Representing Christ in the Ordinary

Written by: DTS student from our September DTS 2019

This is a testimony about our lives and actions representing Christ, whatever we do, and how someone is always listening or watching.

The hostel

It was about midway through the week of our mid-term outreach in Inverness. After our group had been singing worship songs in the hostel lounge in the early evening, a friend and I stayed later. We asked to join a game the group of five was playing. We went from answering trivia questions, to talking about Canadian maple syrup, to holidays/traditions we each celebrate. This ended up with the question as to why each of us were at the hostel.

When we were talking about holidays, we had been talking about what Christmas means to us as Christians. Why we celebrate it and what it looks like in our families tradition wise. By this time, some of the others had left, so we were specifically speaking to one Chinese man. This led into my friend and I talking about what we were doing in Inverness. We explained what YWAM is and in essence what evangelism was. This led into us sharing that we believe everyone can hear God’s voice. Eventually, the man shared how at one point he had the opportunity to get baptised but felt like he had missed his chance.

A God encounter

Then I got a word of knowledge about his back. So I asked him if he had any pain in his back because God told me he had pain. He was shocked and asked “how did you know?!” He shared that he had gone in for a doctor’s appointment right before coming on his trip. I asked if I could pray for his back for it to be healed because we believe God loves to heal people. He agreed and we prayed. I don’t know if he felt anything actually change physically in that moment, but he definitely experienced something emotionally. He said “Wow, I believe your God is real.”

We sat in silence for a few minutes and watched as God was doing something in his heart. Next he brought up some questions too. He started talking and going on about a story he had once heard about someone who got healed by a witch doctor by offering up sacrifices. My friend jumped in and said, “But that’s the difference between Jesus and other spiritual acts, Jesus gives his love and healing and talks with us freely, we don’t have to sacrifice things, it’s a free gift.”

We talked more about what Jesus did for us and conquered on the cross. We talked about why He did it, and what that means for us now. That it is a freely given gift that brings us into relationship with Jesus. He gave us the Holy Spirit to live inside of us so He can talk with us, and He actually wants to get to know us.

The response

Eventually my friend asked, “So do you want that? Do you want to pray?” He responded with “Yes. Yes I want that.”

We sat in more silence, and then led him in confessing his sins and inviting Jesus into his heart! As we were sitting there, we could hear him whispering “Thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus.”