Public places are the best places...
In the last blog I wrote, Effortless Evangelism, I wrote about a life changing experience that one individual had with two empty vessels that God used. I really want to encourage all the readers to be open to how God wants to use you and to never be afraid, because;
(This is the blog explaining the appointment the day after Effortless Evangelism had taken place)
One of our contacts took us around Varanasi, to experience a little more of the deeper meaning of Hinduism, into an alley way where we were told that a temple was situated, but this temple seemed to be on a very important spiritual ground to any religious denomination, because the Muslims had bombed it a few times. We never got too close to even see the temple but you could really feel some sort of presence. When we got back to our meeting point Frikkie and I called our new friend and we decided to meet at 6 at a Pizzeria on the river Ganges. When we arrived at the Pizzeria we started explaining God's love and His plan as well as who Jesus is and what the function is of the Holy Spirit.
Three pizzas, six cool drinks, and a Holy Spirit led prayer later our friend became our brother in Christ. The best thing about this was that God was in control from the very start, because the Holy Spirit really opened everything to our brother and he really accepted Jesus with his whole heart, but while we were sitting there with the meeting I felt God tell me that tonight was not only about reaping but sowing as well, meaning that God not only wanted our new brother in His Kingdom, but also wanted a seed planted. Being the type of person I am, I put -what I thought was just a thought- aside and tried to concentrate on sharing with our new brother.- Sorry I forgot to mention that this was between 6-9 o'clock at night at the Ganges which means that while we were having pizza at the Pizzeria all the way to the end of the blog there was a Hindu ritual where a Hindu priest was sharing to the Hindus about one of their gods, so in a way we were doing this right in the midst of the darkness-. But yet I was not fully into the conversation because I seemed to have my attention on an older women sitting a few tables to our right, feeling very convicted to talk to her, I asked God why this was happening and i thought it was just an attack until Frikkie said he felt the same way and that we should go talk to her(of course after the appointment).
So as we got closer Frikkie and I got cold feet and I even decided that this wasn't from God and that this was a bad idea, but Frikkie had already introduced us, and without thinking I said to her "Jesus just wants you to know that He really does love you" and she had the biggest smile I have ever seen, but being a shy individual that I am, I turned around and left. As we were walking down the stairs both of us knew that this evening was all about God. I then mentioned to Frikkie that the next Westerner we see we must share with, and again God provider and told us to share what Jesus did on the cross, so in a 45minute conversation, we were able to subtly bring the good news to a Jew from Israel, at about nine we got into a took took and took off, we went back to our base. The took took driver's "translator" was telling us about Hinduism almost trying to make us accept his culture but with a very strong reply of "No we believe only in Christ" did the translator keep his mouth shut before we started asking questions about the different stories about his gods which again made him question his belief system.
As a team that is totally trusting God for financial support we are not really doing as well as we would've thought but by His grace, during our stay in Kota, He had provided Frikkie with extra funds which we needed really badly, and so we told the translator what we do as a team, and when he asked about finances all we said was Jesus, and when he again asked how is that possible we explained to him the awesome testimony about Kota. Shocked and bewildered he kept quiet all the way till the end of the journey. As we payed and thanked him for the ride as well as a lesson on Hinduism we went back to the hostel, and as we crossed the street, he shouted please pray for me. Now it was our turn to stop and be amazed at how God opened him to us, so we went back to him and prayed not only for salvation but for his desires that God had given him.
My experience in this, is that when we obey Him, He will provide. We obeyed Him in Effortless Evangelism which opened a door to again make our friend a brother, after which opened another door to where we were probably used to turn a woman's perspective on Christianity around, which led to us planting a seed into a Jewish lady's which the opened a door to plant another seed into a Hindu man's heart about the awesome power Jesus has.
I really want to encourage you to come through for Jesus, because I have experienced that once you do what He asks He will fill the desires of your heart, God bless you and keep you!