Let's hear it for internal organs

We had a great conference over the weekend. A team of students from a ministry school in Redding, California came to teach us about a new style of evangelism.

The idea is to go on a "treasure hunt." You ask God for "clues," and then you go out and follow the clues till you find a person, whom you strike up a conversation with, usually by asking them if you can pray for them. If they agree, often God does something for them, like healing them of some condition on the spot, and often the person will give their heart to Christ, if they never have, or decide to return to Him if they have.

By clues, I mean a list of thing to look for. For example, LovelyDaughter and JD were in a group where collectively they ended up with a list that included, among other things, "Menards," "gray building," "fiber optic angel," and "Amber." They went to Menards, which is a big gray building, and looked around till, looky there, they saw a sign that resembled a fiber optic angel. They stood near the sign, and an employee came up to ask them if they needed help, and lo, and behold, her name tag said "Amber." The team was able to pray with her for some real concerns she had, and also pray for her back which she had problems with from an injury.

The stories we heard over the weekend of the team's experiences using this method were absolutely amazing, even more so than this story.

But I confess that Hubby and I did not participate. We went to the meeting, and we totally chickened out. Let me put it another way: I freaked out.

Yes. I did.

I am not an extrovert, and the idea of walking up to a stranger in cold blood, for any reason, even a cool Holy Spirit treasure hunt, just absolutely freaked me. I have had too many experiences of having to knock on doors to hand out tracts and fliers or try to sell stuff. So, I panicked, and Hubby did too wasn't too fond of the idea either, so we compromised by... taking a nap in the van.

I know. So terribly spiritual and evangelistic.

We felt so condemned the rest of the day, mostly-- well, completely-- from our own selves for losing courage and not at least giving it a try. Even if it's not our style or personality, we could have tried.

It's a really good thing that the bible says that we are a BODY. Even a gall bladder or a spleen has some use, though never seen or heard. And nobody complains that they're not an eye or a mouth, or something more noticeable, right?

In spite of that knowledge, I still feel a wee bit guilty. Steve Chandler says that we should not use what we are or are not as an excuse. He says we can be anything we want to be. And yet, if his word and the bible disagree, I think I know which one I should listen to.

Sunday night during prayer time I told God I would try to learn to be more outgoing if that's what He wanted. But He has to help me!

So now I'm interested in finding my own style of reaching out to people. Yesterday I had to run errands, picking up various things at various stores, and I made it my goal to smile and say a friendly word--like, HI; notice the singular form here--to every sales person. That felt like a major accomplishment. If I never have the courage to do more, at least I have tried to show God's love in a very small way.