what? share the gospel? what part of it? I don’t want to explain the idea of Christ to someone who’s been to church all their life and knows everything but just isn’t ready to commit. Likewise, I don’t want to miss the simplicity of the gospel and love God showed us when He sent His son to die for our sins to someone who’s just hearing it for the first time.
I’ve explained in previous blogs about my lack of comfort when it comes to social interaction, this is not a calm situation for a person like me.
One day on such an evangelism outing, we were split into teams of two from our team of 7. I was with my teammate and leader, Tanna. As we started out, we were quickly separated from our two and moving down a row of businesses in a sideways leapfrog pattern. As much as I’ve realized 
most of my social anxiety fallbacks are unnecessary mental issues, they still plague me and on this particular day, not knowing where to start sharing the gospel with strangers from another land was my particular nemesis. The first conversation, I freaked. Trying to gain composure by asking proxy questions, I stumbled through the conversation, but did little to ease my mental discomfort. The next conversation, I got myself so worked up realizing I had no clue what to say but feeling pressured to verbalize brilliance, I almost walked out crying. The third conversation, my eyes did start to water at one point. It was between the end of that conversation and the next that I grabbed Tanna in a drowning cry for help. She came to the rescue in my next conversation and as we stepped out the flood gates opened. I should be able to handle this, yeah? It’s dumb getting so worked up, we’re just talking, it’s not that big of a deal. But as I fell into an embrace and cried like a little girl in Tanna’s arms, her words cut me deep, “you don’t have to be super woman”. Sure, I’m not super woman, but don’t I have to be? As I thought about it, I realized how right she is. If I hold myself to a standard of always trying to be superwoman, I can’t allow myself grow in the areas I struggle because I’ll always be fighting against that which I can’t win on my own. Sometimes I need help.
back to evangelizing.
As we go house to house, business to business – we notice a pattern.
People are getting saved right and left. A good amount of time it’s without much prompting or much sharing. We’ve been told that many times, the Africans we would meet just want to please us. Sometimes that might mean that the person is saved but says that they’re not and that they’re ready to accept Christ. Other times when they were Christians they said they weren’t and didn’t have interest in becoming one. It would get confusing trying to understand where people stood in a matter of minutes going from place to place and not understanding a word of their story to intro a significant conversation.
Here’s what I’ve noticed about Africa – plainly spoken and hoping not to offend.
There’s one word I’ve found to describe the majority of African’s I’ve meet and seen in all the countries I’ve visited on this continent – overzealous.
In nearly every application of the word.
If they’re excited to meet you and want to be friendly, it’s so zealous it’s almost confusing at times. I had a girl so anxious to help me with a bag when we were moving into a place for a week that she knocked me over to get my bag; another girl on our squad was knocked over on a bus when holding her own bags by a girl just real purposed to get to her seat; if someone is trying to get our attention at the market, we get calls from all angles, arms grabbed; stares in general come from anywhere in any situation and last for up to 15 minutes long without glancing away; we might be told we’re leaving at 10am, but when 12pm rolls around and they’re just getting there, we are rushed to leave “right now”, hurry up. Most thing in the moment become so zealous, in any direction.
but at what point is someone right or wrong? I have a way of doing things, others have their ways. And when it comes to the cultural differences between America – the rest of the westernized world and Africa – they couldn’t be more different. But that’s the key isn’t it, we’re different. No right or wrong. If they try it my way, then it’s wrong too.
In Africa, numbers have seemed to be of importance from our experience. From my perspective, it’s not just about numbers and making sure every person hears the gospel. Each person has a unique story and unique needs. I hate the idea that I’m responsible to witness to someone unknowing of these unique qualities.
Likewise, however, I’ve realized how imperative it is to see how different we can all be in our approach. To open your mind to the idea that what goes on in your head, as right as it may seem to you, isn’t always so. To be more aware of the multiple ways of accomplishing one thing and sometimes utilizing different approaches, ie. evangelism and saving souls, is to be effective.
