Matthew 28:16-20 The Great Commission. Jesus and the disciples were on the mountain and when they saw Jesus, some worshipped Him and some doubted Him. Jesus tells them to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching people. Jesus reminded the disciples that He will always be with them.
Many times when I went out evangelizing, these verses came to my mind where I was reminded of part of my purpose here on earth and I felt comfort from our Father knowing that I would never be alone!
Encounter 6: Sometimes going up to people doesn’t go well. My friend and I went up to 3 teenagers in a park and we asked if they spoke English. They looked at each other, smirked, and straight-up ignored us. Didn’t even look at us and said nothing to us but talked to each other. We can’t get discouraged when that happens even though it’s not fun. But we walked away and approach a lady with her nephew. We had a translator for this encounter and we got to talk about life, what we are doing in Romania, and our different beliefs. In the end, the lady told us to come back and talk with her any evening since she comes to that park every evening with her nephew.
Encounter 7: The team and I went to another location of Hope Church about an hour away to a small town. We were evangelizing in this town and had translators with us. We approached a man sitting on a bench outside his home. So we started having a casual conversation and we then talked about why we are in Romania and about the Christian church down the road. His wife on the other side of the fence heard what we were talking about and opened the gate. She looked at us and said “I grew up Orthodox and I’m going to die Orthodox.” and she left. The husband shrugged his shoulders and we told him to have a good day.
After that encounter, we were talking with our translator about pain and life in general. Next thing we know a lady opens her gate as we were walking by. We go up to her and talk to her about what we are doing in the town and she shares that she has a relationship with God and opens up about what is going on in her life. As she tells us with tears coming down her face that she is supposed to have surgery and she can’t because her current doctor moved. So she had to postpone her surgery. She also shared that her daughter of 50 years old died recently and she is filled with sadness. It’s not a coincidence that we were just talking about pain before we walked up to this lady. God knew and was preparing our hearts for this interaction. We ask if we can pray for her stomach in asking that the Lord would heal her and she wouldn’t even need surgery. We also prayed as her husband and her grieving the loss of their daughter. Even though she knows the Lord, the brokenness in the world Is not easy and we need encouragement and someone to remind us of truth and even someone to give us a hug in our pain.
Encounter 8: I was with a group of my friends and our translator walking around a market and handing out books, pamphlets, and chocolate. We had quite a few encounters handing out things to people selling things at the market and to customers buying things etc. There was a man filled with joy, happily dancing by his produce. So I walked up to him and started to dance and as I was doing so, I handed him a pamphlet, he was interested and stopped dancing and I walked away. As he started to read it, one of my friends then when up to him to explain what we are all about and what we are doing. Sometimes we find ways to be creative as we evangelize! I walked down the street a little further and handed out more pamphlets and then I came back to my friend talking with the man. I introduced myself and started talking about life and what makes him so joyful. We were able to share the joy that we have in the Father and about the church we are a part of.
Encounter 9: One day, my friend Rebekah and I went to evangelize, but we didn’t have a translator. We knew that most of the younger generation speaks English so that was most of our focus. We went wandering around looking for youth to connect with and we walked up to this group of about 10 people. At first, we were both nervous to approach this large group, but we did it anyway. We had a casual conversation about the city and what food we should try and received recommendations on places to visit. We told the group about church and the event we were having to bring people together and gave them a few pamphlets on information about Hope Church. We were able to become friends on social media to stay connected. With such a big group, we had some people talk over us and not care, but a few were interested and even if a few were interested in what we shared, that’s worth it. For God even cares and goes after the one sheep that wandered away; we will invest in the few people that showed interest and continue to pray for the whole group that they will seek a relationship with Jesus.
Encounter 10: One of the translators and I were handing out pamphlets about God, salvation, and information about the church and we saw a couple sitting on a bench. In my mind, this couple was wearing all black, had crystals necklaces around their necks, smoking and my instant thought was, they don’t look like people who are going to be interested but who knows, we have a powerful God who works in everyone hearts. So we walked over to them and talked about what we were doing and what the pamphlets were all about. They were interested; they asked questions and we told them more about the church. We asked if we could pray over them and they said yes. I asked if they needed prayer for anything specific and they shared a few things where my translator prayed in Romanian and I prayed in English. It was a cool encounter where God reminded me to not be closed-minded because we have a big God and He is not limited to only certain people and that He can work in anyone’s heart. After this, I started to pray into not judging an outcome of an encounter based on worldly conditions. This isn’t kingdom-minded thinking, and where I can grow in my relationship with our Heavenly Father.
God is good to us! I’m blown away by the seeds planted and by the growth that I have had through this process. I remind myself that the responsibility to bring people to Christ is not my job. My job is to be Christ-like, to show God’s love. I was able to share my story, listen to people’s stories, share about my relationship with God, hear people say “you’re different”, where they see God’s light and a seed planted. I don’t know what will happen to these connections that were made, but it’s in God’s hands!
