Every morning my team would wake up to either, the sunrise, a cowbell, people nudging us until we woke up, and on the most rare occasion, waking up on our own. After that we would eat breakfast, do our personal devotion time, then get ready for a day of street ministry. Street ministry is pretty much what it sounds like, going out on the streets and doing ministry however we could. Sometimes it would be talking to someone about their business or asking if they needed prayer for something. If it was a really good encounter we would get to talk to them about Jesus and what the gospel meant to them, those conversations were really impactful to me and there was one in particular.
One of our last days in Spanish town we were walking around looking for people to talk to and stopped at a corner market for a couple of our team members to talk to the person inside, while the rest of our team (including me) sat outside and waited While we were waiting, a taxi driver stopped his taxi in the middle of the road, rolled down his window and asked one of the girls to get in his car, she said no of course and he drove off. Within 10 seconds of this happening another taxi driver stops in the same spot and is saying something but no one understands what he’s saying so I walk over figuring he’s wanting to talk to one of the girls, but that’s not what it was at all. He asks me if I was a Christian and I said “yes”, and then the Spirit told me to ask him what Christianity meant to him, he answered “following Jesus and not sinning.” It hurt my heart that this was all he knew or at least had heard about salvation and the gospel. I asked his name and then he told me his was Andrew. I told him that the gospel was way more then that and that it was a life living day to day in a relationship with our creator and the only person who can satisfy our souls. That if we had confessed that we were sinners believed that He was God who came down in flesh, died, and then rose to life three days later that Christ would bring us salvation from our sins that we can’t even pay for. He asked me what would happen if he got saved and then sinned again, I told him that Christ had already payed for that sin and that he would sin again but that didn’t mean condemnation for him anymore. But that God would give him conviction over that sin and it would start to change his heart from sin to pursue Christ. He told me he wanted that kind of God, he said he was baptized a couple times but never really knew God, he just didn’t want to go to hell. We talked about how baptism isn’t what brings us salvation but it’s just like a wedding ring, a symbol of our love. I got to pray over him and asked that Christ bring salvation into his life and that the Holy Spirit would fill him at that moment. After we finished praying I looked up to see him getting emotional and his eyes began to water, he said “thank you” I thanked him back because this encounter meant more to me then he would ever know. I heard one of my leaders calling me saying it was time to go so Andrew told me goodbye I looked back and said “welcome to the kingdom.” I later found out that right behind me a couple of locals had gotten into some sort of fight and the area had gotten really crowded that’s why we had to leave. All this happened within feet of me and Andrew but neither of us noticed, I guess some of Satan’s distractions just don’t work. Praise Jesus for giving me the opportunity to share his love.
-NOAH
P.S. If you could please keep Andrew in your prayers that would be a huge blessing to him! Thanks!
