Evangelism Practical

I've been praying, on and off, for God to give me a good chance to evangelise this year. I've always been interested in doing so, especially putting my faith and beliefs on the line and letting God do His work. Yesterday I had the chance to do so, and it was actually such an awesome experience that I needed to reflect on it (hence no post yesterday).

I've known this friend for a while. He went to my high school, and pretty much was a typical asian kid (asians know that there are a few levels of typical asian kids - and they're divided into school grades, aren't they?). He regularly got B+'s and B's on his high school report, struggled on and off with thoughts of suicide and had a destructive relationship with his parents, who pretty much tried to stuff him into a mold that he didn't fit.

I guess us asian people know that asian parents (especially fathers) have a nasty habit of having huge expectations of their kids. The only success is an A+ on your report, the highest marks or the best performance. Anything else is an absolute failure. These expectations are heaped up on top of young asian kids as motivation for study. For me, my parents never forced me to do anything (I struggled with the inference of their expectations though).

Of course you won't get the best marks and the strongest performance. There's always someone better than you. In some asian families, that isn't good enough - and in my friend's case, his parents never encouraged and only berated. (I'm going from what he told me - and it could be different).

I ran into him on the bus (I hardly ever take the bus, and almost never at 4pm). I'm pretty sure God put the words into my mouth - and before I knew it I asked if he wanted to get off at my stop and I'd drive him home.

Before long the topic of conversation turned to family, money, and religion. I had no idea what my own intentions were, except I came up with answers when there were no answers, and the like. God took care of me during that time, and I felt was leading me to talk to my friend about Jesus.

I guess what I've learned is that the best way to evangelise is to live the Christian walk. My agnostic cousin describes my mother as a Christian - and has the utmost respect for her and her beliefs. My cousin is impressed by the way my mother exemplifies the Christian faith - and it's amazing to see that someone who is so smitten by the world can still know where the light is shining from.

I'm praying for my friend - that God can come into his life and bring him to Jesus. And when God is ready to work through me, or a mutual friend, I'm prepared to do what it takes. As Pastor Chong said - the only reason why you became a Christian is that someone prayed for you. Don't give up, because we'll never know when.