Every Monday, my squad and I get to go out and do something called ATL. ATL stands for Ask the Lord. During ATL we get to partner with what God is doing in this community and bring love and blessing to others. Basically, ATL is a form of evangelism. Woah I said it. Evangelism is kind of a scary word to say because people have so many judgments about evangelism. Before you make a bunch of assumptions though, let me tell what evangelism looks like for me.
Not this Monday, but last Monday, my squad leaders didn’t assign groups for ATL. Instead they asked people who to stand up if they felt like they could lead others in ATL. In this way six of my squadmates were raised up leaders in ATL. We all chose who we went with of those leaders, and we got in our groups to pray and ask the Lord to give us direction. After praying on our own, we regrouped and discussed. God put chalk on two of my squadmates hearts. So we grabbed the chalk and I grabbed my ukelele last minute, and we got on the little yellow bus that takes us to ministry every other week day. I had a peculiar excitement in my heart. The bus and the instruments and these people that have become my family, all going out just to be love in the community here. It got me thinking What is my life?
There were two sisters on the bus with us, they had shown up at the Base (the house we stay at is the Adventures In Missions Base in Costa Rica) earlier, but I had yet to introduce myself to them. God showed me that that was the first thing I needed to do. We arrived at the park in downtown Tres Rios, and the groups went their separate ways. While some of my group started making a mural with the chalk, and some of them started kicking a ball around with some kids, I talked to the sisters. It turned out that they were there to translate for us. They were really nice and one of the sisters was shy with her English. I told her I totally related, and we laughed.
Just then my base leader came up and asked if he could steal one of the sisters to translate for him. He invited me along so the three of us went to talk to this man in the yellow-ish shirt that God highlighted to my base leader. God had revealed to my base leader that this man in the yellowish shirt had a heart for youth and was called to encourage the next generation, so my base leader encouraged him in that. Sitting next to the man in the yellowish, was a friend of his, an older lady with skin disease on her face. My first thought was to pray for her for her disease, but God reprimanded me lightly and showed me that her skin was not really diseased but perfect, the way he made it. The next time I glanced at the lady I saw, clear as day, a heart on her forehead, and the pigment in her skin around her eyes looked like angel wings. God showed me that he had marked her with his love, and what the world saw as a curse was actually a blessing on her life. I knew I needed to tell her.
To my surprise when my base leader had finished talking to and praying with the man in the yellowish shirt, he turned to me before I could say anything and softly asked if would you like to pray with the lady. “Yes actually, I was just going to say that.” I didn’t know how to start the conversation, let alone how to say what I wanted in Spanish (good thing one of the sisters was there to translate), so I simply turned to the lady, and after asking her name, I asked “Did you know you have a heart on your forehead?” I made a heart on my forehead with my hands, and the man with the yellowish shirt turned to his friend and exclaimed that he had never noticed. I proceeded to tell her what God had shown me. We told her that it didn’t matter what people said, the truth is she is beautiful. She smiled and we got to pray with her. It was so cool.
As we were talking with the lady I noticed another man watching us curiously and I felt God tell me that he had a question for us. We went over to him afterwards, and it turned he was wondering if we were going around praying with people, which we were in a way, and we got to talk to him for a while. He shared a bit of his life with us and my base leader shared a bit of his testimony. We asked him if he would also like to pray with us and we got to bless him and his family.
When I returned to the steps of the park my group had finished the mural in kids chalk of a cross with a sun rising over an ocean and the words ‘Jusús te ama.’ They were running around with the kids kicking the ball. I saw my ukelele where I had left it on the steps and I brought it out and showed it to some of the kids who had finished playing with the ball. I asked them if they wanted to learn how to play but they all shook their heads embarrassed. My teammate showed up and asked me if I was going to play, and I said “okay, but only if you sing.” So I played “How He Loves” by David Crowder and my teammate sang. The three kids sat transfixed and then two of them ran off at the end of the song. I wanted to share what the song was about so I said to the little girl who was still sitting there ‘Jesús te ama.’ She shook her head.
“Por qué no?” My teammate asked.
“No me gusta ” the girl said.
I asked the sisters who were sitting right there how to ask if the girl like my song, and to tell her what it meant. The little girl said she didn’t understand church but that she would like to learn English and how to play an instrument. I said the ukulele was really easy and she said she’d like to try, so I gave her my ukulele and taught her the cords. It was really cute. I wanted to share the love of Jesus with her because it changed my life, but I didn’t want to push it on her, just tell her. I wanted to love her well, and with God working in me I did just that.
I’ve learned a lot about ATL and about evangelism. Evangelism isn’t about what I can or can’t do. God doesn’t need me to bless people or share the gospel, but he chooses to use me, if I let him, to bring His kingdom and love others well. I want no part of the evangelism that is yelling at people in the streets, but if you define evangelism as sharing the gospel, then that’s great commission for all Christians. Sharing the gospel, is sharing the good news of who Jesus us, what He did, and His love for us. Along with sharing the gospel, we get to encourage and empower each other to walk out their purpose in this life. If I try to do ATL without God, I am simply acting in my own flesh, and I won’t see the heart on the lady’s ladies forehead, I will only see a disease.
