I’ve been trying to write this blog for awhile. Struggling. When I first thought of blogging about evangelism and what God has been teaching me about it I had what I thought was such a clear vision of what that would look like. But each time I attempted to put the words together I couldn’t. Nothing sounded right, I couldn’t focus, the original vision was slipping away…
I don’t want to turn the special times I had this month into material for a snappy blog post. My heart overflows for the relationships I built this month, and the whole point of evangelizing through friendship, respect, and careful attention to the individual is to avoid making people into projects and Jesus into a used car. This month was not just another notch in my belt. So I was praying about it this morning I felt like God was telling me to just write what’s on my heart. So here it is.
Remember the Peace Corps camp? There we were, first week in Albania, and our “ministry” doesn’t even involve talking about Jesus… that is, unless the teens brought it up. I didn’t expect that to happen but I tried to trust God and go into it with the best attitude I could muster. My partner Lara and I were given the job of supervising the billiard room and cleaning bathrooms. As we waited for the teens to come in we prayed for the day, the campers, and the counselors. By the time they arrived we were eager to love them and serve them so well that maybe, just maybe, they’d see something different in us and be blessed. They would pick up on the fact that we loved them with the love of Christ. I had so little faith that I would get the opportunity to share my faith unless I made it happen, but I was determined to honor their request. And then God showed up.
One evening whatever had been on the schedule got canceled and the kids got some surprise free time. Joan (Yo-ahn), one of the teens that I had played foosball with, found me and started to make conversation. We laughed about our pitiful foosball skills and soon were just chatting about home. Joan asked “So who are you anyway? Are you Peace Corps…? Are you LightForce?” I told him that I am a part of a different organization that is just helping out with LightForce. He asked more questions and I started to explain the World Race. I told him that we travel to a different country each month and partner with a different Christian organization everywhere we go. “Christian? You’re all… Christian?”
I didn’t seek it out, but all of a sudden this kid was asking me what I believed and why. We talked about his experience with the Catholic Church and what it means to me to have a relationship with God. It was awesome. And God kept doing stuff like that. When I sought it out, tried it make it happen in my own strength (like a salesman) I never got anywhere. But when I wasn’t looking for it God delivered people right into my lap.
He did what I couldn’t do. Aligning my path with English speakers, safe people, and others who actually wanted to engage in conversation about faith. Once I changed my outlook on evangelism the Lord just kept doing it. It started with Joan but didn’t end there. I made so many friends this month, loved them well, and felt so loved in return. I got to hear their stories and learned to really care for them and see them as precious friends. And from that place I shared my faith with them. I see God’s fingerprints on every one of them, it’s not hard to find the connection that makes the match. Gezim’s love of nature, Dido’s desire for fellowship and community, Al’s sincerely good heart and sense of right and wrong. They all remind me of the Lover of our Souls.
The downside to evangelizing this way though. Opening your heart up like that is risky. I sobbed in my bed the other night because of the burden on my heart for their salvation. I don’t want to say that to sound holy and tender hearted, the truth is that I barely know them and I believe that the burden I feel is the Holy Spirit within me. God loves the people of Albania. (And every nation for that matter. Just saying.) And He is passionately pursuing their hearts. He called me out of the United States and brought me here just to tell them. How can you not want to set others up with a God like that?
