A Cherry Blossom Journey

As many of you know since last fall I have been involved with a girls discipleship group called Bright Lights. An old childhood friend and I lead the group and in our bi-weekly meetings teach about eighteen 7-14 year old girls lessons in 'Being Radiant In Godliness, Holiness and Testimony'. The lessons range from Developing a Close Relationship with Your Parents to Having a Clear Conscience with many in between. These last number of lessons we have been studying about sharing the gospel and and decided we would have a little hands on in the field training for some of our older girls. We planned to take advantage of a local festival to do street witnessing in one of the roughest little towns in our area. This is the post event journaling that I posted on our Wadsworth Bright Lights website sharing my perspective on that day.

I thought you might enjoy it as well....

 

(Sorry Dani that it's taken me so long to get this up!)

 

“It is no marvel that the devil does not love field preaching! Neither do I; I love a commodious room, a soft cushion, a handsome pulpit. But where is my zeal if I do not trample all these underfoot in order to save one more soul?”  -John Wesley

This weekend I embarked on a terrifying excursion.

Saturday morning, bright and early, we gathered in Dani’s home to give evangelism training to a group of our older girls followed by a time of street witnessing in Barberton. Being honest with myself (and you) I have to say I was more than a little uneasy about the whole thing! Oh, it wasn’t the talking to people I was worried about- it was the talking to strangers. It wasn’t not knowing what to say- it was knowing the right thing to say. It wasn’t fear- it was dread that I would bomb-out in front of the girls and be a poor example to them. I’ve had training on evangelism and witnessing and even had training similar to the training that Dani gave the girls this weekend on street witnessing- but the kind of opportunities I’ve had to share a witness and testimony have been personal- not anything like I was about to go out and attempt with the girls! 

I watched our seven girls as Dani broke out the training materials and launched into the lesson. They were deep into everything she said. They were sitting at the edge of the couches and chairs, attentiveness etched on their faces. They were asking questions and giving answers and offering suggestions and reaching out in their own ways with the tools they already possessed.

They were excited about this.  

And I couldn’t help feeling all the more uneasy…

When we arrived at the festival I was surprised at just how large it seemed to be and nervous at the neighborhood that we were in. Skirting the outside of Lake Anna were concessions, carnies hawking darts and water gun games, a petting zoo with alpacas and goats and bunnies and – boas. Yes, snakes!

Families and couples, roving groups of teens with ‘tough’ boys and skimpily dressed girls, older folks and people in wheelchairs and just about every type of person you could run into.

And we had to go talk to them.

Not just a passing hello either. We were on a mission to personally take Christ to those people on the street, talking to them about their spiritual condition and their need for a savior. How great a task!

Breaking up into three groups we set out and began to look for open faces and seeking eyes. For the next hour I worked with a few of the girls. Switching up our groups halfway through Dani and I wove our way through the crowds and spoke to people of every description. Some wouldn’t give us the time of day, some professed Christ to us (one even let me give an entire optical illusion presentation with a twinkle in his eye before revealing he was a pastor!) Some people spoke to us respectfully and allowed us to engage them in discussing where they would spend eternity.  Some people we had conversations with haunt me even now. The middle aged woman sitting on the grass under the shade trees by the lake was just eating her lunch and enjoying the view but the openness in her eyes and demeanor, how she allowed me to speak to her, to ramble on and ask questions before handing her multiple tracts and wishing her a great day with thanks for allowing us to speak to her keeps drawing me back mentally to that spot wishing I had stayed longer. One of our girls eagerly and boldly walked up to a group of three girls- all in their late teens/early twenty’s- and gave a full gospel presentation, engaging  the girls in talking about what happens after you die. One girl had a particular interest in the conversation, she knew about heaven and hell, what sent you there and how Jesus will judge us someday when He returns. She was so close… but so far away and the hunger and conviction in her eyes made me wish we could have continued the conversation and dug a bit deeper with her. Walking away I wanted nothing more than to run back to her and give her a way of contacting me if she wanted to talk…

I know that our Bright Light’s girls learned great lessons this weekend and I hope that they have overcome some of their own fears about sharing Christ. However, this Bright Lights leader learned something too…

In moving outside of my comfort zone to do something very un-comfortable for me I connected with the real people behind my fear.

For me that’s huge because I connect with people. Connecting with people I connect with their needs and emotions and it helps me to understand who they are and how I can help them. This weekend I connected with people, people that I will likely never see again and never know if my slow speech and halting tongue made any impact on. This weekend I connected with people and saw them not just as the person that passes me on the street and should be avoided- but I saw them as approachable and needy. Try as a might I can’t shake the feeling of urgency and pangs of loss I walked away with when I walked away from those people.  

This weekend I embarked on a terrifying journey. It’s one that I never planned on taking. It’s one that takes me out of my commodious rooms, away from my comfortable pillows and shiny laptop. It’s one that I still don’t think that I love doing. But it’s one that has inspired zeal in me. It’s one that I feel compelled to continue, to go into the hedgerows and byways- or maybe just the local restaurant and community events- and see if I can compel one more soul to come into my Father’s kingdom, to His banqueting table and tender mercies.   

And that makes the journey worth it.