A few weekends ago we had a weekend retreat called Awakening with an 11n11 World Race squad in South Africa. It was a weekend of learning, application, and empowerment. I gained so much knowledge that weekend from older racers and my fellow squad mates. My eyes were opened to so many things and I am going to try to put what I learned into action. Last Sunday we had the opportunity to go out to a mall and evangelize. To be honest when they said we were doing this, I was very scared and not excited about it. I am not that confident to walk up to random people and just talk to them about Jesus. I know I needed to grow in this and step out in discomfort by doing it. Throughout the race our ministry involved more of teaching kids at school. The 11n11 squad has done more evangelism than we have and they even spent a whole month just doing that so I was a little intimidated.
But that day God opened my heart and eyes to how easy it is to love people and spread the gospel. So we all broke up into little groups to go around the mall to talk to people. I was with two of my friends from my squad. At first we said, “Let’s go into those baby stores and talk to moms with their little kids because that won’t be too hard to do”. So we did just that, but we walked into the stores and back out without talking to anyone. I was disappointed because I thought it would be so easy, but none of us had had the confidence to go up to anyone. Then my friend Bri was like, “Guys, next store we go into, let’s talk to at least one person”. So we did just that and talked to even more than one person. I didn’t realize how easy you can make someone’s day by just saying, “Hey, how are you? What’s your name?”. Conversations don’t always have to start with, “Hey, do you know Jesus?”. You can get to know the person first before telling them your story or about how Jesus has changed you. Throughout the day we got to talk to a lot of different people and get to know them. I was overwhelmed by one girl’s joy and excitement to talk to us. She told us all about her life and about her upcoming marriage.
All of the people we talked to already knew Jesus and none were sick but that didn’t matter. We were obedient to listening to God’s voice that was telling us to talk to people. It doesn’t matter if no one is saved or no one is healed. It is just doing every day life serving him. That’s what it takes to be on a life of mission; it’s a lifestyle. It’s also how you measure success. People might measure success differently. I measured that day as a success.
Much love,
Nicole
