Friday, July 14, 2017

Being Obedient to His Mission

Unlike the past three weeks, this week we stayed where we usually live in S town.  We did not go anywhere because we had to get our visas renewed for another 30 days and that required us to stick around until everything was finished.  Our visas were renewed, so everything is good on that front.  Even though sitting in the immigration office was not ideal, being restricted to our hometown gave us an opportunity to meet and share the Gospel with some really interesting people this week.

One day we went to a coffee bar on the beach & ordered some drinks.  While enjoying our Sprite and coconut juice, we noticed two little boys, and we invited them to come sit with us.  We then asked them to play Suspend and General with us.  After a while of talking and laughing, we acted on an opportunity the Lord gave us to share the Gospel with them.  We were mainly talking to the oldest boy, but both were intently listening.  They had never heard the Gospel and said the message we shared with them made sense, but they needed to learn more about Islam before they could see how what we shared aligned with what their religion taught.  We explained to them it is not about the religion someone associates with but rather it is about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  We explained that all religions are about doing more good than bad in hopes of being accepted by God, but in reality we can never do enough to outweigh our sin debt to God.  We continued explaining that God knew we could never erase the sin, so out of love God became a man and paid the debt that we all owe. We continued to explain many other things including the resurrection to which they were curious to learn. The Lord led us to many others who had never heard of the Gospel.  Praise be to God!

The Lord is teaching us that when it comes to sharing with nonbelievers, remaining faithful and obedient to His mission is the most important task.  Whether we are called to plant the seed, water the seed, or harvest the seed—we must be obedient and realize God is in control.  Of course, it would be amazing to be the ones who harvest the seed and get to baptize them and begin to disciple them, but remaining faithful to plant and water the seed is just as important in the eyes of God.

-Aaron G.