Psalm 78:3 We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done
We are here to tell our story. That’s all the primitive church had. They told their ‘story’ as they were fleeing persecution. Their story of how Jesus personally saved them revolutionized the world. Not only then but now. Our personal story, telling people how we got saved is called our testimony. Our testimony, combined with the blood of the Lamb of God conquers Satan.
Revelation 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
As Christians we have two things to tell. (A Christian should never not have something to say to a stranger when given the opportunity). Of course we should be guided by the Holy Spirit, but when it’s the indicated person, just a warm and sincere greeting can open a nice two way dialogue. 1. Our testimony of how we got saved. Or 2. What God is doing in our lives today, which usually leads back to #1.
We can always talk about what God is doing in our lives, how He is using us. For example, let me tell you about Million Friends.
Million Friends’ story.
Winnie Peters, our two kids and I drove back to Nicaragua over 10 years ago. I have independent income sources that permits us to live in Nicaragua. Donations are for ministry as well as most of my personal income.
Our mission, our calling by God, is to help kids who aren’t plugged into church. That’s what God is doing in our lives. He put on our hearts the kids who are living in poverty, without a Godly influence in their lives. These are called at-risk children because many fall into prostitution to satisfy their basic needs of food and shelter. We like helping churches, and teaching Sunday schools, but it’s like fishing in an aquarium to us. Many are called to do so, and it’s a great calling, but not ours.
We work with the worst of the worst. Kids that are hungry, promiscuous, abused and furious are our mission field. Our end game is to have an old folks home and an orphanage on the same property. The children we work with now are encouraged to go to the nearest Bible believing church to them. We are only working with my personal income and a few thousand a month in donations. So we can’t help with transportation, yet!
We are impacting about 6,000 lives through 2 Christ centered feeding programs, help several others here, (and I have also been helping one in Islamabad Pakistan), a kid’s church, a school, scholarships, clothing, English classes, discipleship classes, Bible studies, home repair and emergency medical.
We want to set up an AWANA club for these kids. It’s a strict program that we want to implement in the near future for 60 of our best kids, but we don’t have the money to do it. Unspiritual as it may sound, without money you can’t do much when you are serving the poor. We want and need a more effective way of teaching children and impacting them for Jesus.
We work with children living by Managua Nicaragua’s garbage dump and the poor children living in rural Nicaragua. (Who are in worse shape, believe it or not, than the kids in the garbage dump. There are whole villages where the people look like skeletons 🙁
We are seeing lives transformed by the power of God’s Holy Spirit. His love has been shed abroad in our hearts for all, especially the kids we work with. It is dangerous work, what we are called to. The difficulties and challenges grow every day, but totally worth it!
Our only protection is the Word of God and God’s Holy Spirit. If it’s tough for us, imagine how tough it is for the 3 and 4 year olds we work with. We are winning souls, and producing fruit, but we could be doing so much better. That’s why we want AWANA to help us. It’s really effective and for that reason, I believe, it’s really expensive 🙁
AWANA is an acronym that refers to:
2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.