God's Never-Failing Protection

“And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” Isaiah 65:24

God has answered many prayers in my brief canvassing experience. He has answered prayers about the weather, our safety, for divine appointments and opportunities, for the right people to answer the doors, and even for someone to canvass with. It’s exciting to see Him directly answering my prayers. But what is also exciting is being able to look back on certain experiences and see God working and organizing things without me even knowing about it. Before I called on Him, He had it all worked out.

One afternoon, myself, a friend, and my brother had about an hour in town free, so we decided to canvass a fairly large block. First we had to decide who would go with who, and then we had to decide who would go which direction around the block. They weren’t very major decisions, and we just decided that my brother would go with me and we would go clockwise from where we started, and our friend would go the other direction by herself.

We had a productive hour; both of us groups ran out of stock in our bags, and got to have some good conversations with people. The side my brother and I chose included a little place, with a deceiving large number of houses in it. It became evident that this was a shady part of town. But we got around it, met a few nice people, were able to share some books and the smaller Path to Peace, and went home rejoicing.

Several weeks later, as the same friend was canvassing the block next the one above, she met a talkative lady, who informed her that directly over the road was where all the drug dealers lived, and she had a lot of trouble with them. As soon as our friend shared that, we both could see God’s hand in directing my brother to go with me that afternoon, and for us to choose that side of the block, rather than our friend doing it on her own. While we didn’t even realize the situation, God had it all worked out.

God did this again for me in a small way last time I was out canvassing. I was by myself, and I came to a house set a fair way off the road. I couldn’t decide whether it was lived in or not, so I went in to try anyway. As I stood knocking on the door, all these dogs in the neighbour’s back yard got excited, and started barking and running up and down the fence. I was thankful they were in the neighbour’s yard, because they didn’t sound or look friendly. No one answered my knocks, so I walked off the veranda, and took one more look at the dogs, as I walked back to the road. And then I noticed what the neighbour’s dogs were excited about: It wasn’t me after all. Instead, there was another dog on this side of the fence, and it was running up and down the same side of the fence I was on. He was big, and he was mad. I said a quick prayer, and walked down that driveway as fast and smoothly as I possibly could. Praise God, the dog didn’t even notice me.

Yes, I did pray when I noticed that the dog and I were on the same side of the fence, but God was already answering my prayers before I spoke them. That dog was in the yard the whole time I stood knocking at the door, and waiting for an answer. I walked in; it could’ve noticed my movement. I knocked loudly; it could’ve heard me. But I believe God made it blind to me, and kept it absorbed with the dogs over the fence, so that I could walk out of there safely.

Sometimes canvassing, it’s easy to ponder the ‘what-ifs?’; to wonder what will be behind the gate, behind the door, down the road, and to imagine all the dangers that could be in our path. But it’s just another opportunity to grow in faith and trust in God. We don’t know what’s ahead, but it’s encouraging to realize God already knows everything and everyone we will meet. He has the way mapped out for us, and He will guide us. And “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)

-Jessica 

Answered Prayer on the Doors

About a week after attending the D'Sozo camp, I went canvassing with a couple of friends in our home town. As we canvassed, I prayed for God's blessing and leading that we might reach some soul in need.  I had been canvassing for about three hours and had many closed doors. But I continued to pray. As I walked to the next door I was met with two dogs, but they looked quite friendly, so I entered the yard and walked up the stairs with the dogs following behind. I knocked and a middle aged lady came to the door. I canvassed her, and seeing a rather hardened look on her face I shared with her Peace Above the Storm. When she saw the title, she said, "Oh yes, I'd be happy to take a read of that; it looks good." So she gave a donation and took the book - stating that she would be sitting down to take a read as the heat restricted a lot of other activities. Strengthened from this experience, and with another prayer I ventured to the next door.

I prayed for blessing, and after knocking a couple of times with no answer I started to leave. But just as I was walking across the front yard, a car drove in the driveway. While I was canvassing them I asked, "What do you enjoy reading?" The man replied, "I read a lot of history." So I said, "Well, I've got the perfect book for you," and showed him The Great Controversy. He took a brief look, and said, "Yep, looks good. I'll get that." I smiled, and praised God for yet another answer to prayer.

Two doors later I knocked, and a lady came to the door. I canvassed her Bountiful Health, The Great Controversy, and Peace Above the Storm, but she wasn't really interested. So I started up a conversation with her, asking about her religion and background. She was a Christian, and she told me that she had many reasons to be. I asked about her grandchildren and herself, seeking to find an avenue for which to share a message book. She told me that she studies her Bible and says her prayers - so I seized the opportunity and showed her Lessons of Love, the book we particularly like to share with Christians. She was quite interested and after taking a look, she gave us a donation and took the book. Then I said something like, "It's such a blessing to be Christians; we have such an amazing life in the future (eternity) to look forward to!"She said, "Well yes, but you're still young. You've got a long way to go; I'm counting down now." I smiled and replied,"Yes, but eternity in comparison with this life is worth it! - don't you think?" She agreed. As we were talking, she mentioned a number of times that fact that she knew without a doubt Christianity was definitely not a mistake, and she had many real reasons to be Christian. So we continued talking and then it all came out. "I'm one of fourteen children of whom I am the only girl," she began. "When I was very young my great-grandmother would have to come at night to try to pacify me at because my father would be abusing my mother and I would be terrified. All, except one, of my brothers - of whom I have thirteen - died or were killed in infancy. Only one is now living. And because of all this I hold on to my religion; it is what keeps me going." I couldn't help but say a hearty amen! As I said goodbye and left the door I said, "I'll be praying for you, and I'm sure you'll gain a great blessing from that book! God bless you!"

That experience really got me thinking: if someone out there who I might have passed by as being of the world has truly found in Christianity her strength - how much more ought we to be living out Christianity despite hardship and temptations! 

-Ash

Grace's Testimony - Sharing With A Friend

We're really excited to share with you the first testimony submission we've received! Thanks so much for sharing, Grace - that's a wonderful opportunity you had to share about God! 

[Background: In my senior years of high school (I went to a public school), I shared about the Bible and God to a good friend of mine. I was extremely excited when I was sharing it with him, and at that moment, he seemed interested. One thing for sure, when you’re excited about God - you’re crazy for Him (in a good way)! After some time, I decided to invite him to church (I did this a few times), but he would often decline, and say that he was busy, and come another time. I started to get the feeling that he wasn't really interested in God anymore; perhaps I had shared too much that I scared him. After graduating high school, most of my friends went their own way, as did I, so contact with this friend of mine wasn't as frequent.]

The other day after I had finished class at uni, I went to catch up with a couple of old high school friends, one of them being my good friend. We spoke for about an hour before my other friend had to leave to pick her brother up. So I was left with my good friend. We continued talking, and reflecting about how things, and people, have changed since graduating, when he randomly told me how a work colleague of his asked him the other day if he knew about God! I was completely shocked about this, as earlier that morning I had prayed and asked God to make an opening so that I could share more about Christ to him. (God had answered my prayer!)

God is so good! For about half an hour to an hour, we spoke purely just about God! I was absolutely thrilled to be able to share more about God, and that my friend was accepting and wanted to learn more about Him. He also told me how his work colleague had also just found out about God, through her own searching of the Word and was excited, and wanted to go on a mission for God! She was also looking for a church which matched the beliefs and things she had been reading, especially based on the book of Revelation and the Second Coming of Jesus. My friend told me how he was interested about this, and would like to know more about God, so I said that we might be able to do Bible studies. (God willing!) My friend also told me, how he has noticed that there is really nothing much to this life, everything around is dying, and all bad. I told him how this was all prophesied in the bible, and that “...there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

God is merciful, and never gives up on anybody, and just as we humans think we have done what we can to reach to someone, God does something miraculous. Sometimes all we have to do as vessels for Christ, is to wait and be patient, even when we feel discouraged, or impatient. We must remember, that God is patient with us, and that our job is to only plant the seed into the hearts of others, and He will nurture and grow the plant.- Grace. 

It's one of our hopes that this blog would be a way to give each other prayer support also, so please keep Grace and her friend in your prayers. And we're looking forward to being able to share your testimonies next - you can submit them here! :)

God bless! 

Welcome

Dear friends,

Welcome to Seeking the Lost; an evangelism testimony blog.

We created this blog as a means of sharing evangelism testimonies to bless others, so to kick it off, here’s one of my testimonies:

I was canvassing a block of units with a friend. It seemed that all the occupants were middle aged men and no one was interested. I walked up to another door; the main door was open and I could see a man sitting in a chair watching TV. In my opinion, it looked like I may get the same response as everyone else in the block: "I'm not interested." I started canvassing him on ‘The Great Controversy’ and he asked how much it was. He went and got twenty five dollars, came to the door, before he had even looked at the book! Then we mentioned that for that much he could get two books. I showed him the other books. He asked if he could get the cookbook; I said he could. As he was looking at ‘The Great Controversy,' after he'd bought, he said “This looks like a really good read!” –Luke

We're looking forward to adding your testimonies to the next post! Please head over to the ‘Submit a Testimony’ page to share your evangelism testimonies.

God bless!