Recently, I prayed with two men who received Christ as their savior for the first time. It was one of my only prayers for this trip, that I would witness the point of salvation for at least one person before I returned home. In our time in the Kibera slum (1/2 mile from where we were staying in Kenya), I witnessed Peter receive Christ. Then, the very next day at Church, a man named Benson asked that I pray with him because he wanted to receive Christ.
A few weeks have passed since these amazing moments happened. I was super excited for both of them at the time, but the actual moment they made the decision was a little bit less glamorous than I’d always imagined it. Don’t get me wrong, this is THE most important decision anyone could ever make – deciding to follow Christ. But I realized something through these experiences that will shape the way I view ministry for the rest of my life.
The moment at which these two men chose salvation through Jesus Christ was just ONE moment. I have no idea how many people evangelized to them about Christ before that moment, I have no idea what God has been speaking to them their entire lives, how He’s been guiding them, pursuing them and showing His love to them before that point and I have no idea how many people God will put in their lives to encourage them and teach them in their faith walk from that point on. When I prayed with them, I was being obedient to God. I was there, so I prayed with them and if someone else of faith had been there, I’m assuming they would do the same. AND, the actual salvation of the person was not dependent on me or anyone else praying with them in that moment, their salvation is still between them and God.
All of the people who came before me in these two men’s lives were just as obedient as I was in that moment. The fact that all the people who came before me didn’t witness them receive Christ has no bearing whatsoever on their call to witness to these men. God created situations where people of faith were there with them, telling them about Christ, influencing them and encouraging them to see and accept the truth long before I came along. I just happened to be there for that special moment when they realize the truth.
A huge focus of mine before coming on the trip was expecting to see people accept Christ. Now that I’ve seen it, it’s more clear than ever that my calling is not to live to see JUST that one moment in peoples lives, but it’s to be a light to people at all stages in their walk with God. I knew this before, but I always felt a little bit inadequate at ‘getting people saved’ or ‘sealing the deal’. Now I realize that I’m called to a life of obedience, of being the person who speaks the truth when God needs someone to speak the truth, to be a person whose life lets Jesus shine through everyday, every minute. To be the person who is willing to sit and talk with a girl who is hurting for hours, to be the person who offers to babysit free of charge for the single mother down the street, to feed the hungry and serve the poor, love the widows and orphans and be Jesus to everyone I encounter from this day forth.
