Taking a Step of Faith: Plant Seeds

I would like to share with you a little about how we are sharing the Gospel in the city and on UIC campus. Of course I will not be blogging about every conversation I have while I am here but I would like to share my first encounter I had. 

Well we did not waste any time getting our feet in the water when it comes to sharing the gospel. Yesterday, Sunday, was our first day going out into the city to see where God lead our conversations with people. Me and Amanda Driggers were partners. We paired up together because God allowed me to feel confident enough to lead Amanda into sharing the KGP with people. The KGP is a Knowing God Personally booklet. I personally am pickey when it comes to using "tools" to share the gospel as it should be intimate and personal. But the KGP, in my opinion, is a simple visual of the Gospel in 4 main points. Anyways, we ventured out into Millennium Park where hundreds of people are simply enjoying the day. Amanda and I prayed as we walked toward the park for the people God would lead us to. We were looking for girls around our age as we thought this would be a good target for the day. We first walked up to two girls sitting in the grass. We found out they were 24 and 22, one a law student and the other had just graduated. We began a conversation with a "survey were doing." The questions led into a spiritual conversation about why some people are so committed to their faith. I asked if I could tell them my story and they were very interested in what I had to say. Soon to find out, they had studied religions at their college but knew NOTHING about Jesus Christ.---I would just like to say this broke my heart. Coming from the South almost everyone knows the Christian background or has at least heard the name Jesus---I was honored to share the Gospel with them for the first time and talk with them for about 30min about their lives. They were amazed at what we believed and took great interest in it. Unfortunately, they let us know they were only interested in a academic way and not a personal way. Of course I said I understand and we gave them some resources to use for more information. 

After we left we met up with a girl sitting in the grass alone. She at first said she had already been "talked with" but would like to talk more if we wanted to. Of course we sat right down beside her and began to talk. --Side Note: people want to talk about their life and about what they believe! Just listen to them --- Amanda wanted to lead this conversation with this girl and so she began to ask her questions about her life and what she does. She told us how she grew up in a Christian home and her family are believers but she was not. She eventually shared with us how she thinks that whatever religion one chooses is the best for them as an individual. She also said how she thinks Jesus was the son of God but he was not God. ---Just so you know, Jesus is God: 3 in 1 ---While Amanda took a step of faith and retold her the Gospel and what we believed in our conversation with this girl I also took my faith a step further. I began to ask this girl deeper questions--praying she did not get offended--she took them well and seemed to enjoy telling what she thought. It made her think a little as I asked her "Do you believe Jesus died for you? (maybe) Do you believe he died for me? (yes) What makes you different from me? (what you believe) So if you believed what I believe then would he have died for you then? (yes). This is an example of how our confusing yet challenging conversation went. By the end of talking with her we were all three laughing and simply enjoying our times together talking about our faith. ---I wish I could say that by the end of the conversation she eventually understood the gospel, but she didn't. We only thanked her and encouraged her to look into it more and contact us for questions. 

Amanda and I took a step of faith in sharing the gospel with these girls and asking them questions. What is in their hearts is up to God and we can only pray that he will keep them interested in the gospel   until they fall in love with such a beautiful love story as it is. I thank God that I can simply have the opportunity to say his name in such a diverse city of Chicago. We will leave the results up to him. 

Thank you for reading! 

<3 Talk to you soon, DRC