You must pay attention or you’ll miss it!! If you aren’t looking for it, you will pass by without ever knowing it was there!
The opportunity to connect with someone.
Maybe it’s to connect with someone you know or have a close relationship with already. Or maybe it’s a complete stranger. All the same, we must pay close attention! What if you don’t take the extra step? To choose to connect; instead you walk by and miss something bigger that God has for you! Or for them.
I almost did that. It was a hot, muggy day on the mountain in Lajas de Yaroa. It had just stopped raining earlier that morning as we began our ministry assignment of street evangelism. I was tired and wasn’t thrilled at the idea of dodging large, muddy puddles as we walked the streets of Lajas. Plus it’s scary walking up to someone you don’t know, who doesn’t speak your language and trying to get to know them. What if they walk away? Or close the door in my face? Or yell at me?
I’m learning that I must overcome this fear. Street evangelism in the United States is not usually well received, how will the people of Lajas react?
Surprisingly, most would invite us right in, ask us to have a seat, make ourselves comfortable and offer us coffee. They love having visitors!
If we hadn’t been paying attention as we were walking, though, we wouldn’t have looked up and noticed a house tucked back behind the trees at the top of a really steep hill.
It was Andres’ house…
Would you have seen it? His house through the trees?
As my team made the short, steep trek up the path, I prayed for God to open his heart to genuine communication and connection. And God did just that.
I hadn’t even sat down yet, in the chair across the room from him, when he started right in asking us about our group and what part of the U.S. we were from. We asked him a lot of questions about his family and how long he’d lived in town, when he started to open up and share more details about his life and faith. He told us that he believes in God, but does not like to attend church. He said the church is full of hypocrites, lots of men saying they are Christian, but still doing “bad things” and he didn’t want to be a part of that. Instead, he just tries to be “good” and do the “right” thing.
I asked him if he believed in Heaven and he got excited and said “Yes!” He then proceeded to share a dream with us that he had when he was 14 years old about God pulling him out of a giant pot of fire. A couple of my teammates pointed out the similarities between his dream and the story of the fiery furnace in chapter 3 of Daniel. I quickly asked if he was familiar with the story, to which he said “No.” So, I shared that story with him, followed by asking him some pretty tough questions about his thoughts on the story. I asked him: if the story was about the 3 men (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) who was the 4th man standing with them in the fire?? You could tell his mind was reeling, he wasn’t sure. After some time he answered “God!” I then said “Yes! But who is God in the form of a man?” After another pause, he was able to figure out the story refers to Jesus.
Another teammate then shared how his dream was very similar and that it was God who protected him from getting burned in his dream and how God has the power to save us through Jesus!
Andres decided to accept Christ as his personal savior that day and he prayed with Hayley, another girl on my team to receive that precious gift.
“I’ve always wondered whether or not I would go to Heaven,” Andres said, “but now I know for sure!”
We then discussed with him how he can be a person of influence in the community and set a good example for the men in town in terms of how to act. He was excited to connect with the local pastor we mentioned and seemed genuinely interested in going to church and attending a bible study.
Our team, The Kingdom Shakers, with Andres!
(L-R: Monique, Nicole, Karyn Andres, Alyssa, Alissa, Sarah, and Hayley)
Imagine if I had been busy looking down at my cell phone that morning; or at the next muddy puddle in my path to step over. I would’ve missed Andres’ house altogether, and things might be very different…
We have opportunities to connect with those around us every day. It’s a choice and it takes commitment on our part to say yes, even when we’d rather hang back or not speak up.
Say “yes” anyway.
You never know how great the impact could be.
Romans 10:9 “…because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Jeremiah 29:13 “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”
**Due to inconsistent internet access. Some blogs may be posted a while after originally written. 🙂
