While in Côte d’Ivoire I began reading a book by Staci Eldredge called Becoming Myself. In one chapter, she encourages the reader to write down her dreams, big or small. One of my dreams was to be used by God to lead someone to Christ. One aspect of our ministry was going to nearby villages and doing “door-to-door” evangelism, so I felt certain that this would be possible.
As we went to each house sharing the gospel, several people were accepting Christ, which was such an awesome thing to be a part of. But, none of the salvations were a result of anything I shared. My dream continued to remain just that, a dream. One day, God told me that in order for this dream to come true I had to actually be bold and share. Obviously I knew that, but God telling me that was kind of like a lightbulb going off in my head in that moment. I still didn’t share the next day, though, because I struggled with knowing what to share or how to start a conversation about the gospel. And truthfully, I felt insecure and scared.
The next day we met a women who said she used to go to church. She had lost her son (or sons) in some way, whether they moved away or died. All of a sudden, God brought the story of Job to my mind. I shared it with her, and told her that if she chose to trust God and put her faith in God that He would bless her, either here in earth or in heaven. I didn’t even preach the gospel, because I thought she was already a Christian. But, she decided that she wanted to accept Christ, and I got to lead her in a prayer of salvation. God knew the dream I had, and when I obeyed Him and stepped out in boldness, He made that dream a reality. It literally was a dream come true!
