Destination: The Street
Date:15th September, 2019
Part 1
My team was assigned to take the gospel to those on the streets for the length of the evangelism season. On this day, when my team met, I was paired with my evangelism partner, Sister B and we headed out by 10 a.m. As we were about to move, two other people requested to join us and we set out for Ikot Ekpene Road.
Beware Of The Excuses
Along the way, we stopped at a barber’s shop. There, I met a young man who listened to me for a little while and heard everything I had to say concerning studying the Bible and having a relationship with God. Although he was not paying full attention at the initial stage, later on, he cooperated. Then, we met another guy who refused to listen to my partner, Sis B. because she spoke English! “I won’t listen to you except you speak in Ibibio”. He said.
She called another sister in the team, Sis U. to take over [she could speak Ibibio], but he didn’t really want to listen to anyone so, we left.
We moved on towards the Airtel office on Ikot Ekpene Road and we met a group of three guys. We paired up and began to share with them after which, they said they were hungry and we made provisions for them to eat. Our teaching convicted them and we asked them if they wanted to give their lives to Christ. They agreed and got born again! They listened on and when it was time for us to leave, they said they would be anticipating our return. One of them even got baptized in the Holy Spirit! We planned to follow them up so we got a phone number to reach them with.
Imitators of God
When we entered Udobio Street, we met two groups of people on both sides of the road. I paired up with Sis U. while Sis B. paired up with the last member of our team, Bro S.M. I entered a compound with Sis U. where we met two guys doing their laundry and we started to share with them both. These two had horrible experiences with the church. They had made resolutions in their hearts not to go to church anymore with the ‘holy anger’ that church pastors are indulging in the same things they indulge in.
“Why should we go to them (Pastors)? Why should we go to Church?” they asked.
We tried to explain to them that are not called to follow Pastors but to follow the Lord. “You are to follow and imitate Pastors to the extent they follow the Lord”, we added.
“Do not despise the fellowship of brethren. It is not enough to have this ‘holy anger’, but rather resolve in your hearts to live right, to have a good testimony before God and to know enough of the truth to be able to teach people. Do not point fingers at people with specks in their eyes while you have logs in your eyes. The same applies even if the persons you are pointing fingers at have logs too. Remove that which is in your own eyes first before you speak of removing what is in another’s and by this, you’ll be able to shine the light that people may see your good works and praise your Father who is in heaven”. We emphasized.
They received our message with great joy and said they will think about joining us for fellowship. We had brought this [joining our fellowship] up as a suggestion when they said they hadn’t seen anywhere where the true message was preached. We got their phone numbers with a plan to follow up with them too.
When Iron Sharpens Iron…
Moving on from there, we got to UdoAbasi Street and we met a brother who is a pastor-friend to Bro S.M. and has a ministry where he pastors at a school. We shared with him and sharpened each other, exhorting one another. We gave him the words (of encouragement) that we got and we were delighted that we had met.
Part 2
Even The Little Ones!
Afterwards, Sis U. found a young boy with whom she shared the gospel at length. While she was sharing with the young boy, Sis B. and I moved on to the street adjacent to UdoAbasi street. We met two children who were siblings. We prayed for them, told them about the Holy Spirit and asked them if they’d like to receive Him. We prayed for them and they showed us where they lived so that we could visit from time to time.
Next, we set off to follow up on those we had met the previous week while heading to Ekpri-Nsukara. We were not able to meet all those whom we had met last week Sunday at a mechanic shop, however, we met one particular guy. We reminded him of the things which we had discussed the previous week and also showed him the importance and the efficacy of being born again – coming under the sheepfold of God. He made a choice to be born again [He hadn’t done so last week] and we prayed for him and led him to Christ. Certainly, we intend to follow him up.
On the way to another follow up location, we met a man with a very terrible leg ulcer.
“Can we pray for you?” We asked.
“I don’t have time!” He bluntly refused.
We tried to persuade him a little more and he remained adamant, so we left.
We arrived at the house of a young man we had met the previous Sunday who did not have a Bible nor understand English language clearly. Upon getting to his house, we met his absence but met other children in his compound, about five of them. We taught them about Jesus and the Holy Spirit and led them to Christ.
“I saw Jesus!” One of them reported excitedly when we finished praying.
“I saw horses on fire!” Another added.
It was indeed amazing seeing the young ones experience the supernatural.
When we left there, we went to check up on a woman we had been following up along CCC road. The woman had been sick.
“I was able to sleep well for the first time in a very long while when you prayed for me on Wednesday”, She told us.
She was not feeling the asthmatic discomfort as much as she used to but she still had the issues with her protruded stomach. We promised we’d pray with her until she is completely healed. We gave her more scriptures to read.
“I have a question. Why is a book like Songs of Solomon in the Bible?”, She had asked.
Sis. U., speaking in fluent Ibibio explained [as she had been taught in church] that it can speak of the relationship between a person (in this case the woman) and the Lord, or as it were, the church and Christ.
While all this was going on, I joined a fellowship that was ongoing in the same compound and shared with them too. They were quite learned. They were arguing whether the Bible should be read as a hobby or not. I contributed by reading Deuteronomy Chapter 6 which instructs that the commands of God should be written on the doorpost of our house and everywhere we find ourselves and we must abide by it. It was more or less a command we must carry out. So this is what is required of those who call themselves Christians. Then, we had to share about the topic of doing things that seem right at the wrong time, an example was going on evangelism when you are supposed to be in a church meeting. The meeting came to a close and sis B. and sis U. had also rounded up their discussion with the woman.
We called it a day at about 7 pm
Lessons Learnt:
– Pray for the children. Take authority when you can so God can ‘catch’ them young.
– Speaking in the native language can help communication.
Report by Bro S.O
© God’s Lighthouse 2019.
