Fruit

It has been such a great week to see our team evangelize in the power of the Spirit. We have spent the past five days on campus talking to students anywhere and everywhere. There has been a lot of awesome things that have happened. In everything, we have maintained that successful evangelism entails taking initiative in the power of the Spirit and leaving the results up to God. And man, has God provided some results! There have been many times of rejection in conversation, but we know that God is going to do His part! Many students have been able to make contacts and get phone numbers with friends they can hang out with again, which is awesome! The greatest news that I have the privilege to share with all of you is that TWO PEOPLE CAME TO CHRIST THIS WEEK! That is such an amazing gift for the members of our team to behold, and just such an awesome event! God has shown up this first week for us in ways that I could have never imagined, and I know He will continue to do that.

Personally, my week looks a little different than the students. I get the blessed opportunity to disciple each of the guys on our team, leading them more in love with Jesus and preparing them for the ministry at hand. We have some incredible guys on our team and I am so excited to see how God is going to continue to grow them on the trip! This week I went over testimonies with them. Sharing our testimonies is such a vital part of evangelism because it is the story of our redemption! We learned how to keep our testimonies away from tangents, how to clearly communicate the gospel in it, and how to center it around our redemption through Christ's blood. This was a great tool to go over with all of the guys and it is already coming in handy for them. This type of training in discipleship is something I will be able to do with the guys throughout our time here. While it does cut back on my time evangelizing, it is so vital to prepare each of them to go out ready with answers to their faith. Please pray over these times that I have with the guys. Pray that this would be a great time of preparation and that it would also be a time of regeneration. Our team of leaders has been doing a great job so far, but please pray for our rest and decision making. It is hard for us to get rest because there are always things at hand for us to be doing. So please pray for us!

Now let me tell you a little about the evangelism I have done. While I don't believe that my gifting is in evangelism, I find it such a vital COMMAND that Jesus gives us. I find it so comforting that He has all authority on heaven and Earth and that is the name I go out with! This week I definitely had a few hard conversations. There were some rejections and some conversations with pretty strong atheists. I met people who believe there is no meaning to life, which just breaks my heart. I loved them even upon meeting them and I am praying God will work in their hearts. I had some conversations where me and my partner had the chance to share the gospel! No one was particularly receptive to it in our times with them, but I know that God received so much glory through our obedience to Him. Some of the good conversations I want to share and ask for definite prayer for: Me and my partner one day met two guys named Alex and Tom. They both knew a decent bit about Christianity, but we got to go through the full gospel with them. Neither was entirely receptive to it, but neither was far opposed either. We continued just to talk with them about life and it was a great conversation. We got their phone numbers and are hoping to hang out with them on campus again and talk to them even more. Pray that God would be softening their hearts in between our hang outs. The other one I would love prayer for is a conversation me and a guy had with some Italian exchange students. Two of the three of them were strongly against God and really any meaning in this life. But the third seemed to be listening and following. The influence of the other two pulled him back though. His name is Greig. We got to share the gospel with all three. Pray that God works in all of their hearts, but particularly pray that we get to talk to Greig alone and share more with him.

Thank you guys so much for your prayers, our team absolutely needs them! I thank God for every one of you