Street Evangelism... part 1 Copyright © by Koffi Amouzouvi of Lumanas Media Ministries
It all began near the end of the year 2004. The previous year, the
year 2003, I wasn’t really living for Jesus, I still loved him and
went to Church, however I was still a lukewarm Christian. I barely
knew the word of God at that time and didn’t know, you can actually
have relationship with our creator God, our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ and our comforter and teacher, the Holy Spirit.
But in the beginning of 2004 when I started to slowly get back to
serving the Lord more effectively, I start attending church more
regularly and bible studies to get more of the word in my spirit.
So at this point I started going to church and bible study about 4
to 5 times a week including my regular Sunday services.
So in about the middle of the year 2004, I have grown so much
spiritually, that people around me could barely recognize me. Some
of my old friends that I used to hang around with at the bars were
even shocked and thought that I was in a cult. But I would always
explain to him or anyone else that asks me about my faith, as not
being a religion or a cult but being a relationship with God the
father, God the son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit. And I would
explain to them, they’re all in unity as one God, because there’s
only one God in this universe.
So I started to share some of my testimonies about what God has
done in my life so far, and this was prior to hitting the streets
to start sharing my faith with the team of other experience street
Evangelists.
So as I meat new friends in the Church and bible studies to hang
around with and share the goodness of God and to fellowship with,
my faith grew considerable. Knowing that one of the best ways to
grow your faith is to hear other people’s testimonies.
One of my friends even wanted me to get baptized in water. However,
I explained to him that my parents, have already baptized me, when
I was a baby. So he furthermore explained to me that, that wasn’t
real water baptism, that it was just a small sprinkling of water on
the head. You need to be baptized in water, full emersion just like
Jesus in the Jordan river. So I continued to argue with him saying,
“I feel uncomfortable being baptized in front of 2,000 people!”,
“And besides my mother already said that she baptized me when I was
a baby in Africa!”
So he continued to explain to me that, that wasn’t real water
baptism, it’s only a sprinkling of water on your forehead. So he
finally convince me to go get baptize in water and some of my other
friends also wanted to get baptized with me, so that encouraged me
a lot.
However little did I know that this simple act of water baptism,
was going to totally change my life, and prepare me for Street
Ministry and Street Evangelism.
However even before I got baptized in water, we did a little bible
study on baptism in the Holy Ghost, and I actually got baptize in
the Holy Ghost. That same night, after the teaching, I went into my
room and started to pray, then all of a sudden I felt a strong
presence of the Holy Ghost, then I started praying a few words in
tongues, then tears started pouring out of my eyes. I didn’t know
what to do or think, so I continued to pray in tongues and I felt
very edified.
Therefore I did receive the Holy Spirit Baptism even before water
baptism, so that was very special. And by the way, not to freak
anyone out, who doesn’t understand the concept of the Holy Spirit
Baptism, it does line up with scripture in the bible in Act chapter
2:4
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak
with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
I believe there was a time before I got baptized in water when I
went out street ministry with a group of people from the church… It
was a Sunday night when we went out for the first time in my
neighbourhood of Osborne Village. I was very nervous, because I’ve
never gone to share my faith on the streets before. And to make
matters worst, when one of the people heard that we were going for
street evangelism, he told us not to, and advised against it. Well
I guess he probably had a terrible experience in the past when
someone threatened his life. So I did become somewhat terrified.
However one of the people in our group had at least 10 years of
experience doing street evangelism, so I felt secure to learn from
him and just watched him to see how he and all the other people who
had experience do it.
So we went out that same night, it was about 8 of us, enough to
make the devil and heathens panic and tremble. So I started seeing
how they did it, and how easy it was to just talk to people. So I
started to talk to people, and started to feel more comfortable. I
had a lot of people say, “no, no, no!” I didn’t get anybody saved
that day, but the good news was that, while we were out there
witnessing, the area became very, very peaceful, as though the drug
dealers and all the others who were in darkness sense the light of
Jesus and couldn’t stand it, and all took off from the vicinity. It
was so amazing that I even started to enjoy what God was doing the
streets so far.
Another time when we went out street witnessing was on a Saturday,
and it was in the downtown area of out city. I got an opportunity
to witness to one of my friends I used to hang out with at the
bars. But the bad news was I was still very lukewarm at the time
and still went out to the bars to drink, once in a while. And that
same night at the bar I meat the same friend that I witnessed to 10
hours before. Now he made me look very stupid and called me a
hypocrite, “preaching that I should stop sinning and follow Jesus,
but hear you are sinning with me!” So I felt really bad that night
and decided to maybe stop going to the bars once in for all, but I
didn’t know how, it was too addictive, I mean the drinks, the
women, the music, it was too addictive to stop.
Then the day finally arrived when I got baptized in water. It was
about early August 2004. I’ll never forget that day, because that
day totally changed my life… I started to take my Christian walk
more seriously.
I remembered that same night, I arrived at home, I felt very
different, I felt more like a born again child. I was even more
excited to read the children bible comic stories and stared at the
pictures like a little child. Wow, was I changed for the better.
And for some reason, I no longer had the desire to go back to the
bars to get drunk and make a fool out of myself and be called a
hypocrite.
Then Later on that year, I believe it was September 2004, I got an
opportunity to go out and minister the Gospel out in the streets in
my nationhood once again. I was still very nervous and just
couldn’t lead anybody to say the sinner’s prayer. But then one of
my friends assisted me into leading the sinner’s prayer for someone
else who got saved to give me more experience. However, I was still
hungry to do it on my own.
Then I believe it was near the end of November, 2004 which was
definitely the highlight of my entire year, when my Youth Pastor at
my church planned a weekend retreat at the nearest Holiday Inn
Hotel.
During the retreat, there was a special speaker that came in that
weekend and spoke about dreams. And most of it was geared to hopes
and dreams that God put’s on people’s hearts. I know I’m going a
little bit off topic, but I need to share this with you, I’m so
excited about it, and because it really encouraged me that weekend.
So he talked about dreams, and used Walt Disney as an example, and
at that point my ears were really wide open, because I did get
inspired by Walt Disney’s work, and I remembered having a similar
dream like his.
So that encouraged me, but things even get better because, that was
the same weekend when I felt a strong presence of the Holy Spirit
for the first time ever in my life. The Special speaker prayed over
me, I went down on the floor and felt the Holy Spirit like a cool
breeze that was so overwhelming that I was literally almost
shivering on the floor. However, at the same time, I felt so much
peace around me.
Then I believe it was later on that night, I went to sleep in my
hotel room, and I had, I believe it was a prophetic dream that the
Holy Spirit gave to me that night. And in the dream, I actually
went out to do street evangelism and lead 2 people to the Lord. I
was so excited even in the dream, and couldn’t wait to share it
with my bible study group.
Unfortunately, I awakened from the dream, and found out that it was
only a dream, so I was a little bit disappointed. However I didn’t
know that it was a prophetic dream, because after I started hitting
the streets in the early part of the year 2005, I’ve been leading
an average of 2 people to the Lord, some days 3 and other days even
5. I was so shocked, I won’t go into detail about it now, but
definitely in my next street evangelism article, because it get’s
better and better.
Koffi Amouzouvi is the Author of LumanusMedia.com
with the Next Christian Fantasy Story Books, Music
and more to Increase Faith in Jesus! So visit:
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