Last Saturday, Mom, Sarah, and I (Meagan) attended our church’s monthly outreach day. On each of these outreach outings, the church members (divided into groups of 2-4) blitz streets surrounding the church by handing out tracks as well as witness to people when God opens the door.
On this particular Saturday, Sarah and Mom joined one small group, while I was assigned to another small group with a friend. From the time we parted ways at the church, we each had distinct outreach experiences.
My group devoted much of their time to passing out tracks to different people on our assigned streets. Only when we stopped to rest near some tricycle drivers did we actually have the chance to witness to someone. With the drivers being all men, my friend persuaded her cousin (a young man from our church) to take this opportunity to talk with these two men sitting near their tricycles.
At first, Donald (the cousin) was a bit nervous and said that he did not feel prepared to witness to them alone. “What if they ask me a question that I cannot answer?” he responded hesitantly. After some encouragement and support from his cousin (my friend) and after he looked over some key verses, Donald approached the men. He did a great job sharing with them the Gospel and God’s gift of salvation.
Yet sadly when he was finished, the men refused to believe what he had shared. They refused to accept that there was a heaven or a hell. In their opinion, the earth was hell, and heaven was just in the sky. Also, they did not regard the Bible as God’s Holy Word. One driver reasoned, “There are too many editions and translations. I will only believe that it is God’s Word if I see the real, actually manuscript with my own eyes.”
After that incident, we all felt challenged. We desired to learn more about God’s Word, to deepen our own faith so that we may be more prepared to share and defend our faith with more confidence and assurance the next time an opportunity arrives.
The verse 1 Peter 3:15 seemed to sink into our hearts and minds with a new and heartfelt meaning. “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason on the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.”
Although the drivers did not accept the Gospel, we pray that some seeds were sown and that God may convict their hearts as they remember that conversation and read the tracks that we passed out.
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Meanwhile, while we were visiting with the tricycle drivers, Mom and Sarah (who were paired up with another lady from our church) worked their way down another street. They were actually invited into one lady’s house, where they visited with the hostess. After witnessing and getting to know her some more, they invited her as well as much of her family (her daughter, and some of her grandchildren) to our church. Because we have a van, mom offered to pick them up and take them to church. :-)That next Sunday, we were very excited to see them come to church. The Grandmother told us that the little ones were so excited to attend church that they literally woke up at 4:00 AM that morning all ready to go.:-)
We are looking forward to having them come again next week. We pray that God would stir their hearts, use us to be a light to them, and reveal Himself to these new friends through His Word and the messages at church.:-)
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