week 3 - evangelism

2 Timothy 4:5 – “But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”


Week three’s theme was evangelism, and we started it off with a talk from our director, Neil Kring, on Monday night. In talking about evangelism, we were certainly challenged to remember that we are not just here at LT for ourselves, but for a mission as well! 1 Peter 1:3 says that we are born again to a living hope… if we lived that out daily, how would we act differently to our friends, family, co-workers, even ourselves? Neil’s talk revolved around the inspiring story of George Whitfield, from which we learned a lot. First, revival can happen! What an encouraging thought to remember and something that I certainly pray for on the campus of Virginia Tech. Second, the message is certainly not contained to the four walls of the church – it’s everywhere in the world. His story definitely made me ask the question “Where’s my passion?” .

On Tuesday night, we had Troy Smith, a former Virginia Tech football player who is now a pastor in Virginia Beach, come in to talk and share his story with us. He also talked about what he called “practical evangelism”: “practical”, meaning concerned with actual use, guided by experience) and “evangelism”, meaning the practice of relaying information about Christianity and who Jesus Christ is. He said that practical evangelism starts with being real and honest about who you are (in Christ) and sharing it... no matter who, what, when or where. He also said that evangelism cannot fit into a certain formula. You also won’t always have immediate results, but you never know what seeds you may sow!

On Project Day, we went and did service at Troy’s church of renovation, organization, and cleaning… including knocking out walls and throwing old AC units out the window into the dumpsters! Haha. We also had 2 hours of quiet time with God, a testimony sharing practice session split up by schools, and then evangelism on the boardwalk at Virginia Beach. We did the evangelism by doing the interviews with people like we did in Week One, and then if they gave us permission to do so, one of us sharing our testimony of faith with the people we were talking to. We went out in groups of threes, and the first person my group meet was a wonderful lady named Pauline, who was a Christian and very encouraging to us! Quotes from Pauline: “The greatest joy you can know is knowing Christ” and “The Christian walk is not an easy walk”. Then we also got the opportunity to talk to 4 different girl students, 2 in college and 2 in high school. It was so interesting to talk to them about how it’s about a relationship with Christ, not just going through the motions or how often you go to church, like the girls thought. It’s life-changing and purpose giving!

One other cool fact about this week: at work I’ve been able to meet a number of different adopted orphans from different countries in the kid’s camp and listen to their AMAZING stories. It was such a blessing to get to play with and give love to all of them, especially these 3 little Chinese girls who all had special needs. They were all precious and wonderful. It’s definitely been an experience that has fueled my heart for orphans around the world even more.