Today I had the opportunity to see my friends at Comunidade de Cristo be missionaries for the day. Geraldo is a name I've mentioned several times on this blog. He was baptized in September of 2008 and has since brought his wife and four kids to church. His family has been a great encouragement to all of us because they are excited for God. Just talking to Geraldo makes you excited to do something to share the love of Christ with others. So it was no surprise that soon after he was baptized, Geraldo had tons of ideas for how we could share the love of Christ with his neighborhood. Today we had an "evangelistic campaign" in his neighborhood, where we split up into groups and went door-knocking, inviting anyone who would answer the door to a Bible study at Geraldo's house later in the evening.
I was so proud of the young people of our congregation. Door-knocking, especially with an invitation to learn about the Bible, can be a risky feat. You run the risk of getting the door slammed in your face, people assuming you're asking for money, or people just being mean. (And, in my case, you run the risk of running into dogs. Lots and lots of BIG, scary, barking dogs.) However, they all arrived at Geraldo's house ready to get their knock on, and after everyone finished I even heard stories of people fighting over who would get to talk at the next house! It was an exciting day for all of us, and we were thrilled when 16 people that we invited showed up to the study! Praise God for those 16, and we pray that God will continue to work on their hearts as well as the hearts of those who answered their doors, listened to the invitation, but for whatever reason decided not to accept it. We know that God knows each of their names, each of their hearts, and maybe allowed a small seed to be planted today.
Ok, enough for narratives. Here's proof!