Carnaval Stories (part 4 of 4)

The last story I have from Carnaval is actually not from Carnaval. This story happened a couple weeks after Carnaval but it was still during my DTS outreach. One thing I’ve really love about God is that when we abide in Him and seek Him, He brings opportunities to us. A lot of the people Jesus healed, delivered, or ministered to were people who came to Him. He would be going about His business and someone would come up and ask Him to heal them (Luke 17) or tell them about Himself (John 3). I firmly believe that that the more we walk in intimacy with God and walk with our eyes open to those around us, the less we will have to go out and search for opportunities to share Jesus and the more opportunities will just be given or handed right to us and all we have to do is allow God to use us. Now this won’t always be the case, the command of Jesus is still to GO and make disciples of ALL nations. However, I think God loves to just give up opportunities when we make ourselves available to Him.

This story is one of evangelism but that is not how it started. It was a day off and I wanted to spend time with the LORD so I went to this ledge by the ocean where I go quite often. I had been there probably about 2 hours by myself reading my Bible, praying, and worshipping the King of Kings and LORD of LORDS. All of a sudden I see this guy by himself kind of walking towards me. He eventually walks straight towards where I am sitting. He asks me my name and where I’m from and then he says “Hablame a Christo.” Which means talk to me about Christ. Straight up. I didn’t have to force Christ into the conversation or strive or anything he just asked. So, I started telling him the best I could in my broken Spanish what I thought about Jesus. I told him Jesus is my best friend, my savior. I told him I love Jesus and that He is good, and that He forgives our sins. Then I asked him (Edgar was his name) if he wanted to accept Jesus into his heart. He said yes. So I again in Spanish, did the best I could leading him in a prayer of salvation.

We then talked a little bit more, I asked about his family and such. Eventually I asked him if he had a Bible. He said no so I told him I’d go back to the base to grab him a Bible quick. Then this other guy walks about and heard us talking and straight up says that he needs a Bible. I quickly walked to the base grabbed a couple Spanish New Testaments and new believer pamphlet things we had. When I return, the 2nd guy who walked up, named Javier tells me, “Soy Christiano pero no fuego in mi Corazon.” Which means hes been a Christian but he doesn’t have any fire in his heart. I’m like we can pray for that, so I had Javier and Edgar repeat after me to receive the Holy Spirit and the fire of God’s love into their hearts. I then told them about churches in the area and went back to the base for dinner. That easy.

I love this story because both of these men came up to me, an American gringo who was just chillin’ and doesn’t speak very good Spanish. Why they came up to me, I don’t know but I know that it they were both divine encounters set up totally by God. Also this is one of my favorite stories from outreach because one of my outreach goals was to pray for someone in Spanish and in all my time in Mexico City that didn’t really happen beyond super simple. However, not only did I get to pray for these men in Spanish but I got to lead them to salvation all in Spanish. That sure makes 4 years of studying Spanish quite worth it.

I would like to end with encouraging all of you to abide in the vine and make yourself available everyday to whatever the LORD throws your way. I believe that if we walk in intimacy with the LORD and have our eyes open the opportunities are endless to share our faith, love, joy and peace with those around us. Jesus after all told us “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."
(Joh 12:32)