She wasn’t saying anything, but her eyes gave a loud and desperate cry: “Come and talk to me!”
It was one of our first weeks in ministry when our ministry hosts sent us out into the streets of San Jose to evangelize. We grouped into our teams, and were paired off with a native Spanish speaker who could show us around and translate for us. My team was paired with one of our ministry hosts, Kique, and he took us to a plaza downtown.
I’ll say it: I was incredibly apprehensive about evangelizing. It made me uncomfortable going up to people, making awkward conversation and asking to pray for them; I felt like we were an inconvenience to them. It didn’t help that the first few people we talked to seemed pretty uncomfortable, too.
My whole team and I were feeling pretty discouraged. We were walking around, not really knowing what to do. A couple of us noticed a woman who kept looking at us, trying to make eye contact with us. She didn’t say anything, but in some way or another, she just invited us in. We walked over to her.
Hola! She greeted my team with a warm, friendly smile.
Immediate relief. On both sides, honestly.
We found out that her name was Marilette. We also found out that she was a believer! She had noticed us walking around and wondered if we were Christians, too.
She explained that she was struggling, and feeling pretty hopeless. She had lost a lot of her Christian community due to the virus, and was feeling like she had lost her fire for the Lord. She really just needed lots of prayer and encouragement. As a team, we were able to pray over her, encourage her in her walk with the Lord, and Kique was also able to give her some local communities to plug into.
As I reflect on this moment in the plaza, I think it’s so cool how the Lord set up that encounter so perfectly, so divinely. He took a very uncomfortable situation and turned it into an oppurtunity where we could encourage another believer. There was fruit from stepping out into something that felt very unnatural and awkward.
Marilette also reminded me of why I came here.
In missions, it’s so easy to get caught up in the results of what gets done: how many people come to the Lord, how many bibles were handed out, how many houses were built. It goes so much deeper. There is much more that’s needed. Sure, it’s less tangible and often goes unnoticed, but it’s incredibly important. Sometimes people just need a little encouragement.
I just have a couple questions for ya:
-How can you step out into the uncomfortable this week?
-Who around you needs encouragement?
-And how can you be intentional about encouraging those around you (in big or small ways)?
This was a short story of a big way that God moved and I just wanted to share! Thanks for following along in my journey!
Love,
Emma
