We have been going out into the communities here in the Johannesburg area. The small townships built of scrap materials or cement walls is our destination. We show up in the morning when people are starting their days. We talk to people about our faith. I know it sounds like a strange concept to most people reading my blogs because all you may have to compare this with is what you’ve experienced. I completely get it. I can’t imagine walking into an apartment complex at home and going door to door knocking, and asking who ever is on the other side of the door, if they would like to sit and talk. But here, the culture is definitely different. They pull up seats, either a bucket, plastic crate, brick, or you share a chair. Whatever they have to offer you. We then just ask how they are. How there day has been. They are patient. They listen. Even when they appear uninterested, they listen. We ask if they go to church or have heard of Jesus.
What’s hard for me in these moments is to not feel intrusive, or that this way of evangelizing is impersonal. I like to know people, encourage them, listen to them. The hardest people I encounter are ones who already know who Jesus. They believe that because He came and died on the cross He is their Savior and they can have a relationship with Him. Most pray to the same God for protection.
This was the case for Paul (name changed). A 23 year old guy who drove a distribution truck for Coca Cola. He said he had been attacked and robbed multiple times when walking through the townships at night. I asked what he did in those situations. He said there is not much you can do but pray. He said it works and he escapes with his life. We talked to him more, me and my 2 teammates. We had just been passing by when we saw him and his coworker sitting outside a house and we asked if we could talk with them. Turned out their car had something wrong with it and the house they were sitting outside of was actually a mechanics. They were there just waiting for their truck to be fixed sipping on some energy drinks. We all talked about life and how we got to Africa. He asked if we were Christians, “born again” it’s referred to. We said yes, and asked if he was to. He said, no, he was not ready to be born again. He was saying he was not ready to give up his desires. He was still satisfied in getting drunk. He didn’t want to give that up yet. He was young and having fun. Such an innocent perspective right? What I wanted to tell him was the bigger picture he wasn’t seeing:
But when the right time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent Him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that He could adopt us as His very own children. And because we are His children, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are His child, God has made you His heir.
Galatians 4:4-7 | NLT
I wanted to give him a look into my past. How I was a slave to alcohol. To drugs. Seeking satisfaction from this world that would leave me waking up the next morning emptier. And with a real bad headache. I craved connection and I never found it at the bottom of a bottle. Because as C.S. Lewis says, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
We were created to enjoy being human, but not to abuse it. God wants us to choose a relationship with him which is why he gave us free will. He doesn’t force us but he doesn’t stop pursuing us either. We have been given freedom because of the sacrifice Jesus paid on the cross and I no longer have to be enslaved to my insecurities and weaknesses. We can adopt what has been given to us freely. When we stop trying to be our own savior and seek the Savior is when we find peace, comfort, healing, satisfaction, purpose, joy and the list goes on. God doesn’t want you to be perfect before seeking Him like Paul believed. He wants you in your mess, in your struggle, as you are, so He can walk with you. It’s an invitation. So no more excuses. Take the risk. What’s the worst that can happen.
