Dear Saints,
Can God use High Schoolers to reach out to the world for Jesus Christ? You better believe He can!!! And it’s very exciting!!!
For the sixth year, I had the honor to teach twice-per week through the month of January an Evangelism Class at Jesse Remington High School, a local Christian High School.
Do 14-17-year-olds have the spiritual and emotional maturity to take in the deluge of information I wanted to share with them? Would these kids be able to handle it?
I was astonished EVERY class at how mature the students were. They paid excellent attention. They participated in the discussions so well! They asked great questions. It was sooooo encouraging!
And I think I may have titled this post incorrectly. These Teens really aren’t “Next-Generation” Evangelists. They’re “NOW” Evangelists! They’re ready to be used by the King of kings immediately!!!
I know what you’re thinking… “What good is learning head-knowledge if you don’t put it into practice?” Right???
That’s why I’m soooo thankful that the school allowed the students to miss a day and go down to Boston to evangelize in the Subway down there. You never know what will happen, but with God’s help, these Teens did GREAT!
I really wanted the kids to see for themselves that they can ignore the following lies from the enemy:
- Nobody is interested in talking about Jesus and eternity.
- They really need to keep their Christianity to themselves.
- Stranger Evangelism doesn’t work.
- God only uses “professional” Christians, not them.
- They need years of training to be used by God.
All of these are lies, and the Teens experienced for themselves that strangers really do stop to listen, they really do stop to talk, they really do take Gospel Booklets, and Bibles, and that Jesus really does use any of us for His Kingdom!
The students were soooo excited! A few of them got to talk for a while with a Muslim. And one of the students is fluent in Spanish and was sooooo happy that she got to share Christ in Spanish with a Spanish-speaking woman!!!
I’ll let the photos show you what happened…
The Evangelism Students saw that strangers really will take Gospel booklets from them. The 7 highschoolers gave away hundreds of booklets. HUNDREDS! Just imagine if even just a small percentage are read and considered. Wow! God using kids for his kingdom! Woo hoo!!!
A young man took a booklet from "B." See? Easy-peasy!
These are the booklets we hand out in the subway. The easiest booklet I've ever used to start a conversation. When someone asks "What is it?" you just read to them the title. "Where will you spend eternity?" And then you ask, "You ever think about that?" And you're off!
Handing out booklets often leads to conversations. When this man stopped to talk, "E" and "K" skillfully shared Jesus with him.
A stranger gladly receives a gospel booklet from "B."
Chris gave a terrific open-air Gospel message. And the students got to see that strangers really do stop to listen. And many take Bibles from us afterwards!
A Mom stopped to take a booklet from C.
This woman speaks Albanian. Chris gave her a Gospel booklet in her own language and she was so happy! She stared reading it out loud in Albanian right on the spot. It's good to be able to carry around 30 languages with us. Praise God!
Much to my surprise, 15-year-old C mustered the courage to address the people waiting for their trains, and she competently shared the Gospel Message in the open air. I was sooo proud of her! She skillfully presented the great news with clarity and love.
People even come on bikes to talk!
Could anyone really say "no" to taking a booklet from these kiddos???
After our evangelism, I took the kiddos to the GREATEST of all restaurants in Boston. The Falafel King. AMAZING!!! To my horror, some of the kids preferred to go to Chipotle. That's actually crazy. Teenagers!
The handout for one of my favorite of the 7 lessons. This is when we go over the "Theology" of Evangelism. Specifically the purpose of God's Law to prepare hearts for GRACE. Grace truly is amazing, and the Law prepares us for it!
It was the students' idea to take a photo of their feet looking like a heart. This was their way of expressing Romans 10:15: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" Aren't they clever!?!?!?!
The students learned the fun sport of "Train Surfing" where you stand on the subway train as it barrels around the Boston underground, and try not to fall on your face.
I don't think these kids get to go to the city much, do you???
These are the awesome Evangelism Students I got to teach. From left to right: F, A, E, K, A, C, B, and me.
It seemed to me that these kiddos couldn't go ANYWHERE without stopping for selfies. hahaha. Teens!
So this was fun... before we even got out of our small NH town, we saw a dog walking along all by himself. So we approached and saw he had a collar with his name and phone number. The dog's name is Dennis, by the way, and he was super friendly!!! "K" called the phone number on Dennis' collar so we could bring him back to his owner.
Dennis jumped right into our van so we could drive him home. Isn't he handsome!!! We didn't want to give him up, and the kids talked about him all day!!!
Bottom line, these young men and women learned that God can use them to make an eternal difference. And they need to hear that and believe it, because the world is hammering them with lies to the contrary.
On the ride down I played for them the testimony of “The Man from George Street.” Have you heard of that? It’s super powerful and illustrates how God can use our meager “loaves and fishes” to do great things for His glory!
If you’ve never heard about the “Man from George Street,” or even if you have, please check out this short video…
To watch this video, either click on the video thumbnail above, or you can watch it directly on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/9rm9btmJavU.
I praise God for this opportunity to partner with the Christian School to spend time teaching these young people how to make Evangelism part of their life. Hallelujah!
If anyone wants me to provide similar training for your group, please contact me so we can chat about it.
Jesus is STILL seeking and saving the Lost, and He’s still using you and me, and that’s exciting!
I pray that you’ll be as encouraged as we are!!!
We love you and thank God for you! Please contact us (603-244-6292) anytime with questions, concerns, or to let us know how we can pray for you!
Thank you so much for your prayers, financial support, and notes of encouragement, without which we would not be able to reach the Lost for Jesus Christ!
If you pray, donate, volunteer, or tell others about our ministry, then you are reaching people for Christ through us. Thank you for your commitment to this ministry!
Please feel free to forward this to anyone you think would be blessed by it!
All for Jesus,
Mark, Shelby, Vivienne, Juliana, Caleb, and Gabriella
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