"tell the world..."

(the napkin gospel... sat am. training)

This weekend was crazy!! Our "crossfire" youth retreat was these last 3 days and just like the last retreat there was not enough sleep but more than enough of everything else!!! The topic of this retreat was evangelism with the tagline being "tell the world...!!!" After an intense Friday night we spent Saturday morning training on everything from what evangelism is, why we do it, how we do it to obstacles to evangelism itself. The Canadian crew... Jess, Sarah, Steve and I, had the blessing of giving a chunk of these training sessions and using our "Campus for Christ" evangelism focus to teach and challenge the students in their own evangelistic lives.

(view from the top... cerro ancon)

This morning we all loaded on buses and headed to Cerro Ancon, one of the highest look-out points in the city and from there teamed up into groups of 4. These "evangelism teams" consisted of younger and older students with the jobs of praying, speaking or simply standing in support of each other as they were about to be sent throughout the city to share their faith. As we passed out 4 Spiritual Law tracts and survey questions I began to realize that the whole thing was a dream come true. Our Stint team seems to live and breathe evangelism... but to see the newer generation equipped and sent to share the good news was absolutely amazing!

(16 girls + me = 4 evangelism teams)

As I headed to Albrook Mall with 70 students on a bus I was again struck with how crazy the situation was. There we all were on a Sunday morning headed out to share the love of Christ.. in public and with complete strangers. I had the job of sitting at a "cinabon" in the mall in case anyone ran into troubles and was there to watch and pray. As I sat there I saw people with a completely different perspective. When I go there to shop I'm focused on myself and what I need and rarely realize that I'm surrounded by people that don't have a personal relationship with Jesus. But as I sat there I realized the opportunities that surrounded me and the students. The chance that everyone had to know someone and touch their hearts with the love of Christ.

The mall was pretty empty and I began to pray that God would bring people into the mall and that all the students would be able to have someone to talk too. A patter became a roar as a torrent of rain began to come down. I almost started to cry. Rain in Panama stops traffic. Rain in Panama stops people and sends them to seek cover. And so there we were... 200 of us spread across the city with rain causing people to stay in the mall instead of leaving, and coming inside instead of outside. God answers prayer... and I believe with all my heart that as we were praying for people God brought them right to us.

I glanced up onto the second floor and spotted two of the students, Ana and Gracia gazing over the ledge. I began to look for the other two members of their team and as I watched, Laura and Rebecca (the other half of the team) walked up to a lady sitting on a bench in front of the cinabon where I was. I began to pray just as the two above me were and as Laura and Rebecca began to to talk with the lady on the bench. I looked up again and saw my friend Christian standing on the other side of the upper floor praying for what was unfolding in front of us. As we prayed I realized that the lady the girls were talking to had no idea that she was surrounded by a triangle of people praying for her. I don't know what all happened in that conversation, but I know that as soon as Laura and Rebecca left this lady sat and read through the 4 Spiritual Laws, and then clutching it in her hand along with her shopping bags stood up and left the mall.

I don't know what will happen in her life and I have no idea what kind of impact that had on her. But what I do know is this... a seed was planted. And all over this city seeds were planted this morning AND(!!!) there are new brothers and sisters in Christ as at least 6 people prayed to receive Christ today. As the retreat wrapped up this afternoon I talked with one of the students and a good friend of mine. He said with tears in his eyes, "I will never ever be the same after this." Gods love changes lives, evangelism changes lives and as the retreat tagline says, we simply need to "tell the world!"

(me and my small group... i love these ladies)