What I learned
Desire for Evangelism
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| Average street in
Trinidad, Bolivia. |
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| Typical house in the area of Trinidad near our church |
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A house outside of Trinidad.
The dry, barren yard are typical of the poorer houses. |
One of the main reasons that I went to Bolivia with e3 Partners was to
practice inviting people to become followers of Jesus. As a
result of inviting many people over the course of a week, all of whom I
did not know, I have become much more desirous of bringing people to
God. If I can tell people I do not know about who God is,
surely I can tell my friends. So I am trying to be more bold in
approaching the issue at least once with my co-workers with whom I have
not already shared. I am have found that being courageous in
saying why I have certain opinions and values, showing that they come
from beliefs about God, has led to good conversations with co-workers. I am also considering various ways that I can meet more
people and hopefully befriend a few and draw them closer to Christ.
Importance of memorizing Scripture
Prior to the trip I had been reading
Daws,
a biography of Dawson Trotman, founder of The Navigators (his method of
ministry is very similar to e3's). One of the things he is famous
for is memorizing scripture. He even went so far as to draw a
correlation between how much scripture one has memorized and one’s
effectiveness in bringing people to God. So I tried to memorize
the verses for the tract. I did not manage them all, but the ones
that I did memorize came in very handy, because I could refer to them
when necessary, instead of stopping to look for them, or paraphrasing
them. In discussions with my co-workers since then, I have begun
to realize that one of people’s difficulties with Christianity in the
U.S. is that they have a misunderstanding of the nature of God. It is one thing to tell them God is a certain way, but I think it
would be even more effective to have them read what God says about
Himself from the Bible itself. Plus, “the word of God
is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it
penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it
judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Heb 4:12)
That cannot be said for the word of Geoff...
Transferability
Unlike the other two missions trips that I have been on, everything that we
did in Bolivia can be just as easily done anywhere, including here at
home. All that we did was share the fact that Jesus died for
our sins, invite people to trust and repentance, and do follow-up
discipleship. The form may be different—knocking on doors is
probably not too effective here in the U.S.—but the e3 tract could be
used with anyone. Just like in Bolivia, memorizing the tract
and verses will help you go have a conversation that is natural, yet covers
all the main points.
Importance of great team members
One of the things that was really good about the trip was that all of the
members of my team had similar spiritual values and maturity. And as I have mentioned, my sub-team was very much on the same page, with
our translators being equal members of the team. Serving with
them was a joy. Plus, because we had similar desires (namely
to make God known and to bring Bolivians to Him) it was pretty easy to be
united in one purpose, both as a sub-team and as the larger team. Great team members make a great team.
Ask good questions: testimonies
A couple days into the trip, Richard Wong, who did just-in-time team
leader training for me, suggested that I ask church members their
testimonies. I started doing this, and was impressed at the ways
that God had worked in peoples’ lives to lead them to him. Several had become Christians out of backgrounds of alcohol. Even though I have forgotten many of the actual stories, the
flavor that remains is that these are people whose changed lives
demonstrate that God is at work in their lives. That is
exciting to see. But you will not see it unless you ask good
questions. It is good to learn about what peoples’ lives are like, where
they work, and that sort of thing. After you build that
initial rapport, ask good questions that will show you how God is at work.
< Seeing God at work | Interesting things >