Would you mind telling us your story and include your biggest struggle or trial in life right now.

My friend and I headed into the hospital after praying in the parking lot for God to calm our spirits and to give us divine appointments in who we talk with today. We didn’t quite know the layout of the hospital and upon trying to find the out patient waiting room we came upon the cafeteria and decided to sit there for a little while and collect our thought and spend sometime in prayer and reading the Word and look to see if we could talk with anyone in this type of setting. It was earlier in the morning and the only people that came through were the busy nurses that didn’t have time to sit and chat. So we mustered up our courage and sent into the outpatient waiting room.

We saw an elderly lady by herself in a wheel chair and decided to talk with her. I will not being saying her name to give privacy and it was an okay conversation. We ran out of time to get to the first questions but got the chance to talk and listen to her story and then pray with her and give encouragement with the trial of failing physical health and loneliness.
After that we decided to go to a different waiting room because of the low amount of people in the one we were currently in. We wanted to find the chapel and there happened to be a waiting room right next to it. The chapel was a very small room and no one was in it but we did find someone to talk with in the waiting room and it was an awesome conversation! She was waiting on her husband who was in surgery. We had a good hour plus conversation with her. Even though we had a longer time with her it was still hard for myself and my friend to bring up and transition into the 5 questions to ask her. We again went from the bottom up and just asked her a ton of questions about her life and what trials she was currently going through. They happened to be loneliness and weariness and stress. She, however, said multiple times that she was so happy that we asked to speak with her. It was so sad to hear how when she moved to Branson that she and her husband really struggled in finding a church and even friends that excepted them and they just stopped attending any church and hadn’t in many years, even though both had grown up in the church. We asked if she had ever considered trying the churches here again and she said it is funny that we ask because her co-workers of late had really been pushing for her to go with them and she had a deeper conviction to start going again. With all of her husband’s health situations coming up and how her children are going to be moving away and she wanted a support group to walk through the toughest trial she is going through right now. Our time ended with us exchanging numbers and we more recently have heard that her husband is not doing so great and really needs our prayers. We hope to continue to pursue a relationship with her while here at the Institute and she seemed very interested in coming to church with us but couldn’t while her husband was in the hospital. We did however tell her of the live feed she and her husband could watch to see if they even liked the pastor before coming to check out the fellowship of people. Hopefully we will get to sit next to her while at a church service soon or that she goes with her friends.

The questions that we had set out to ask did not all get asked and even though they didn’t I was still blown away with how hurting people need to be loved. I am so blessed with where God has me right now in my life and I was truly struck by how lonely and stressed and tired people are with no support and the church has left them abandoned in some way. I know that the church has a huge responsibility and really it isn’t just the pastors or elders of the church to care for all the people but the people themselves to care for all the people. I have been challenged in my thoughts of how I service in the church I attend and how am I reaching out to other members to show them the love of God in my speech or action. This world leaves us battered and bruised and God’s people are to abide in Him and love like He loved us (1 John).

We are all broken in someway and getting the privilege to step out of my comfort zone and talk with people I didn’t know at all was just a blessing. My friend and I will be going back to the hospital next Thursday to talk with more people and show love to them through speech and possibly some action as well.

I challenge you to think upon these 5 questions and how you would answer them. Second, step out in someway and talk with friends and then people you don’t even know and ask them about them. Stir up conversation with a purpose - we know that Jesus is our escape from the penalty of our sins, He paid the price and we need to be telling others about that love and gift we can have. I hope you are encouraged and have a great day showing the Love of God in someway.