Met Them One Night, They Joined Us the Next!
One Friday night in January as we were finishing up, I (Ryan) found myself alone in the van waiting for the other groups to finish. We typically outreach for an hour right before sunset and it was getting dark, but the rest of our team was engaged in some great conversations.
Gabriel & Genevieve
At one house, Laura and Grace were talking with Gabriel and his daughter Genevieve. The girls had met Genevieve sometime within the last year at a church youth group, but we had switched churches, so they hadn’t seen each other in a while.
Gabriel had recently given his life to Christ and was baptized within the last year. He had been praying and asking God how he can be a disciple of Jesus. He wanted to know what that looked like.
Laura shared our testimony with him and then challenged him to come out with us and share his faith. He responded that she planted a seed. In other words, it gives him something to think about.
Matt & Jennifer
Jakin and Bekah had a conversation with Matt and Jennifer about six houses away from Gabriel’s. Jennifer had said that they have been going through the book of James in their church Bible study. In that book it motivates you to put your faith into action.
Jakin and Bekah asked them to join us knocking on door sometime. They thought the timing was perfect and a great opportunity to put their faith into action.
Later That Night....
When we got home the girls texted Genevieve to see if her and her dad wanted to join us outreaching the next night. We also contacted Matt and Jennifer.
What Just Happened?
Saturday night we had these four new people, along with our family and regular attenders Jackson and Jarian. Thirteen people in total!
I was partnered with Gabriel that evening. We had a few nice conversations, but there was one at the end of our time that particularly stood out. Gabriel was very nervous before going out. He had assumed that many people would be angry with us knocking on their door or that we would get yelled at. But this really isn’t the case at all.
We spoke with a man named Rafael. He was in the Catholic church and seemed to have a strong faith. We encouraged him to read the Bible and go after God. Rafael was really refreshed by the conversation. He said that he could sense we were different just by looking at us.
The cool thing too is that Gabriel and I go to different churches but yet we were united in one goal of sharing our faith and encouraging others to go after God.
Gabriel walked away from that conversation and said, “what just happened?” He was feeling a little overwhelmed on what God did and was doing in him. Gabriel felt really energized and motivated by what God did through him.
It is fun and enjoyable to obey God in sharing our faith! We need to keep being faithful!
It is fun and enjoyable to obey God in sharing our faith! We need to keep being faithful!