Couch Run

Evangelism 101?

I hate going up to random people in a mall and talking to them.

There, I said it. It’s true, I really do. It leaves me feeling really awkward, them bemused, and no one has gotten saved yet. That being the case, it works wonders for some people – I have friends that will go to the mall and talk to people they’ve never met before, pray for them, and hopefully lead them further into the knowledge of Jesus.

Not me. I can’t do that well. Maybe its that I need to get over myself and trust God more and step out in faith… or maybe its okay to be the way I am.

(Noting, however, that if the Holy Spirit prompts me to go and talk to someone, I will. I just don’t intentionally position myself for a whole afternoon of the same.)

Many of the great revivalists (whose job was to partner with the Lord in seeing people saved) didn’t believe that the outworking of salvation was complete in a life unless that person in turn began telling people about Jesus. My reluctance to walk up to strangers in a mall is in no way a reflection of any lack of passion and love for the Lord… it just simply doesn’t seem to work for me.

I wonder if perhaps there is contained within my spiritual DNA, a way of ‘evangelising’ which is uniquely me. It would be fantastic if I could find this – no longer would I have to secretly feel guilty as I sit in workshops at church about how to tell people about Jesus, and reflect upon how much I hate doing it that way.

For me, it makes far more sense to be friends with people and to tell them about Jesus – take one of my workmates for example. He reckons that if he comes to church, he’ll get thrown out. I keep inviting him… and hoping that one day he’ll come. I have some great conversations with our customers and some of the other staff members – yet in none of them have I ever come straight in with the question “If you died tonight, would you go to heaven or hell.” Yet, at the same time, its definitely known that I love Jesus, and all that comes along with that choice.

What do you think? Perhaps I’ll function best in an evangelistic capacity working with a missions organisation – being out in the nations as part of a team telling people about Jesus. Maybe it’ll be that I keep inviting my workmates to come to church, until one day they actually do. Maybe it’ll be the conversations I have with one of our customers, who gets a venti dulce de leche frappuchino, about God and church and creation. Maybe its simply me… that I am who I am, and that the way I choose to live life inevitably causes questions… but I desperately want to see the people I work with knowing the truth… I want to see my city changed…

The Oscars of Life…

I wonder… when I stand before the Lord, if he comes here or I go there first… what will be the thing from my life that he considers important… like, sure, I’m aiming to have the good and faithful servant thing happening… but what in my life in particular will cause his heart to beat a little faster?

I wouldn’t mind faithfulness… I want to be faithful in persevering in prayer…

A year ago…

A year ago I found out that I was leaving for India in 10 days… not 14 or more… and suddenly it all became a whole lot more real.

Juice update

Current price of apples: 97c a kilo (compared to like 3.98 normally)

Weight of apples sitting in my fridge: 3 kilos

Weight of carrots sitting in my fridge: 1 and a half kilos

Assorted items sitting in fridge or on bench: pineapple, mango, avocado, celery

Juicer model: George Foreman Healthplus (or something like that…)

Favourite juice: grape and apple

Fun times…

Today was one of those random days when you do a heck of a lot, look back, and realise you actually did.

So, today I flew to Auckland… saw some friends… spent the day at a 24-7 leaders gathering… flew home… came home and changed… went to a wedding… stopped in to visit my parents… came home again.

Auckland Highlights

• Sitting on a plane. Dang, takeoff, landing and turbulence are fun.
• Seeing people I haven’t seen in ages
• Hearing what God’s been doing in some of these prayer rooms.. massive stuff…

Wedding was so amazing… highlights:

• Fireworks going off behind the bride and groom when they kissed
• The reception featured a mobile woodburning pizza truck, and the Mr Whippy icecream truck. Happy times.
• Cupcake wedding cake. So much easier to take apart.
• Totally awesome nighttime setting- bit cold but no wind and a starry sky
• The bridesmaids carried lanterns with candles instead of bouquets… and the aisle was lit with candles
• I got to spend time with friends from Auckland, and it turned out the couple who sat down with us to make a full table were actually people that used to rent my parents house…

A very exciting weekend lineup…

It’s Thursday. And I don’t have to go to Starbucks today… or until Monday. It’s a very very exciting thing.

Today is my catchup / organise everything day. Trying to catch up on all my office and administration work, as well as some one on ones.

Tomorrow I have a couple of rental people coming through the house to give us quotes on renting it out… and I’ll be in the prayer room… and taking some time off… and going to Disrupt in the evening.

Saturday, I’m going to AUCKLAND… which means that I get to go on an airplane. I’m going to the 24-7 ‘lunchbox’ meeting in Auckland… and then I fly home and go to a wedding.
<note: for all who don’t think airplanes are special… I tend to go quite a lot. It’s been nearly 9 months. In and of itself I probably wouldn’t have gone to Auckland just for the 24-7 thing… but a large part of it is the fact that I can sit on a plane for a couple of hours… which will either end the airplane longingness, or make it worse>

Sunday… I’m on tech team on both morning (camera) and evening (lights) services… internship with the adult interns in the afternoon… I don’t know if I’m on cafe yet…

Monday: back to Starbuckies…

Moments

I had a moment for about 5 minutes in the prayer room tonight. Just me in my pyjamas, on a detour home from dropping one of the interns home. Did a quick detour to check my email because my laptop is currently being fixed, and put ‘the longing’ cd on the playlist… pacing up and down, I found Jesus in a way that I don’t find him all that often. Nothing big or organised… just me, and he came to hang out with me.

It was good. I want more moments like this.

Twenty interns, two internships… and a busy me…

As might have been noticed by my blogging silence over the last few weeks, my schedule suddenly got hectic and I haven’t had a lot of time to blog. I haven’t had a lot of time to do anything really.

The internships kicked off on Sunday 17 February in the evening… Kristen (who ran the first internships here) came up from Nelson and spoke at the service and to the interns during the week… we prayed for them and commissioned them as interns. First week was orientation and then matters of the heart… I covered the basics of prayer and fasting with the interns, and also co-led the ‘confessions’ class. (For those from YWAM, better known as repentance and forgiveness week.) Week two and three are still matters of the heart… Kirk spoke on brokenness, Ps. Seth spoke on deliverance and freedom, and we just had Kristen back for a couple of days speaking on the foundations of prayer and worship.

I’m with the day interns most of the time… and 2 or 3 out of the 4 nocturnal sessions. In the midst of this I’m still trying to oversee the prayer room, alongside working at starbucks, so its been pretty busy. That explains my silence.

I have a class coming up in two weeks which I need to prepare for… it takes me a fairly long time to write a class that I’m happy with and confident in presenting… even though this one will only be an hour long. I haven’t had a lot of speaking experience, but I want to honour these interns and do this thing well. My next class is on Jesus… and Old Testament prophecy about Jesus… good times, good times.