Evangelism is My Favorite Part! Millions of Stories, but Here is the Beginning of One Unfinished!

Do what the Father says to do.
With work, church leaders, family, friends, acquaintances, government, and all of the other responsibilities of life, how does one know what to do or when it’s ok to rest? Why are so many Christians so strung out on busyness that they don’t have enough time for life changing time with God, memory making with loved ones, unrushed, loving relationships with lost people, and more of the truly important things in life?

While studying the gospels these last 3 months I've noticed that though Jesus could have always preached one more sermon, or healed one more sick person, or put one more self-righteous religous person in his place, He said that He only came to do what the Father told him to do.
I would like to follow in His footsteps.

"Weird Request" aka "Chance to See God Work at the Most Unexpected Time"
Today the Lord led me to do something strange. I was walking along the orla and saw a woman straddling the sea wall whose face looked completely hardened and bitter. My heart was filled with compassion for her as I passed by and began to pray that God would intervene in her life. All of a sudden scriptures that I’ve read and learned from lately began to flood my mind and I knew I was to turn around and speak to this woman.

As I headed back in her direction I began to think “What am I doing? I don’t speak Portuguese!” But that was a lie…a justification for aborting this mission, so I continued her way, only by faith and fear of the Lord. I will tell her the phrase that Pastor Jefferson tells me almost every day when I’m working with he and Deborah I thought! So I came from behind her, being mindful not to startle her, touched her shoulder, looked her in her one seeing eye and said “Jesus ti ama”, which means “Jesus loves you”. She looked at me kind of puzzled and I walked away briskly to make sure my heartrate didn’t descend (I was of course exercising).

Well, guess what? Though my tennis shoes were taking me further and further away, my spirit was stirred again and God helped me understand that His work was not finished! Now this time I came up with every possible excuse, but could not shake the confidence that I was being disobedient and merely satisfied with a Christian-seeming gesture. So I got honest with God about my feelings and asked Him what I should do. Looking back into the distance I saw her get up and begin walking my direction. If she indeed came all of this way, how would I wait without looking strange? "Water" I thought. I’d take a casual water break!

I crossed the street and purchased a bottle of water from a stand, but no, I was compelled to buy two! When I turned around to see how close she was, I was surprised to find that she was actually crossing the street towards me. “This is it, oh God help me” I said with peace and excitement in my heart. I offered her a bottle of cool water and asked her name. “Sonya” she said. Then, I asked her every question I know in Portuguese and she took off telling me about all kinds of things as we walked along the busy road towards both of our neighborhoods.

So there I was, strolling down a busy street in full on conversation with this random lady, and I’m talking in sentences I’ve never really formed before and understanding everything she’s telling me. We talked about her sons, husband, grandson, my family, and work here in Brazil, and how I should be careful walking around by myself due to crime, etc. We walked and walked until we reached her neighborhood. She asked if I walked there every day and I decided that sure, I could start walking in the evenings instead of mornings, and said yes (on second thought it's not really possible because I get home from working at the Jefferson's at sundown...what was I thinking?). She said she would look for me in the near future. I am so excited and anticipating what the Lord has planned for my last 3 weeks here! This is exactly how many friendships with unbelievers have begun here. Isn't God's pursuit of the lost neat?

Update on Surf Instructor!!
I also ran into the guy that gave me a free surfing lesson several weeks ago! He originally turned down the Book of Luke, in Portuguese, that I offered him, but today he asked me if I would give it to him after all because he’d been thinking!!! Oh my dear Lord you are sooo cool!

God's Perfect Protection
I spoke to a few others along my path and enjoyed watching the gigantic sun sink into the ocean (this was my first sunset to see in Salvador and it was spectacular). Another cool thing about my walk with this woman is that I ended up on the opposite side of the road from where I usually walk home. It’s a very good thing because two groups of young men got into a big fight right where I would have been walking. I hid behind a light pole and prayed for safety until they were done socking each other with fists and threatening to throw one guy over the high sea wall to crash down on the jagged rocks. I was so thankful to have the Lord with me. I asked Him to make me invisible to bad guys and continued home. A minute later I saw one group of guys returning to start things up with the others, only this time they had long pieces of wood in hand. Man! <---Oh yeah, I think I need a man. ;-) Thankfully the continued grace and protection of God is mine while I am single (and there after too).