I today I took a spiritual gifts quiz and I learned something that I already knew:
I am not an Evangelist.
Evangelism scares me, the idea of striking up a conversation with strangers on the street is terrifying enough without bringing the gospel into it. So how, might you ask, did I end up volunteering to do street evangelism every weekend while I’m here in Romania?
Reason #1: Jesus
Reason #2: I was tricked.
Side note: Our ministry this month is insane (in the best way). I’ve never seen such a dedicated and passionate group of people before in my life. It’s awesome and the Lord is being so faithful with their efforts. I can’t wait to tell y’all more about them in another blog!
So anyway- Raul, our host, randomly asked for two groups of people to go evangelize in a nearby city called Craiova:
Group 1: to go the city for the weekend to do some street evangelism.
Group 2: to go for the day to do some street evangelism.
Naturally my first response was absolutely no- this is not for me… BUT then the Holy Spirit did His thing.
I had been praying and asking to grow this month and I knew right away this was an area that I needed to grow in. I was like ok Jesus fine, and I volunteered- to go for the day (I figured I’d ease my way into it)
I was wrong.
Almost as soon as I volunteered to go for the day- the plans changed (this happens pretty often on the race). Only one group would go, and they would stay the whole weekend, and they needed more people. At first I was like dope I don’t have to go… but Jesus. I knew that this was my push to jump in with two feet. How uncomfortable/hard could one weekend be? Well not long after I agreed to go for the weekend I learn that this will be a weekly thing wherein our goal is to build relationships over the course of the month (which is such a cool and awesome goal but like- wow I just didn’t want to be the one to do it).
The first night out street evangelizing in Craiova I was wildly nervous. I don’t know how to talk to strangers and I was a little overwhelmed at the idea of having to do this all weekend. I was with my squad-leader, Hope, and I thought I could skate by by just following her lead.
Wrong.
The first group we talked with was three girls who were around 13/15 years old. Hope introduced us and started a conversation and bam- we were doing it.
So I had a lot of misconceptions about street evangelism. I thought it was having forced conversations with people wherein I had hidden motives and randomly sprung the gospel presentation on them. But what I’ve been learning, is that evangelism sometimes just looks like having a conversation with someone and just caring about them.
So here I am in a park- chatting it up with some girls- just talking about life and wow it wasn’t as terrifying as I thought it would be. We were laughing, talking, and the girls tried (rather unsuccessfully) to teach me some Romanian. Before long, it felt like the most natural thing in the world to be sitting on a bench talking to them- and not long after that Hope accidentally mentioned that she can sing, to which everyone naturally demanded a song. What song? Thats right- the Cotton Eye Joe. Why? I couldn’t tell you but you can’t sing it without dancing…
Imagine: Me, Hope, and three young girls, line dancing to the Cotton Eye Joe in a very public park. Not what I pictured when I thought about street evangelism.
We exchanged Instagrams with the girls and when the conversation died down, we let it without forcing any topic or making things awkward.
Not too bad of a first experience. I was like cool, check, lets go back to the mission house, mission accomplished, its bed time.
Nope- there was more ministry to do.
After walking around for a while we happened upon two ladies in their mid-30s who were Orthodox. We talked with them for an hour or so, just about life and what they believe. It was awkward and hard at first, luckily the ladies spoke beautiful English, which made talking to them much easier. When it was time for us to go we gave them a little card for the English class incase they wanted to go and practice their English some more, and we also gave them a card for the church that we would be at the next day. When I handed them the card they were pretty confused- ‘we are going to be at our church tomorrow.’ Without missing a beat Hope asked ‘which church?’ And before I knew it Hope and I had made plans to go to an Orthodox service the next morning with these ladies.
I thought that was pretty cool. I have a little bit of a Catholic background- how different could it be?
Answer: very different.
Hope and I walked up to a big, beautiful church and stepped inside to find people standing or kneeling on carpets the way that I had always imagined the inside of a Mosque to look like. Throughout the entire service there was chanting, seemingly random kneeling, and people lining up in the front of the church to kiss the icons.
I was pretty overwhelmed and confused by everything that was going on. It didn’t help that the entire service was in what I assumed to be Romanian. These people claim to worship the same God as I do, yet the whole service felt super cold and ritualistic. That’s not the God I know.
I never expected to end up in an Orthodox Church, or to make a fool out of myself dancing in a park, but I think that’s a good thing. I got to see the religious entrapment that many people experience around the globe. Trying to attain salvation through good works and right living isn’t just something that is preached in an Orthodox Church. When we spoke to one of the ladies in the park, she talked about her fear of Christ coming back and the judgement that comes with that because she doesn’t know how she will be judged. In that moment, I didn’t see her as a stranger who I was scared to talk to, but as a person. Someone God loves. I got to see the Romanian people as people, and our differences weren’t scary, in fact, were all pretty similar.
I don’t know if I’ll be volunteering to go street evangelizing again any time soon (I already do it once a week- ugh) but it isn’t as scary as it used to be. God has been teaching me that a lot.
A few weeks ago at debrief (I’ll tell y’all all about that later) one of my squad-mates shared something that has stuck with me this month: ’To be hidden in the Lord and to abide in Him sometimes looks like being up in front of everyone out in the open.’ Thats a lot of what evangelism feels like for me. Out in the open, up in front of people, but also wrapped so completely in the Lord.
Much Love,
Morgan
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