The person I'm writing about, I don't have a picture of, but these kids will do right? Aren't they so cute!
I'm mulling over my experiences from my last escapade to Colombia... and I just can't get over this one thing that happened. One of our main tasks in Colombia was to have conversations with people about faith. Now you have to forgive me, almost my entire experience with strangers talking to me about Jesus has made me feel like they are straight up messed up the head, and I'm already a Christian. You know what I'm talking about? And because of those horrible experiences I have my own barriers when it comes to me being genuine about sharing my faith with others.
It's kinda like those people who try out for American Idol... you know, the people who are genuine about how good they think they are... and they're not good. (Ex: William Hung & Pants on the Ground Man) YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN?! Thinking your ok/good in doing something is a dangerous place to be especially when your actually not good or ok. In American Idol, I'm talking about talent. In talking to others about Jesus, I'm talking about something altogether more intangible and creepy.
ANYWAYS
that's where I'm coming from.
So in Colombia we were given all kinds of opportunities to share our faith with people, and now that you know some of my pre-conceived notions you can tell why I'd be a little nervous. There's nothing worse in my mind then thinking that I'm wooing everyone with my beautiful voice when really they're just distracted at how self-deceived I am... It's be like thinking I'm sharing the most beautiful story in the world (the gospel), but somehow it's been misinterpreted to be something that people run away from.
All these thoughts were mulling through my mind when a man walked up to me as I was standing out in front of the church. We were already in one of the poorest neighborhoods around. The place resembled more of a slum then anything, and yet this man looked like he didn't belong there. Dirty, Depressed, nearly Desolate ...carrying nothing but a little cart of trash.
The man looked at me and said,
"Are you an American?" .... "Yes"
"Are you a Christian?" .... "Yes"
"I just so desperate, I used to work with the drug cartels. I could spend $500 in one weekend, but now I have nothing. I have nothing, and don't know what to do..." He went on about his sorrows in Spanish, and I didn't get it all.
His emotion, although washed-out through my translator, was still deep. He was literally begging me to tell him about Christ. My translator and I stood there on the porch explaining the gospel to him, we prayed with him there to accept Christ, and a new countenance of joy came over his face. He walked away, and I walked into the church stunned.
"You are the Light of the World. A town on a hill cannot be hidden." (Matt 5:14)
You're right that sometimes it can be dangerous to think you're good at something. However, you have a gift for sharing the gospel and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing you use it.
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