Evangelism

So on Thursday we had a chance to go to a mall here in Newcastle for evangelism. At the outset, we had an introduction to what we would be doing and as I had heard before, I was told that evangelism is about obedience not result. It isn't about "completing" your salvation count and being like YES, that is one salvation for me! Don't get me wrong, that is the ultimate goal, but it is not for us to make that happen. Evangelism is about listening to God and doing what he says. Easier said then done definitely, but nonetheless necessary. The leader of that night of evangelism showed us a scale. Just imagine a number line from -10 to 10. -10 being hating everything about the idea of God and 10 being like a perfect Christian... which I don't believe there are... but that is a side point. Our goal with evangelism isn't to move them from -10 to 10. We listen to God, let him do the work and just simply tell them what we feel God is telling us to tell them. Maybe we move them from a -4 to a -2. That is a success. We have planted a seed in their hearts and done all we can do and it is up to God to do the rest. 


Now for my story about the night... for the first like 40 mins of the night, I didn't talk to anybody. I was getting pretty discouraged because I didn't feel like I was being obedient and I thought I was being selfish and just got super frustrated. I learned after the night that that was common and that very often, Satan is putting those things in peoples hearts, ESPECIALLY thursday, to bring us down. After all, we are in his territory. So, I had two conversations in the last 20 minutes. The first conversation was with an older man who was Catholic. I didn't talk to him very long, and I didn't know what to say really, but I kind of just asked him if he knew about Jesus and followed him, he said yes, and I was like cool. I felt pretty awkward, and the conversation didn't last that long. In the last like ten minutes of the night I had a really good conversation with two guys, one a Buddhist and one a Roman Catholic (both of which didn't know anything about either). So basically I just talked and talked to keep my mind off of what I was doing but I think it was pretty sweet, now that I think about it. I told them about Jesus being the saviour to forgive all of our sins so that we can have eternal life. I didn't move them to start calling themselves Christians, and I don't even know how much of a difference in their heart I made, but the one guy said "If I ever think about something more, I'll remember you." Sure I was sad that I couldn't get across the importance of knowing Christ, but I think I was obedient, and God will do the rest.