Warriors

A major theme that defined our trip to the Dominican Republic was victory. Sam Borg, our trip leader, spoke to us one night about hating what is evil and capturing Jesus' warrior spirit to gain victory over those things we hate.

At the end of Sam's message, our students stood up, shouted from the rooftop (literally) how much they hate sin and the way Satan invades our lives. They called themselves warriors and, in doing so, began to see victory in their lives over the things they hate.

This new found Warrior Spirit gave our students a boost of energy, boldness and eagerness for the tough days of ministry ahead. It helped me, too, because it was the next day when I was asked to preach in a church service.

When the students had finished their response to Sam's message, I prayed over them and one thing I said in my prayer was, "How hard is it for a Warrior to tell someone about Jesus?" Sometimes I think God lets me think I'm praying for others when I'm actually praying for myself. I needed to hear that because I was heading into a scenario that would normally scare me to death.

But as I wrote in the last post, when the time came for me to preach, I had this very unexpected sense of calm and confidence.

I wasn't the only one who was scared by some of the situations put in front of them. Doing street evangelism in a foreign country with people who speak a different language can be incredibly frightening, but our students claimed victory in Jesus and did a fantastic job of showing His love to the people they met.

I know that screaming at the end of a moving message doesn't constitute a lifelong change, but I think it's a pretty awesome place to start!