I had been street witnessing with the Well once the year before and I didn’t like it at all. It was always awkward. But being a leader at the Well when the Harvest Crusade came around in 2010 I got asked to help lead a group that would promote the event. I said yes and I figured helping leading a group meant watching over a group and driving them around. Which I was ok with but it’s not what ended up happening. God had a different plan.
We were at Huntington Beach and I was walking around with my group and I would point people out and encourage them to give them a flyer and talk to them. But I felt like I should do more. I just found myself praying, “Let me have one real conversation but I don’t know how to start the conversation would you just make someone stop and ask to talk to me.” Seems crazy huh? (if you read my last post there is a kind of trend in the things I ask God.)
So we end up standing on a street corner of main street handing people flyers. This guy takes a flyer looks at it and then looks at me and says “can I talk to you?”… I am not joking. I was freaking out inside. So I say yes and he asked to sit down. He was in his late 30’s he had tattoos everywhere even on his face. He started telling me about what was going on in life. He had a sad story, it’s too much to go into. But God gave me some words of encouragement for him and I prayed for him.
I ended up having 2 other really great conversations with people that weekend. I said things and used information that I forgot I even knew. I realized it wasn’t about feeling awkward or being afraid of not knowing an answer. I realized it was about people. I realized that there a lot a people walking around with no hope. They are hurting and they have no idea how to change that. And we have the message of hope. They have no idea where they will end up in eternity. Heaven and hell are real places. Without knowing Jesus Christ they will end up in hell. We have the message to save their eternal life. It’s not ours to keep to ourselves. Someone stepped out and shared with us. And it’s our responsibility to share with someone else.
Every Sunday leading up to the harvest crusade we will have invites at a table on the patio of church. I want to encourage you to take 5 and give them to people you meet at the store or where ever and ask God to use you and HE will. Even if you don’t end up sharing the gospel yourself you can encourage them to come to the event and hear it from Pastor Greg. God can do great things with a flyer.
Who knows you may end up being a part of changing a life.
That weekend God changed my heart from someone who hated street witnessing to someone who loved it. The week after the harvest crusade all I wanted to do was to go street witnessing again. At the time the Well didn’t have a group. So I was going to go with the High School group. I got to church and it ended up being canceled for the night. So I just decided to get some well flyers and prayed with the group of people that where there and we went. I felt prompted to tell that group if they wanted to go again next weekend I will meet them in front of the church. After a 5 or 6 months I had a good group of 7 to 10 people that came every week. So the overseeing pastor of the Well at the time asked if I wanted to make it an official ministry and they gave me a room to meet in.
I lead that ministry for 2 years and sometimes we had 30 people other times and 5 or 6. But I looked forward to every Saturday. Oh and did I mention I ended up co-leading the team that went the next year. And it all started at a Harvest Crusade.
May the Lord bless you,
Rob