This week, my SOMD and staff went to the beautiful Miami, Florida for a time of teaching and ministry with YWAMer, Bob Felder. Bob also taught in my DTS, so I knew we were in for a great time. Bob and his team do campus evangelism at a couple Miami-Dade Community College campuses. They are on the front lines, sharing the gospel with anyone who will listen. I thought I'd be pretty intimidated, but it ended up being a great few days of ministry.
We drove down Sunday afternoon, and it was only a 4 drive, so we got there in time to have dinner with Bob and his family. We were staying at his house, which is huge and has a pool and hot tub, and the most beautiful tropical trees. Monday, we had class all day on the back porch, sunbathing and swimming during a break, and eventually finishing classtime while in the hot tub. Refreshing and relaxing don't even begin to cover it!!
Best class time ever? I think so!
Me and Corey on a class break
Dean & Theresa's baby, Elias, totally loved Miami life as well
Tuesday, we went out to the Miami-Dade North Campus. We split up into pairs and began to evangelism the campus by storm. Well, Storm Joy & Dean [my school leader] lasted about 30 seconds. While talking to our very first person, we were stopped by security and told to stop what we were doing, because we didn't have proper identification. While we knew that the club we were had permission to be active on campus, we didn't want to defy authority, so we stopped sharing for the day. I sat at the campus ministry table and talked to people as they walked by, while my other schoolmates and staff were out sharing. It was really encouraging to hear their stories from the day and it inspired to get out there and try again on Wednesday [on a different campus].
Dean, after getting shut down by security.
Corey, deep in though about evangelizing, and the WAVES Campus Ministry table behind him!
Wednesday went really well at the Miami-Dade Kendall campus, as Corey and I teamed up and began approaching people at the campus coffeeshop. I was still pretty nervous though. Evangelism to strangers has never felt natural to me, and all too often it's the crazies that are the ones doing it. I'm not a crazy person, nor did I want to come off as one. I think I was more fearful of coming off as crazy than I was of actually talking to people. But once we walked up and started the conversation, it felt way more natural. We talked to a few believers, and were able to connect them to the campus ministry. But we also talked to a few nonbelievers, and we were able to clearly lay out the gospel and the plan of salvation to them. We prayed with some, encouraged some and hopefully moved them closer to a relationship with Jesus Christ. I guess some people would say we "failed" because no one actually prayed to receive Christ with us, but I think any spiritual conversation you have with someone that shares the truth about the gospel is a success. And that's exactly what we had. A lot of successful conversations.
We left Miami on Wednesday afternoon encouraged, refreshed, energized and much closer as a school. I jokingly compared our trip to a family vacation instead of a ministry trip. We laughed a lot and just had a great time being together. It made me excited for our outreach this summer and all the amazing times we will get to share together! More on that in my next post.... Continue reading →
We drove down Sunday afternoon, and it was only a 4 drive, so we got there in time to have dinner with Bob and his family. We were staying at his house, which is huge and has a pool and hot tub, and the most beautiful tropical trees. Monday, we had class all day on the back porch, sunbathing and swimming during a break, and eventually finishing classtime while in the hot tub. Refreshing and relaxing don't even begin to cover it!!
Best class time ever? I think so!
Me and Corey on a class break
Dean & Theresa's baby, Elias, totally loved Miami life as wellTuesday, we went out to the Miami-Dade North Campus. We split up into pairs and began to evangelism the campus by storm. Well, Storm Joy & Dean [my school leader] lasted about 30 seconds. While talking to our very first person, we were stopped by security and told to stop what we were doing, because we didn't have proper identification. While we knew that the club we were had permission to be active on campus, we didn't want to defy authority, so we stopped sharing for the day. I sat at the campus ministry table and talked to people as they walked by, while my other schoolmates and staff were out sharing. It was really encouraging to hear their stories from the day and it inspired to get out there and try again on Wednesday [on a different campus].
Dean, after getting shut down by security.
Corey, deep in though about evangelizing, and the WAVES Campus Ministry table behind him!Wednesday went really well at the Miami-Dade Kendall campus, as Corey and I teamed up and began approaching people at the campus coffeeshop. I was still pretty nervous though. Evangelism to strangers has never felt natural to me, and all too often it's the crazies that are the ones doing it. I'm not a crazy person, nor did I want to come off as one. I think I was more fearful of coming off as crazy than I was of actually talking to people. But once we walked up and started the conversation, it felt way more natural. We talked to a few believers, and were able to connect them to the campus ministry. But we also talked to a few nonbelievers, and we were able to clearly lay out the gospel and the plan of salvation to them. We prayed with some, encouraged some and hopefully moved them closer to a relationship with Jesus Christ. I guess some people would say we "failed" because no one actually prayed to receive Christ with us, but I think any spiritual conversation you have with someone that shares the truth about the gospel is a success. And that's exactly what we had. A lot of successful conversations.
We left Miami on Wednesday afternoon encouraged, refreshed, energized and much closer as a school. I jokingly compared our trip to a family vacation instead of a ministry trip. We laughed a lot and just had a great time being together. It made me excited for our outreach this summer and all the amazing times we will get to share together! More on that in my next post.... Continue reading →
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