Today our Wheels for the World team heads off to a new country – the nation of Brazil – where we will be ministering among the poorest disabled people in that South American nation… delivering Bibles and wheelchairs and sharing the love of Jesus.
But you know what? Evangelism on a Wheels for the World trip happens not only the day we distribute wheelchairs and hand out Bibles, no, not at all. Our mindset on a Joni and Friends ministry trip is sharing Christ all the time. I'm thinking of…
Anika. I was in Germany having returned from Bosnia where we gave wheelchairs and Bibles to disabled people in that country. Anyway, Anika was our German shuttle bus driver who carted us and our luggage from the Munich airport to our hotel. As we pulled away from the curbside, I said, “Anika, we’re going to pray here in the back seat. But you’re driving, so don’t close your eyes!” The look she gave us in the rearview mirror said it all: You people are odd. We were wonderful examples of 1 Peter 2:9, “…a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.”
But it’s the odd things that stick in your mind. And sometimes your heart. Because the next morning when Anika loaded us up to take us back to the airport, she thanked us after we prayed out loud for her (we also interceded for her live-in boyfriend, as well as her parents, whom she hadn’t seen for years). When we said goodbye, she commented with wet eyes, “I like you people. There’s something about you that makes me happy. I wish I could go with you.”
That’s when I said, “Anika, you can. One of these days we’re going to lift off, and we’ll go higher than any airplane could ever take us. We’re going to heaven and I hope you’ll join us. Because this life is all about following Jesus Christ.” Anika smiled and then we had to rush off – with a Joni book in her hands, we were one more stepping-stone in her long journey which, I’m convinced, will land her in heaven.
You know, this week in Brazil our Wheels for the World teams will be giving the Gospel point-by-point, slowly and patiently. But sometimes, like in the case of Anika at the German airport, evangelism doesn’t mean delivering the whole Gospel message at a curbside, and asking for a response before they take your luggage to the airplane. Everything we say or do that moves an individual one step closer to Jesus and salvation is evangelism. And allowing our joy in Christ to just spill over and splash on others is as powerful a witness as a three-point sermon. Ask God to fill you with His joy today and pray for the opportunity to move at least one person at least one step closer to heaven!
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JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 93176
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