Phil's Evangelism Testimony

aha, i post on behalf of my dear beloved brother Phil, who went out valiantly last friday and returned with quite a testimony on his experience with evangelism. i'll keep my words short, and there you go Phil. do the talking. yes kenneth also asked me to post on the past - one year back, and you can find the link here, to take a whiff at the past and how it all began. but enough of that. on to phil (:

I don’t believe that I have been called into the ministry of evangelism; I’m pretty sure that it’s one of those spiritual gifts that I haven’t been blessed with (probably because opening my mouth to talk to strangers is something I’d naturally shy away from).

It should then come as no surprise that my blood nearly turned cold when seeing my name come up first upon the drawing of lots (out of the group of seven). Urim and Thummim it was not (nice pray over the paper and toss into the air, really), but I had to trust that it was indeed God’s will for me to go out and learn something from it. It didn’t quite help that I didn’t have any past evangelism experience to speak of – praying for students having their exams is one thing; having to share the gospel with a complete stranger is another.

And so it was with more than a slight bit of uncertainty that I went out, thankfully with a partner (Christabel) who was willing and able to initiate our conversations.

I must also admit that I did indeed learn much from that short half an hour – both how to handle the initial stage, when the subject still gives you an ^o) and peers at you goggle-eyed in suspicion, and also how to take the conversation from there. Once the hardest part is over, things did seem to proceed a little more smoothly.

And then, I was also reminded that there exist people who acknowledge both their own sinfulness and God’s holiness and still refuse to come to Christ; that there are people who have been to church for years and yet remain unsaved; that there are people who have been in ACS for years and have undoubtedly heard the gospel message being preached and presented many times over, and yet still remain blinded (or worse still, hardened) to their own need for salvation; that indeed, the most sobering reality in the world today is that people are dying and going to hell today. That is the terrifying but sad truth about the situation, both in ACS and in everywhere else around the world.

But it is also a truth which should at the very least shake us into living a life which shows that we truly believe what we claim to believe. And it is a powerful and timely reminder of the work we have been called to here in ACS.

in His service,
Phil