Harry was never shy in reaching others to Christ; in fact he would rather hand out tracks on the street to random strangers then preach the gospel to his fellow neighbors on Sunday. Harry was faithful in his preaching on Sunday but knew the gospel was much more then an easy street to heaven. He knew it came with a price; your life.. Harry loved the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul and his entire mind and nothing would ever stop him from sharing the good news. His life was entirely in Jesus capable hands.
Harry was my grandfather. He was the kindest man I have ever known and not a selfish bone in his body. He believed in giving without expecting anything in return. He was the most passionate man I have ever known in regards to the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was never shy in meeting strangers and telling them the good news and I watched him diligently over the years even in the years he suffered with Alzheimer’s disease.
The reason I am mentioning my grandfather because many people have mentioned that I have my grandfather’s spirit. I never could wrap my head around that statement. My parents always that I was like my grandfather because I was able to present the gospel well to strangers. Which that made me even more annoyed because I dislike evangelism. I see the need in it but I don’t think it’s one of my gifts in fact it’s a 0 on my gifting evaluation.
All this doesn’t matter because this month in Cambodia it has been our task as a team to present the gospel in a way that is easy to the people in the Touch community. The first week was rough and hard. We as a team had no idea what to do. We kept looking to each other for answers and soon we decided to write the gospel down. Three hours later we had a “simple gospel” in order to present to the people.
During feedback our team discussed the day and talked about how the gospel was presented and everyone agreed as much the guideline helped in the beginning but it is now time to speak from the heart. I began to share how over the years I have feared to share my faith with people and that it bothered me when people compared me to my grandfather and said that I have his spirit. And my teammate looked into my eyes and said, “why is that a bad thing?”, “the spirit that resided in your grandfather resides in you.”
This simple statement is true. I may never be a great evangelist like my grandfather but he had the Holy Spirit and so do I.
