Psalm 103
Today, we got to see two people come to Christ!
For this past month, I have felt like I haven’t been doing very much. I’ve been listening way too much to the spirit of comparison, so when people would come back from an adventure day and say they saw their Uber driver come to Christ, I couldn’t help but think “Dang. What am I doing wrong here? I haven’t seen anything like that yet.” I’ve been taking a back seat a lot this month when we’ve gone out to do ministry because of fear, so today, I decided I was gonna take charge and put myself out there and connect with new people.
So today we were doing youth ministry. We took a group of people to the soccer field and played with them. I stayed outside with the group that didn’t want to play soccer, so we played other games, like Ninja and steal the bacon (which apparently in Spanish, it’s called something to the effect of “Get that bread”, which is hilarious). We didn’t have a translator, so I ended up doing a lot of the translating with the help of a girl who knew a good bit of English. They had a ton of fun and seemed really into our ridiculous games.
After that, we went to watch the other group play soccer until we had to leave, so I talked with 2 girls and a guy who were playing with us. I was just having simple conversation with them, and then I asked if any of them went to church. One girl said she went to a Christian church and really liked it. The guy, Fabio, said he went to a Catholic Church, but pretty much just went there to pray and wasn’t into the rituals and the other stuff they do. I then told him that that’s still pretty cool. Praying to God and having a relationship with Him really is the most important part, and he agreed. I could tell in his heart that he was stirring for something more, so I was overjoyed when their group decided to come to the foundation for our youth church service.
On the way back I talked to some different people, and these two girls came up to me, and one of them, Sarita, started asking me questions. Like, the hard questions… in Spanish…
One girl said that she believed in God, but didn’t understand how bad things could still happen if God was so loving. Of course, this was in spanish, so I struggled to find the words to explain to her what I wanted to say, so I told one of the translators to find her later and talk to her, but she was busy.
We went up to the roof of the foundation and played some more games with the group, and then we had worship. There was a small group of youth that left before worship, and one of them was Sarita. She seemed really torn about leaving, but she ended up leaving with her friends. At this moment, one of the squad leaders noticed this and went to one of the translators and said “Chase after that girl”, but the translator said “Okay, but you have to come with me!”. I come to find out later that they found Sarita and she told them her story and about all of the brokenness in her life, and that how she just couldn’t see God in that, but after a very fruitful conversation with our squad leader Brit and the translator, she came back up for the service.
The service consisted of acoustic worship, a testimony, and a message about the truths of the Bible with a little bit of testimony woven into the message as well. Both testimonies were given by girls who had gone through a lot of the same brokenness as Sarita, and it felt like the Holy Spirit was tailoring their words to be just for her.
After this, we got into small groups to talk more in depth about these truths. Two of the girls I had talked to, Dona and Juanita, were in our group. They said it was hard for them to accept the truth that God has a good plan for them and to not worry about it because since this is their last year of school, they have to take these really hard exams to be able to get into college, and they were really nervous about it. Juanita also asked us a question similar to Sarita’s. She didn’t understand how God doesn’t withhold good things from us because we mess up. She felt like there are times when God does punish people, but was confused about how God could be loving and still do that. A bunch of girls in our group tried to help explain that even though sometimes we have to be broken to be healed, it is always out of love. God is never purely angry or vengeful, but rather He does things to help us get back on the path to Him because He wants us to have a relationship with Him and doesn’t want to see us live a life of death and sin. After we explained that, she said she was less confused, but still didn’t fully understand, and I told her that that was okay. These are difficult things to understand and it takes a lot of prayer and trust to get to a point where these truths ring true for you.
We then prayed for them and a couple other girls in our group. I lead the prayer, and I prayed that they would know that God has a bright future for them, and no test is going to stand in the way of that, and those girls really needed to hear that because they had tears in their eyes when I finished. I was so glad they came because they really needed to hear that encouragement and know those truths at the point they were at when they came.
Then at the end McKenzie, the girl who gave the message, opened. An invitation to anyone who wanted to accept Christ, and Fabio and Saraita raised their hands.
AND I WAS SO FREAKING EXCITED!
Since we got here, I have felt like I haven’t made a whole lot of connections through ministry, mostly because of fear. Irrational fear, but it was a fear that people wouldn’t like me or like what I was saying, and that kept me from talking to people for a lot of this month. But today, I finally got to have those conversations and make those connections, and even though I didn’t directly share the gospel with them, those. conversations and those relationships made a difference to them, and it was so humbling to get to be a small piece in their decision to accept Christ.
And that’s what this trip is all about.
Planting seeds through relationships, love, and just spending time with people. That’s what the World Race is, and God can use all of it to bring His children home.
