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We all pile into the red truck that we affectionately call our “Ministry Assault Vehicle” and head into the downtown area of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. We park in front of a coffee shop named Indaba and get out of the car. Vickie smiles the biggest smile and says “today we are doing street evangelism”!
I wish I had a picture of our faces because we all looked like we had just seen a real ghost float pass us and take the color out of our complexions with it as it passed. As fear and discomfort welled up inside each and every one of us we listened to Vickie explain her heart behind street evangelism and some tricks for doing it.
I know that I heard everything she said, but also so much of it flowed right back out of my other ear as I tried to mentally prepare myself for what I was about to do. The truth is that we have not had to do street ministry and evangelism yet since we have been on the Race. In every country the people we were to minister to where pretty much set in front of us.
But not today…
Vickie stops mid sentence in her explanation about asking people about their walk with Christ to demonstrate with a group of a few people who were passing.
“Hello!” Vickie says…
“Hi” one of the young ladies nervously responds with a smile on her face.
I’m not going to lie… if I was her, I would have literally ran down the street. I mean here is a group of 9 people on the street stopping me; people I don’t know; actually a bunch of white people stopping me in the middle of street while they are looking terrified would definitely have been a red flag for me to keep it moving!
But she stopped to talk to us as Vickie grabbed her into an embrace.
Step 1: Don’t ask for permission to love people. Be Bold.
“Let me give you a hug from Jesus. Jesus loves you! What’s your name?” Vickie says.
The conversation continues and we hit on the main question… “Do you know where you are going when you die?”
I know that is extremely bold, but remember step 1, Be Bold.
The girl slightly hesitates when she responds, but she tells us that she goes to church.
“Do you know Jesus? What is your relationship with Him like?”
Step 2: Ask follow up questions. Be truly interested in the person in front of you.
She starts to tell us more about her journey with Christ, but is honest in saying that there is more that she can do.
“What are the dreams that God has given you?”
“I’d like to open an orphanage one day.”
“That’s amazing!! We need more Godly homes led by the Holy Spirit. Continue to pray about it. Ask the Holy Spirit for His direction”.
Step 3: Encourage the evolution of their journey wherever they are on that path.
Vickie makes it look easy! Of course not every time we spoke to someone on the street did we follow this line of conversation, but it gave us some points in getting the conversation started and maintaining it.
We went out that day in a couple different teams. On my team I started us off by talking to the next people I saw. My thought process is the same as usual when I’m scared…
“Just Do It”
That opened some conversation for me and my teammates to discuss what makes street evangelism uncomfortable us as we walked away. For each of us it felt very impersonal and hard to connect, but as we continued to just stop and talk to people, using the Holy Spirit as our mouth piece, God blessed our conversations.
As our time concluded we gathered back at Indaba. We had some time to debrief and reflect on the experiences of the past hour. Vickie shared that even though street evangelism is out of our comfort zone, even for her at times, that it is important because we are fighting a war for lives. We are fighting in the physical for souls to receive the promises of Heaven while the devil is doing all he can to kill, steal, and destroy.
Later that evening we watched the testimony of a man who had died and had seen Hell and Heaven, but was sent back to Earth. It brought to front of mind that there is a Heaven and Hell. Hell is real. And the only way to not end up in Hell is to accept Jesus Christ. We cannot justify ourselves to Heaven. We can’t make our own road to Heaven. We can’t claim we missed the turn labeled the Way, the Truth, and the Life in huge neon letters and expect God to just give us or anyone else a pass.
We started to think about and pray for our loved ones and those who have not surrendered their life to Christ. We had a heart of urgency for their souls. We prayed for 3 hours for transformation, salvation, and lordship devoted to Christ.
It may be uncomfortable to evangelize on the street. It may be uncomfortable to evangelize to people you know. But it will be way more uncomfortable to watch from Heaven as they burn eternally in Hell.
So, Just Do It.
If you are interested in the movie we watched about Ian McCormick, check out this link.
