During Josh’s seminary years he always shared the highlights with me from every class.  Some days he would come home with tear filled eyes about a truth in Scripture he grasped for the first time.  It was truly a wonderful four years of learning and exploring Scripture for both of us.  I was fortunate enough to have gleaned an education myself as I drafted behind him those four years.  He still comes into the house sometimes from work with tear-filled eyes telling me lessons he learned from Scripture in his time in study.  I learned one valuable lesson about reaching hearts with the gospel that we still both cherish to this day.

Josh took a class called Personal Evangelism by Dr. Beougher his first year.  This class did make an impact on our ministry.  He gave a story one day of his wife and how she was used by God.  He was a pastor of a church God had called him to and his wife was just a stay-at-home wife and mother.  One may feel unusable sometimes when not out in the work force and often living secluded from the public eye.  How can someone evangelize when they are only around church people and family?

He explained that she reached more people in that ministry than he did.  She would go out into the neighborhood and meet all the families that lived on their street.  She met people at the grocery store and knew them by name.  She got to know all these people so well, that she was often cooking meals and delivering cookies to neighbors after surgeries and such.  She would frequent the grocery store inquiring employees she knew by name and asking them how their mother had recovered from her eye surgery, or how his daughter was handling her cancer treatments. She knew and was praying for personal situations these employees and neighbors  had been sharing with her.

After some time, God called them away from that ministry. As they loaded the last box into the moving truck and drove off, they were shocked at the response of the neighbors.  The streets were lined with all the neighbors that had become friends.  People came out to say their goodbye’s to a woman that made a huge impact on their lives.  They drove out of that neighborhood that day as a crowd of people cried as they waved goodbye. People were holding banners and waving through the streets like a parade.

Lord, please help me to make a difference in the lives of those around me.  Help me to impact my neighborhood and my community as I live my life committed to you.  Please help me to not get discouraged as a stay-at-home mom thinking that I cannot make a difference for the cause of Christ outside my church and my home.  Give me the wisdom, courage and words to use my testimony of what you have done on my heart, to reach hearts.  Thank you. Amen.