For the past four months I have been part of a small church plant in the United States of America, and every week I had have the privilege of hearing testimony after testimony of the amazing work God is doing through this small local church.
Hearing these stories always serves to encourage me, and grow my faith, for God can do through each one of us.
As such, from now on, this column is going to be the mouthpiece for the expression of these stories. May they encourage and strengthen you to step out in faith in your own life and see the hand of God move mightily.
The story of today
The story of today is simple. It is about compassion. I'll tell you upfront – there isn't a miraculous healing in this story. No legs grew out, or bones were healed on the spot (though I fully believe that God is willing and able to do miracles of that nature).
Today, we evangelised on the local university campus. We broke up in teams of 3 and 4, waited on God for words and encouragements for people, and then went out to share the love of God.
Through this experience, I learned what is perhaps the most important lesson of evangelism: the lesson of compassion.
It is not lengthy, nor is it complex.
The lesson is this: no matter what you say to someone or what they believe to be true, when you evangelise (i.e. share your faith with someone) the most important ingredient is felt compassion.
Even if they do not receive your message, they cannot help but be impacted by being loved with no strings attached.
Tina Hakimi is an Arizonian- Australian writer. She would love to drink a proper cappuccino at some point in the near future, but is hindered by her current planting in American soil. She enjoys writing as her only creative outlet, because unfortunately the Lord has not blessed her with a voice to sing (what she wishes could have been her creative outlet).
Tina Hakimi's previous articles may be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/tina-hakimi.html