Is where we introduce listeners to people who have found their way out of the dark shadows of life and back to light and those who lead others on their journey from darkness to light.
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Marlene, author and conference director, has dedicated her life to empowering writers to share the gospel. Her latest work, Write and Live His Answer NOW: Encouragement to Impact Our Culture released on Amazon in September. Join us as Marlene discusses a timely message about how we can share the truth in love about difficult topics impacting our culture and motivates us to action through our daily interactions with family, friends, and others we encounter on a daily basis.
IT IS MY PLEASURE TO WELCOME AMANDA WILTON TO PATTI’S PORCH. AMANDA SHARES HER INSPIRING STORY OF WHAT HER DAUGHTER TAUGHT HER ABOUT EVANGELISM.
THE COMMAND TO “GO,” A TEENAGER, AND A MIDDLE-AGED MOM
by
Amanda M. Wilton
Evangelism scares me. Because it scares me, I have not done much of it in the 34 years I have been a Christian. I rationalize this by telling myself things like, “I just don’t know many non-Christians,” or “It’s better to build relationship with someone before I spring Jesus on them.” However, my carefully constructed attitude on this subject was single-handedly dismantled by my 13-year-old daughter this summer.
“Mom!” she whispered excitedly to me that Sunday during announcements at church.
“Look! It’s a mission’s trip to New York City! We have to go!
With fear in my heart, but a smile on my face, I turned to Michaela and replied half-heartedly, “Yeah, wow, that sounds…interesting.”
Fast-forward several months later, as my daughter and I carried our weary bodies off the plane returning home from our trip. She not only convinced me to go to New York, but also demonstrated courage and boldness for Christ while there. I am so thankful that the Lord never stops molding us into who he has for us to be–and uses our kids to humble us!
New York City is home to more than 180 people groups from over 65 different countries, making it a microcosm of the world. Michaela and I were blessed to visit the “city that never sleeps” as a mother-daughter team for Jesus. Each day began in worship, prayer and teaching. Next, our teams split up to head into the city for a day full of ministry. This included prayer teams, worldview surveys, sharing testimony and feeding the hungry. Throughout it all our goal was to spread the love of Christ as we ministered, have Spirit-directed conversations and share the Good News.
God blew away every assumption I held about evangelism and himself while on this adventure. I assumed New York would be a cold, hard, godless place, uninterested in discussing the Lord Jesus. How wrong we were. Michaela and I had many conversations with people that were hungry to talk about the Gospel, open to hearing Truth, desiring to engage in respectful conversation. What has become a pivotal moment in my faith journey is when I met a Pakistani Muslim woman, while we were distributing food.
Dressed in traditional Muslim attire, I immediately assumed there would be no chance of a Gospel moment with a woman so very different from me. But all praise to my Lord Jesus Christ, I was so very wrong. This sweet woman shared she was in a difficult domestic situation. She felt despair and was in need. When she said to me, “I feel as though there is a bad girl living inside me. The things I want so badly to do – I do not. And yet, the things I do not want to do, I do,”
I realized God was inviting me to step into a Holy Spirit moment. I shared Romans 7:18-19 (ESV), “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing…”
Her eyes got large, and she exclaimed, “This is exactly what I am saying! So, what can we possibly do?” I then shared 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV), “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
Hope welled up in her eyes, as she pointed out this was saying all the bad things she has done could be atoned for in Jesus. We then discussed who Jesus is, not just a prophet, as she formerly believed, but the true and only son of God who paid the price for our sins. I then asked her if she believed this, and if she wanted to give her life to Jesus Christ. To my joyous surprise, she said yes! We prayed, and I got to behold a soul giving her life to Christ. Praise Jesus!
I am so grateful to the Lord for humbling me in the kindest way. Michaela and I returned from New York with a deeply-held belief that there is nowhere that Jesus cannot go, and nothing he cannot do! We are eager to see how the things we have learned, our deepened faith, and our new skills in evangelism may be used in our hometown.
To that end, would you pray He would show us how we can continue to be used? Would you pray how God might use you to bravely share the Gospel? And would you please pray for these dear people we encountered on the streets of New York? It’s hard to leave them there, not knowing how the rest of their stories play out. But, isn’t is encouraging that Jesus does?
Amanda lived in the Motor City - Detroit - for 30 years, where she obtained an MA in Public Relations and Communication from Wayne State University. She spent decades representing other people's work and now looks forward to promoting her upcoming manuscript.
Amanda's a big city girl that fell in love with a country boy, who whisked her off to the Midwest over a decade ago. She is a military wife that lives on a cozy street with the hubby, two amazing kids, and two hound dogs. They like to explore the world together camping, while drinking copious amounts of artisan coffee.
She has lived in Alaska and the United Kingdom for extended periods of time, and has traveled throughout the contiguous United States and internationally frequently.
Amanda is the founder and president of the We Can Read Book Club, which meets monthly. She is an ACFW member