Unexpected Blessings

I know that it’s been a while since i wrote one of these. We’ve been doing a lot for the past few weeks and I honestly completely forgot about my blog. Just as a quick update, me and the guys of my squad just got back two days ago from Kentucky after a week of working with Samaritans Purse. We helped build and finish houses that are being made as a result of a massive tornado that struck the town 2 years ago. The week was great and allowed for amazing brotherly bonding, as well as feeling incredibly good to be put to physical work. But that aside, it honestly was just that, a good week. Not a bad week and not a fantastic week, but a good week.

Now that I’ve shared a bit of that I’ll move on to the part that I’m really excited to share. The week before last we focused on community outreach. Monday we did street evangelism, Tuesday was Yard work, Wednesday we helped around campus, and Thursday we did some more street evangelism.

The highlights of the week were definitely on both days of street evangelism. The first day I was grouped with Ben and Doug, and we were dropped off in the town square. From there we kinda just wandered around the town asking God to provide an opportunity and he did. The three of us went into a gas station and as we walked in I noticed a man sitting outside. I was immediately drawn to him and so as we were leaving I simply approached him and struck up conversation. He was really open and expressed his circumstance of homelessness. I ended up sitting with him and just trying to get to know him and I learned a lot about him. The topic of Christ and religion got brought up at some point and it was a blessing from God allowing me to share the truth of the Gospel with this man. By the end of it we had been talking for almost almost an hour and I was allowed to encourage him in pursuing Christ. We closed out with a prayer and continued about our day feeling filled with the spirit and with joy in our steps.
The second day of evangelism we ended up driving about an hour out to a small town called Helen. Undenounced to us there was an October fest being hosted that week and so the streets were full of people. The town was themed after a German style town and there were bars on every block full of tourists and locals. This day I was paired with Malachi and the two of us began to just wander the streets in search of available people. For a while nothing seemed to be coming up as everyone there was either busy or in deep conversation so we wandered into a few stores and just looked around. A little bit later we were walking up the main street saw a street musician in the middle of his song. Immediately the both of us mentioned him and we simply stood by in conversation just waiting for a chance to talk with the man. Yet again the Lord provided a golden opportunity as we watched and saw him begin to pack up his guitar and immediately the two of us moved in. His name was Bobby Wesley and it was such a joy and blessing being able to speak with him. We started off with casual conversation, talking about music and then him sharing about his life as a musician and his daughter who races. He was so happy to have people to share with and have them listen so that alone was amazing to see, but to make the situation better he allowed for us to pray for him and afterwards revealed that he too was a fellow believer and even began to share his testimony. it was so amazing to not just be an encouragement to him as we shared about our mission, but he encouraged the two of us so much with his testimony and years of wisdom.
Both of these encounters were so random and unexpected and that is what makes them so amazing. I praise God for using me in his works and I pray that he continue to bless me with opportunities to serve his kingdom