When I think of door-to-door ministry, I think of my friends from college inviting a couple Jehovah's Witnesses into their house and fighting an intellectual battle.
When I think of door-to-door ministry, I think of doors slammed in faces.
When I think of door-to-door ministry, I think of the Evangelism Team at Antioch going out every Saturday and sending report out to the entire church about what happened that day.
When I think of door-to-door evangelism, I think of rejection.
When I think of door-to-door evangelism, I think of excuses: excuses why we as Christians don’t do it and excuses from people why they don’t have time to talk.
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I never had the desire to do street evangelism or door-to-door evangelism. So what happens when I am thrown into the Philippines for a month's worth of house-to-house Bible studies?
My faith is grown. My knowledge is stretched. I thank God that I have a mini concordance in the back of my Bible. I ask God to lead me and guide me in the small stuff. My ears are opened to what the families need to hear.
There is no way I could do what I did this month on my own strength. We would walk into a house, be welcomed in with smiles and greetings and offered anything that resembles a seat in the house. Some of the houses were not even big enough for all of us to fit, but we did our best. Some of the houses were made of bamboo and we had to precariously step, praying every step of the way that the floor would not break under the weight of our steps.
Pastor JoJo would translate for us as we introduced ourselves and what we are doing here. Then the family would introduce themselves to us. Pastor JoJo had a longstanding relationship with most of the people we visited, so after the introductions, he would give us a topic that the family needed to hear a Bible study about. Topics ranged from prayer, encouragement in the faith, why they were suffering, the Gospel truth, serving the church… It was different in every house we went to.
As soon as he gave us a topic, we all scrambled through our Bibles trying to find something relevant to say. After two minutes or so of silence [which was pretty awkward most of the time], we'd ask if anyone had anything. If no one spoke up, it defaulted to the team leader to say something. Sometimes people would have something, but they weren't entirely sure it was from God, so they waited. If someone else went before them and the topics were related, they would piggy back off the first person's message.
Afterwards, we would answer any questions they had and ask for their prayer requests. We then prayed over the family, sometimes over a specific family member if they needed healing.
Some of the houses offered us drinks and snacks before we left, which we were obliged to receive. And just as easily as it was to enter their houses, we left and were off to the next house.
There are so many degrees of houses that we have been in: some have been barely standing made out of bamboo and sheets, while others were solid concrete buildings with tile floors. Every time a family gave their prayer requests, we had to sift through their actual requests and determine what the real need was. It was tough work. At the end of every day, I felt drained from pouring into so many people in a day.
I can't tell you how many people we prayed healing over. I wish I could say they were all healed… I wish I could say at least one of them was healed… but they weren't. But we have faith in God's timing and in His power. The majority of the families we visited, we only visited once, so there is no way of us knowing if healing ever came. But still, we prayed. Still, we believed. And that's all we can do.
