Mission is not always a bed of roses, was my first thought when I saw the schedule for our mission trip to Croatia. “Are we going to evangelize morning and afternoon almost every day for five weeks?” Fear ran through me like a river. Walking up to people in the middle of the street was not something I was used to, and now I would be doing it full-time for more than a month.
One evening in the city of Varazdin, we went out to share the Gospel on the streets. It was not easy. We felt laughed at and the conversations were going nowhere. Me and another girl from our team finally took the plunge and approached two girls. After a nice conversation, we prayed for them and they both accepted Jesus, but it didn’t end there!
Later that night, I got a direct message on Instagram from a girl I had never met before. She wrote that she was the roommate of one of the girls we had met earlier in the evening.
She had heard about how God had touched them and wanted to meet us too. The next day we met her and two of her friends. I shared my testimony and we had the privilege of praying for them. And suddenly, there, in the middle of the street in Varazdin, the Holy Spirit came so strongly. The girls started crying because of the strong presence. The girl who had contacted me exclaims: “I have been praying to God to send someone to help me and God sent you!” In the middle of the bright day, God came with His healing, His peace and His grace. That day all three gave their lives to Jesus!
“No, mission work is not always a bed of roses, but the fruit it produces is worth it. From someone who hadn’t evangelized much before: do it! Don’t let the good news stay behind the four walls of the church, but go out and spread it on the street, in school, or to your coworkers. These are words that can transform lives.”
