Sometimes, sharing the gospel is hard, and sometimes it isn’t. Last week on Tuesday, my friend Sarah and I went down to IUPUI to do just that. (And what or where is IUPUI, you might be asking?–it is Indiana U and Purdue combined onto one campus in Indianapolis.)
We took a survey with us to help guide our conversation: Questions like What three words best describe your life; or Rate your desire to know God 1-10. The first girl we talked to was Jackie. Her desire to know God was a very low 1. She didn’t believe there was a God, and thought that the idea of God was something we thought up and would “evolve” out of. It was a very real, yet disheartening conversation for us.
Sarah and I continued on after praying for her and ended up talking to four spirited girls, Katie, Jennifer, Chelsea, and Colleen. They were nursing students and appeared to be good friends. We went through the survey with them, giving each a chance to answer. One of the questions asks “what do you believe happens after death?” That spurred on quite a discussion, a lot of it involving the ideas of getting to heaven through doing good things and being a good person. When asked to rate their desire to know God, we had a range all the way from 10 down to six. It was such a fun time to talk with them. Sarah then transitioned to sharing the “would you like to know God personally” booklet. We handed one to each girl and Sarah read through it. They really understood it and were following along through the booklet. When we got to the end, we talked about whether they would want to have Christ be a part of their lives. And while they were very interested, they weren’t quite ready to make such a commitment. Sarah encouraged them to think deeper about it and to not put off such a decision. We really enjoyed our time with them, and was a blessing!
Please pray for Jackie–that the Lord would touch her life and she would see him in his glory. Pray for Katie, Jennifer, Chelsea, and Colleen that God will continue to pursue them and bring them to himself. Pray that our conversations would simply move all of them closer to God.
Sarah and I will be back on campus every Tuesday. Pray for us, too!
John & Kristin Madeja 