The other day I was able to go evangelizing with my squad mentor Teresa, who has brought hundreds of people to Christ around the world by interrupting strangers in their day to share her testimony and God’s love for them.
For a little background on my perspective of evangelism and more background on my mentor Teresa, take a second to check out my last blog Evangelizing on a Whole New Level.
She invited me to join her and Ian, a fellow squadmate, who had just seen a 70-year-old man accept Christ. Ian was already sitting down talking to Andrew, an 18-year-old guy who was working at a concession stand. He was on break eating and Ian was mid conversation when Teresa and I gently sat next to them on the bench. Ian was doing an amazing job explaining what a relationship with God looked like:
“It’s like a relationship between you and me. If we were close friends we’d want to talk every day and spend time with each other. If I just walked up to you concession stand and bought something from you everyday it wouldn’t be much of a relationship. I wouldn’t know you very well…”
There was a moment where he was intrigued and said that he had wanted that in his relationship with God. But there was a moment where he had to get up to sell a water and when he sat back down a seed of doubt had been planted in his head.
“I think I’m okay with just praying at night and morning while going to church on Sundays. I don’t want to change anything.”
The devil snuck in so quickly, telling Andrew to stick with what he knows. We still enjoyed getting to know him and becoming friends!
After that we walked toward one of the major roads, when we met up with some other people of our squad and ran into two girls Erika and Roxie, who were around our age. Roxie had a hunger to know the Lord, even though her friend Erika wasn’t quite ready. We had a great conversation with her and encouraged her to dive into her faith. We got her Facebook info and told her we’d keep in touch.
Then Teresa ran across the street to run down a young guy walking with his headphones on. She interrupted him and asked him about his faith. Turns out he already believed in Christ and actually used to feel really close to the Lord about two years ago. Yet he’s never read any of the Bible and said it was on his “to-read” list. Teresa asked if he wanted to invite the Lord back into his life and to rebuild that relationship with God. Our friend Sevi said yes and said a prayer with Teresa as we hurried 15 minutes down the road to catch a bus he needed to be on to leave this city. As we walked away and waved goodbye Teresa was full of joy, relating it to the parable in the Bible where the Shepard had 100 sheep and when the 1 was lost, he went out looking for it.
“The Lord knows his sheep and every one of them matter. He was going after the one lost sheep.”
As we walked back toward the fort we ran into a drunken older man on the street. The only words he knew in English were “thank you very much.”
Immediately Teresa felt the Spirit telling her to pray over his alcholism. So we did just that. We prayed over him and when we finished he started asking for money. Teresa shook her head and said “Are you hungry?” and made a motion of eating and rubbing her stomach. He motioned yes and walked with us to the city center. Throughout the entire walk he would talk extremely loud in his drunken manner, but every so often he would break out into tears. We asked someone on the street if they could ask him what he wanted to eat and he was wanting a soup.
Teresa was determined to give him not just any food, but what he desired.
We finally found a restaurant that sold the soup he was desiring and when he received it and opened his mouth, we saw he had no teeth. After all that, he could really only eat soup anyhow. Again he would have an outburst of tears and then calm down and eat more soup.
When he was done we used google translate to ask him his story. We found out that he has four children and all his family lives in Moldova. He didn’t have enough money for a train ticket though and wanted money from us for it. Teresa said she didn’t feel it in her Spirit the urge to help him in that way unless we bought the actual train ticket for him. I did some listening prayer and the Lord told me “I have him here for a reason.”
At that point we began to share the gospel with him and we had a Bible in Romanian. We underlined a Bible verse that talked about how Christ will set you free from sin and indulgence. When we gave it to him to read, he told us he couldn’t see well because of cataracts.
We turned to look for a bystander to read it to him in Romanian and you’ll never guess who walked by at that very moment… Roxie and Erika!
I grabbed Roxie and had her read it to him. He teared up and thanked us for sharing. It was amazing to know in my heart that God placed her there in that exact moment so she would have a chance to get a taste of the Bible immediately. He really does plan divine interventions and appointments at His will to further His Kingdom.
Our day evangelizing with Teresa was one I’ll never forget. I’ve learned to share Christ with listening ears and a loving heart.
That day we got to feed the Lord’s homeless and send home one of His lost sheep.
Take a second to subscribe to my blog for the most up-to-date info on my race and also subscribe to my YouTube Channel to see for yourself how God is moving on my Race!
Bet you didn’t know you would become like a Shepard? Always worried about the sheep.
Jesus is the good shepard, oh to be like him and see the sheep as more than stupid and ignorant.
Keep being a good listener and spreading joy and love to the lost and lonely. I know so much of it is needed now more than ever in this world. Love you.
Loved our time together:)