“Comfort zones are meant to be broken.”
I am sure I am not the only person whose been told this before. It’s one thing to agree with this statement when you are fully inside your comfort zone. It is, however, a different story when you’re standing in a mall in Botswana about to potentially make a fool of yourself for the sake of the Gospel.
So there we were at the bottom of the escalators, people going up, people going down, people walking by, people were everywhere. We dropped all of our bags and after a little chat with an intimidating security guard, did our thing. My teammate Tina found a perfect spot between the bottom of the escalators and lay down on the ground. After a solid minute of her laying there with people walking by giving the strangest looks, we started performing.
In the skit we were doing a girl is being created by God. He creates things and she is in awe as she watches. Then her and God dance and in the middle of the dance a boy cuts in and starts dancing. God is put to the side. Money, alcohol, caring too much about her appearance, anorexia, self harm and suicide tempt her. God gets farther and farther away. At the climax the evil desires are attacking her and God stands in the way and blocks her so she cannot be touched. In one swift motion He defeats the enemy and she and God dance together again.
When we finished the skit we all dispersed into the crowd to explain the skit, answer questions, share about what we were doing in Botswana, give out the brochure of the church we were with and hopefully have an opportunity to present the gospel.
I got in a couple conversations, explained the skit and gave information about our church, but the conversations didn’t go any farther than that. I sat down with my other teammates who were finished and waited for the others to finish their conversations.
Then my heart started beating faster and I immediately felt like I needed to go talk to the intimidating security guard. I kept saying no and listed off my excuses to God. “He’s working!” “He has to stay alert.” “He probably doesn’t want to talk to me about it anyway.” But the Lord has been working on me in the area of fear the last few months, and I knew He was giving me yet another opportunity to practice fearlessness.
So I walked up and just asked if he got to see the skit. He said yes and as I opened my mouth to ask if he understood it he finished his sentence, “yes I saw it, but I was waiting for someone to come and explain it to me!”
He was WAITING for someone to explain it, essentially waiting for someone to share the gospel with him.
… And because of my fear I almost missed it.
We talked for a while, I explained the skit and he asked questions about the skit, the church, why we were in Botswana and about God. He said he has never been to church because he works on Sundays but he does want to go. I got to pray for him and then it was time to go.
We walked through that mall every day to get to and from ministry. Every day I looked for my new friend, Brian and we always waved. My teammate Sam also became friends with him so we would talk to him for a second and then continue to the church.
As we finished up the month we thought it would be awesome if we could get Brian a bible and highlight our favorite verses. Some of my teammates worked on it and we carried it around for days hoping we would run into him. For three days we didn’t see him and I was beginning to think we wouldn’t see him again.
On our final walk through the mall Sam, my teammate, found another security guard and asked if Brian was at the mall. He was! Suddenly he was using his walkie talkie to tell Brian his white friends wanted to see him.
Brian came running up to us, SO excited to see us. We told him we had something for him and Sam gave him the Bible. The grin on his face was huge. He said thank you at least ten times and hugged all of us. He said he would go home and celebrate with his wife that he now has a bible to read and Brian said he would sleep with it in his arms tonight.
Then we left.
Later that night we discussed our favorite moments from the month and beginning a friendship with Brian and being able to give him a Bible was definitely at the top of that list.
I told my team about how I had been struggling with fear and how a lot of times God gives me opportunities to practice fearlessness and I chicken out. In this situation I decided to not let fear get in the way of a chance to share the gospel. Was I scared? Yes. Did I think I would get rejected? Yes. Did it turn out better than I thought it would? Absolutely.
Every time I have obeyed The Lord and stepped out in fearlessness I haven’t regretted it. I don’t want to share this story to toot my own horn, because I will be the first to admit that I let fear stop me more than I step into fearlessness, but I wanted to share it nonetheless. I wanted to share it not only because it was one of my favorite moments of the month, but also to encourage you.
When God calls you to do something that scares you, you have NO IDEA how it will turn out! I want to encourage you to get out there and do the things that scare you, the things where you wonder if God will show up or if it will just be awkward. Jump in those conversations with strangers, share the gospel, pray for people, buy a homeless person a meal. If think you’re supposed to do something, DO IT! Step out in fearlessness, because it could turn out to be a friendship or memory you will cherish for life.
