Hey everyone, I know it’s been a while since I’ve given out an update on my training and the ministries I’ve been involved in. I am currently working on my prayer letter right now to send out to you all.
Aside from that, this past week has been both awesome and a humbling experience for me. We have been having a visiting missionary teach us about soul winning this week. If y’all are interested, I can put all of my notes into a single document to share with you all. Last night, I had the opportunity to put what I learned to the test. There are two encounters I would like to share with y’all.
The first encounter was with an elder man at the park. He was sitting on a park bench on his phone. I approached the bench and sat down beside him. After introducing myself, we talked about knowing more than one language. In the process, I discovered that he was from South Korea. Knowing my mom loved Korean dramas/shows, I was able to use that as a way to develop a relationship with him. Then we got to the meat of the conversation. He said he was a Christian and went to church but didn’t answer when I asked him what led to him becoming Christian (may have been due to him not knowing enough English to answer, his English was very limited). This led to me reading John 3:16 with him. Finally, we closed out our conversation in prayer. He asked if he could take a picture of us together to show his wife. Both of us were able to get a picture of us together, but I forgot to ask if he could send his picture to me instead of using my phone.
The second encounter was with a family at the park. I called out to them and introduced myself to them. As soon as they heard I was with a Baptist church, one of the girls yelled out that they were catholic and the rest of the kids started laughing at me for trying to talk to them. One of the kids, however, told the others to let me talk. This allowed me to share a brief testimony with them on how I had accepted Jesus as my savior which changed my life since. As I walked away after saying goodbye, I heard laughter behind my back. It was humiliating to be laughed at. I had trouble thinking of what to tell them when they were laughing, and didn’t get my message across the way I wanted.
Three things I would like you all to take away from this. 1. Outreach is hard. It can be humiliating at times. It doesn’t matter, though. It is our responsibility as a local church for each member to be a soul winner. A single missionary or pastor cannot get the job done. It takes a community to reach a community. We are to not be ashamed of the gospel. We literally hold the keys to the Kingdom in our hands. Are we sharing it with people, or keeping it to ourselves? 2. Never stop reaching out to people. Keep planting seeds. Take the gospel as far as you can and pass it to God when you have to stop. Start building relationships with people. This is the most fruitful way of evangelism.
3. Soul winning is fun and can result in moments like I had with that elderly man that you wouldn’t have if you don’t put yourself out there.
I know this is a long post, but I hope it has been an encouragement to y’all. Love you guys, talk to you next time.