On Saturday, Feb. 9, we were blessed to organize an evangelistic outreach project with other missionaries in our city, our church Biserica Agapia, and another local church Biserica Isus Mantuitorul. A few months ago, we received some candy/granola bars from friends and family in America (THANK YOU!). Altogether, there were about 30 of us (Romanians and Americans), and our schedule was as follows:
12 - 1 PM: Wrap gospel message on the candy bars, which included John 3:16, the location of our church, and an email address for prayer requests
1 - 4 PM: Go out into different locations around the city center in teams of 2-3 people to conduct spiritual surveys, giving the candy/granola bar as a "thank you for taking the survey"
4 - 5 PM: Debrief/share stories/eat pizza
Also, at 6 PM, some of us went to Isus Mantuitorul's evening youth service. Cameron shared a few words of encouragement from the Bible, and Jessica sang a song in Romanian.
Cameron and Jessica were on different teams, so here are some of our thoughts from the project:
Jessica: For the spiritual surveys, I went to a high-traffic area above a metro station with a Romanian girl and a woman from Serbia who speaks English. As we were riding the metro to get there, we decided that we would take turns conducting the survey, and we would ask people if it was ok if we conducted the survey in English with translation or if they would prefer to do it only in Romanian. We mostly approached people who were standing around, because we discovered that people who were walking didn't want to stop. Because of that, with most people, we were only able to talk to them for the length of one cigarette they were smoking or until a friend came that they were waiting for. Because our conversations were mostly short, we were able to talk to 15 people in about 2 1/2 hours, when our original goal was 5 spiritual conversations. Most people were polite and answered our questions and were even willing to listen to us share our testimony, but they didn't seem to be very interested in further conversation. They appreciated the American candy, of course. For me, the funniest moment was when a young guy came up to us and asked in perfect English, "Can I take the spiritual survey?" At first I was shocked, then I looked behind me and realized he was friends with a couple of guys who had just taken the survey....he just wanted some American candy. It was pretty funny. Most of the people we talked to were not interested in spiritual things much at all, so please pray that God will touch their hearts. I'm glad that we got the opportunity to make them think about God. One young man who was an atheist has done a lot of research about different religions, and he was interested in talking more, so my Romanian friend is planning to call him. One of the coolest things about it was that both of the girls who were with me said that they really enjoyed it and that we should do it more often. :)
Cameron: Yesterday was easily one of the most encouraging days I have had since we arrived in October. I was on a survey team with two Romanian guys, one who shares his faith often and one who is fairly shy. My team went into a park close to where we all originally met, thinking that we might be able to have some good conversations with folks sitting on benches and strolling through the park (although it was pretty chilly outside, there were a few people sitting around). We had 5 long spiritual conversations, with a Muslim medical student, a middle-aged businessman, a girl in her upper-twenties who described herself as a "Christian seeker," a homeless woman who was delighted that someone wanted to talk and pray with her, and an educated Romanian man who listened to our testimonies politely and then went back to his Rudyard Kipling novel. After I shared with the first guy, my Romanian friends became more emboldened and even my shy friend was sharing his testimony like a pro by the third conversation! It was awesome to see Romanians sharing the Gospel with Romanians, instead of simply thinking that their job would simply be to translate for the American. All except the Rudyard Kipling fan gave us their contact information - one person requested a Bible, one said he would be open to future conversations, and one said they would do their best to come check out our church. As we were walking back at 4 PM, one of the Romanian guys in my group exclaimed, "Man, there is so much need around us. I can't believe that, for so long, we have just stayed in our nice churches instead of getting out here...that is not what the Bible teaches."
Altogether, we had at least 80 spiritual conversations and 27 people were interested in further conversation and gave us their contact information!
We did not take any pictures during the spiritual surveys, because we did not want to make anyone feel uncomfortable talking to us. However, we did take pictures before and after:
Before: wrapping the candy/granola bars
After: sharing stories from our experiences
The whole group after the outreach project
Cameron speaking at Biserica Isus Mantuitorul
Jessica leading "Maret Salvator" (Mighty to Save) at Isus Mantuitorul
Cameron preaching Sunday morning, Feb. 10, at Biserica Agapia (with our pastor Beni translating). He spoke from John 4, where Jesus says that true worshipers will worship in spirit ("duh") and in truth ("adevar").
