Using What I’ve Got

As followers of Jesus, we know that we have been commissioned to go and share the Gospel. But does it ever feel hard to do that? Do you ever feel like if you only had more training, knew the Bible better, or met someone who seemed interested then you could share the Gospel? In this video, Gavin found himself in this exact scenario, watch and see how he responded.

Click below to watch the video and view study guide.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

So the first day we learned how to greet people and how to say, "My name is," by our little notebook. We would literally use what we learned and go out after our hour lesson.

And could you use those phrases?

Depending on the notebook, where just about every phrase I'd ever learned in Arabic.

I had written out in the notebook what we call the Three Circles presentation, a gospel presentation that takes about three minutes.

And I was walking through its park and I saw a guy on a bench and I just walked up and asked, “Can I sit down?"

And so I sat there for probably 20 minutes just practicing some basic Arabic stuff. And I remember at one point thinking, "That's about all I have. I should probably get going and leave this guy to his peace and quiet."

But I think it was the Spirit prompted me, "Well, why don't you see if he'd be willing to read through the gospel with you. You've got it right there in your notebook."

And I asked him in Arabic, "Would it be okay if I share a little bit with you about what I believe?"

And so I started reading, but this Arabic was a little bit too advanced for me. So I was butchering it terribly. And he was correcting me because it was written there in Arabic.

He didn't speak any English, but he was able to make out my chicken scratch Arabic. And he essentially ended up reading the gospel to himself, which was pretty cool.

I wasn't sure what to do. I was kind of excited that that had just happened. So I pulled out my phone and pulled up the Bible app. I have the local dialect.

So we turned to Mark 2, read the story of the paralytic, and asked him if he had ever heard that. He'd never heard that story before. He really liked it.

And I didn't really know where else to go from here.

Gavin reached out to me and said, "Hey, I met this guy. He seems really open and he seems really interested."

He goes, "But I don't really have a lot of language." I said, "Well, how do you know he seems really open and interested if you're not?"

He goes, "Well, I'm using what I got.”

The first meeting for coffee." I asked Abdu, "Do you want to believe this?" He said, "No, I need to read the whole book. I need to read the whole Bible before I make this kind of a decision."

I didn't want to put any pressure on him. I was backing off. I wasn't going to ask the question, but it just felt, again, the Lord was really pursuing him. I got up. I used the bathroom, took a break, just took a moment to pray.

He returned and Gavin turned to me and said, "Hey, I think I just said in the local language, do you want to believe and follow Jesus as your Lord and Savior?" And I think he said, "Yes."

So I said, "Abdu'l, did Gavin just ask you something?"

He says, “He asked me if I wanted to believe Jesus as God and I said, yes, I don't need to read the whole book. I don't need to read the whole Bible. I get it. I understand that Jesus is God." And that he died for me.

I asked him the next several weeks, like, what do you notice is different?  How, how does it feel like?

And he would over and over say, I just feel this lightness. There's this weight that's just no longer there. I feel so much joy, so much peace.

It wasn't surprising. We know that the Lord we serve is a great God, and He's working in this country, and to see someone come to faith is, it doesn't surprise us.

I think a lot of times we think that it depends on us. It depends on our language ability. It depends on how much I know about the Bible, and the Lord really uses anyone who uses your faithfulness and your obedience.

I would say, never minimize what the Lord can do through you and in you. And maybe He's speaking to you now and saying, "Come!"

Sharing stories of God’s redemptive work all over Africa in the hopes of seeing Christ-centered, reproducing, culturally-appropriate churches formed among African Peoples.

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