First off, thank you all so much for taking the time to read and comment on my blogs over the last month and a half. It is such an encouragement to see how interested and supportive you are. I posted a blog entitled “The Time Is Now” last week and several of you responded with thoughtful words and prayers concerning my testimony. I know you are all probably wondering how my time of sharing went, so I thought I would write a follow up blog giving some details surrounding the evening.
I was asked to have my testimony prepared a few days before the youth service in order to give the translator enough time to go over it and ask questions. I typed everything up and handed it in, felling that it was complete. When I woke up on the day on the of the service I began praying about the words I needed to share and God was really giving me a burden for the students that would be listening. I realize that my own story has power in itself, but God was telling me to share more. I’m not even sure if I’ve ever given a formal invitation for someone to receive Christ, let alone a group of 200 high-school and college students. I felt God asking me to add a short explanation of the gospel and a prayer of repentance to the end of my testimony, so I did just that.
I honestly had no idea what kind I’ve response I would see from the students, but that didn’t distract me from what God had placed on my heart. I knew that if even one person understood God’s truth for the first time it would be worth everything. The service began with a time of worship and then I was called up to speak. Of course I was nervous, but I was fully confident that God would work through my weakness. I was taking a step of faith and I believed He would honor that. And He did.
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9
I wish I could say that every student in the building prayed to receive salvation in one loud voice that evening, but they didn’t. I wish I could know if someone was touched by my story and had a change of heart, but I can’t. I can however, rest on the fact that God spoke truth and life through me and that He opened the ears and minds of those students to something beyond themselves. My heart suffers for these young people and I pray that in the short time I have left here, my actions and words will be an even stronger testimony of God’s grace and mercy and that lives will be changed because of it.
