Testimonies! – Grahamstown Arts Festival Outreach 2017

(See HERE for stats and pictures from the outreach.) Following are testimonies from our team – Mike, Chris, Lisa, and Amy. Thank you again for your prayers and support; making all this possible!

  • I passed by a house with an outside stoep (patio) and there were two young men sitting on the floor. I almost passed them by, but felt strongly I must speak with them, so I turned around, stepped up onto the stoep, and asked if I could sit with them. We got into the most interesting covnersation; they both are self-admitting “searchers” and aren’t sure what to do or believe. I shared with them what Jesus has done in my life, and we spoke about the reality of the Love of Christ, as well as the Power of God to give us joy and purpose.

As the conversation was winding down, I felt the Lord tell me “pray for them!” I mentally protested, “But Lord, they might not want me too, and it will be awkward!” Nevertheless, I couldn’t fight the feeling, so I said “look, I don’t want to make you uncomfortable, but may I please pray for you?” After a quick exchange of glances, they said, “okay, sure.” I prayed for the Lord to reveal Himself to them, that they might KNOW He’s real. Also for their safety and to be open to finding the answers they are searching for. After the prayer, the quieter of the two said “thank you Chris, that’s really good of you!”

Then the other said “can I ask you something really bluntly? When you walked by, why did you come talk to us? Were we just the first people you saw, or did you feel you should come specifically to us? I told them actually I had felt that I must talk to them, although I didn’t know why. He nodded thoughtfully and said, “well, thank you. I hope you can talk to many others.”

  • I was talking to students about Jesus in a park when I approached a group of three guys having a good time. It was close to the weekend, and by all accounts, they were kicking it off early. At first I felt that by talking to them, they might get a wrong idea of Jesus coming across, but I went ahead and introduced myself. Immediately I got into a very deep conversation with one of them. He went on to explain to me that the workload would stress him out so much during the week, that all he could live for was the weekend. That was the only thing keeping him going. I asked the Lord for guidance and was prompted to ask him if that was how he wanted to live his life, because the habits he makes now will affect his job and his life. He got so scared, he realized the path he was on was a life only lived on weekends. For his whole life. He really wanted to know more, so we swapped details and promised to stay in touch. He said that just by me talking to him changes his life. Now he says he wants to have good friends who can help him make the right decisions in life.

 

  • I was really tired one afternoon and stopped by a coffee stand. Met S and his girlfriend J from P.E. Gave “I’m Happy when you’re Happy” and had brief talk. Really had them on my heart the rest of the day so went back the next day and got another coffee as an excuse to talk more. Had amazing conversation about living for something and how there’s more than this life we see all around us. S wasn’t sure about Jesus but listened with interest, and J grew up Christian but had drifted away. I gave them my details and was able for pray for them before leaving; for them to find Jesus in a living way like I have.

 

  • Gave three friends “Future Got You Puzzled?” and they stopped to talk. At the end of it the one guy said “this is so cool, definitely the best pamphlet I’ve ever seen!”

 

  • So I was speaking to this young guy by the side of the main festival area and it turns out that he was raised Christian but wasn’t sure about his place in Heaven so we spoke, and I told him “I can’t really describe it to you it’s something that you have to try” and I shared the verse about knowing for sure because we become we have power to be children of God and so he really liked that because he has two young children, Eventually he agreed to pray with me and when we looked up at each other after praying he slowly smiled and said “wow that really is a feeling you can’t describe!” It was such an encouragement and cool to see the look on his face, and I told him “see I told you that’s Jesus!” I left him Gospel of John with some underlined and circled passages to read and also my phone number.

 

  • I met a new friend – John – sitting on a bench way off away from everything I was actually walking on a main path when I saw him and felt I should go speak to him he looked quite deep in thought so I felt a little awkward and didn’t want to disturb him but I went. He invited me to sit with him, and we got into quite a deep conversation about God’s love and mercy and especially about how God works in our lives like a diamond being made under pressure. He is Christian but he’s had quite a few struggles especially here at the university he’s been here for 2 years and still barely made any friends so he’s very lonely – he’s studying politics and he helps out in his church on Sunday and on Saturday as part of his political studies he has to grade papers from freshman students. It was a real blessing to meet because I was able to pray with him and exchange numbers & he’s very excited to receive the WhatsApp devotional messages so thank you Jesus!

 

  • I had a very long conversation with a man. He didn’t want to receive Jesus because he said he didn’t think it would do him any good. So I explained to him that Jesus is someone Who always understands and knows what you’re going through. Then I said that every problem he had, even ones no one knew about or understood, Jesus cares about. I felt led to tell him that even his problem at work (I didn’t even know if he had work, much less a problem at it) Jesus would understand like no else ever would. Before that, he hadn’t been very interested, but when I said that, he looked me straight in the eyes and seemed shocked.Then he got tears in his eyes. I think he was embarrassed because he was almost crying. He held the tract really close and told me he would give Jesus a shot. He needed to go, so I told him that no matter what, Jesus loved him and was always waiting for him. He couldn’t speak. He just nodded his head and shook my hand for a long time and then gave me a hug. I still don’t know what was troubling him, but Jesus did and He used me to touch him and tell him that Jesus cared.

 

  • I met a girl and stopped to talk with her. She said that she knew Jesus and that he was her best Friend. But she seemed puzzled as to what I was doing. “So you just hand someone a tract, say Jesus loves you, and walk on? What do you expect to happen?”So I told her that we would stop and talk with some people and tell them more about Jesus. Or we would give someone a tract and they would read about Jesus and hear of him that way.Then I told her it shocked a lot of people to be told that Jesus loves them. And she said “what if they’re not interested?” So I said, “Well, then they just think I’m some wacko, crazy Jesus person.” She said “Yeah! So why do you do it?”And I told her it was because I loved Jesus and He asked me to. That seemed to surprise her but she was like, “Whoa, man. Good for you!” and she gave me a high five.

 

  • I sat down next to a young woman and began to talk with her. I asked her if she knew about Jesus. She said she did and that she kind of wanted Him as her Saviour, but she didn’t want to give up wearing trousers or dating or being able to have a glass of wine. Then she looked down at my lap and said “But you’re wearing trousers.” So I told her that wearing pants was not a sin and that Jesus didn’t mind us having fun because He was a fun guy. Everyone had liked Him. At the end of the conversation, she said that she really wanted to read the tract I gave her and find out more about it all. Because, she said, my Jesus sounded really cool.

 

  • Lady who I met in green sitting on the steps, gave her “No Matter Your Circumstances” tract and told her Jesus loves her. She looked up at me and suddenly started crying. Said how it looked like she was going to lose her business somehow and things were looking really bad. Prayed right there for her and left her with my number and a few Activated magazines.

 

  • Gave a only two religions tract to 2 friends and one guy turned back and said “Hey man what makes you think I need religion?” I told him “you don’t but you need Jesus!” He laughed and said “well fair enough I’ll read it!” Ha!

 

  • I had met a student the day before we left Grahamstown and, among other things, I talked with him about God versus the universe. He wanted to keep in contact so we exchanged numbers. Then we left and I didn’t hear from him for a week or so. Then suddenly he texted me with all these questions. So I, very prayfully and with advice, answered his questions.

Then he asked how I had become a missionary and if my parents were ministers. So I told him that I was a second generation missionary and I had dedicated myself to it when I realised that I had something the world didn’t and I could change people.

I told him my parents were not ministers but they had been missionaries for forty plus years. Then he sent this to me:

“It’s great that you have such clarity of purpose. There aren’t many people I can freely talk about this stuff with.

You have a very unconventional view of God. I appreciate that more than you can know.

Chatting with you, going by our brief interaction, you’ve either been doing this for years, or you were born to do it.

You really do have a gift.”

  • As I was giving out tracts one of the car attendants came up to me and said “last year someone promised me a Bible but they never came back do you have a Bible?” It turns out it wasn’t someone from my team last year but nonetheless praise God we were able to leave him with the Bible and he was so grateful I prayed for him and wrote my number and the date and a TO and FROM in the Bible for him.

 

  • Talked to two friends we all sat together on one of the seating areas in the green. One of the big questions was how can we preach Heaven if when Jesus spoke of Heaven he was only speaking to his disciples because it was in conversation to them. The way they understood it was that only his original disciples were called by Jesus. So we spoke about it and I said I showed them John 3:16 and I said that’s quite all-inclusive aka “loved the world”…”whosoever believes”… was cool to see them listening because such a basic witnessing thing verse that we’ve learnt early is on John 3:16 but it covered the whole point and what more can you say then that really? I also showed them some scriptures about heaven and the Heavenly City in revelations and also about the people outside the gates (because the conversation shifted and they asked about hell and what people are going to hell and/or is everybody going to heaven leaving the earth empty? I said no and explained a little bit more detail about that just quite cool was obviously something they had never heard before so it was inspiring to clarify for them!

 

  • Got into conversation with four friends, and gave them each a “Peace and Safety” tract. They started reading the cover page out loud, and said ‘wow man does this actually give an answer to that?” I started to explain it to them, and they loved it; laughing and claiming as they went through it. We got into talking about hypocrisy among Christians and the state of the world; but that faith in Jesus is a real & powerful thing as millions can testify. They also questioned if Satan has complete control over the earth including the church and I reassured them that no not over us who are saved by Jesus. Two of them already had accepted Christ, and eventually the other two made the decision to do it! Thank you Jesus! I left my number with them and they said they’d like to chat more on whatsapp. Later, Lisa and Amy met them, and they said they’d had a very powerful conversation “with Chris” and that “we really connected.”

 

  • Met a man who said that it was hard for him to reconcile Jesus and Christianity with his African culture, as he felt he would have to give up culture to know Jesus. I was able to explain to him that through salvation we become part of the family of God, so Jesus becomes our spiritual ancestor, just as the “Gentiles” were “grafted” into the family of God. We spoke for a while, and he seemed very thankful for the input. Before we left I challenged him to accept Jesus, and while he was hesitant to do it with me, I left him with a salvation prayer to look at later.

 

  • Met N, a real good guy & tuktuk driver from Zimbabwe; he pulled up his tuktuk to park almost right next to me as I was giving out tracts, and we got into conversation. He is extremely astute and full of faith, and we spoke for a long time about faith vs religion, and how so many that come in the name of Christ today are not true representatives at all- or are in fact outright misleading. Told me how its hard to convince others about it as often they are blinded. He then asked how we live and I told him by faith in God’s Supply – all nonsalaried. He asked how we survive and I told him too as well as I could, ha. I showed him how my shoes, jeans, and watch were all given to me, and he said “ see THAT’s real living for God! We’ve been chatting quite a bit since, and I’ve been able to minister to him further.

 

  • I was walking by a man with two buckets for washing cars and I offered him a No Matter your Circumstances tract. He put his two buckets face down on the ground and said you have a seat so I sat down next to him and we began talking. He said he doesn’t believe in anything because Jesus was there for him he wouldn’t be almost 30 years on the street and his son who is 16 also living on the street with him. I sympathized and we spoke for a while mostly reassuring him that Jesus does love us and telling him examples to my life that I have difficulties also. I don’t ask him if I could pray for him and he said yes So I prayed and I really felt the Holy Spirit flowing and take over. It was like it just went on and I’m not sure exactly what I prayed. But after the prayer he wipes tears streaming off his face and put his arm around me so I hugged him back. He said Chris I haven’t yet had any business today washing cars but you’ve just made my day thank you so much. I was also able to leave him with a Bible and later on some foodstuffs.

 

  • Met an atheist and his girlfriend. He challenged me as to who is Jesus saying ” I don’t know Jesus” and tried to give me back the tract

I said “well you don’t know anyone till you meet them so keep it” ha

We started talking and he told me he is an atheist and finds heaven a completely abstract concept. I said I understand why you’d feel that way, and shared a few verses about heaven

Then he asked about if God is all powerful and can truly watch over Billions of people at the same time, and does he watch over anyone on each whether they believe or not

I said yes but He still give us free will to choose Him, and then can affect our lives more directly. He said but in the Bible it talks about Jesus being our Master, so would that make us slaves? I said no, He asks for us to CHOOSE Him and he said then we would be children of God, which is a loving intimate relationship not at all negative. Then he asked if in heaven we will still have free will, and if then people will destroy and pollute and start war there.

I said we will desire to love God with all that’s in us, just like taking care of a friend’s things. And also that the Bible says the former things are passed away and all things become new. Also that there will be no more death or sorrow.

He said that he’s not sure about heaven because so many people focus on that and he feels the present world is being neglected. I pointed out to him that Christians do a lot of good in the world and also that it’s true that the world needs care but believing in heaven and Jesus means you have a reaosm to take care of things here and now, more so than if you don’t believe.

Then I told him look if I’m wrong about heaven and I go through life happy thinking of heaven, die and I’m wrong, I lose nothing really.

He interrupted and said ” so are you saying that because I don’t believe I go through life unhappy?”

I said ” I didn’t say that” ha.

His girlfriend suddenly asked “so WHY do you believe?” So I told them my testimony of dedicating my life to the Lord, and they listened. Then I said ” so I’m not trying to force you of course; I’m just doing my part to share what happened to me.

They both nodded and He said “well, I can see you believe it.”

Just before we parted I said ” try challenging God, not in a mocking way but sincerely ask Him to work in your life – in any situation you need help with. Then wait and see! If it doesn’t work, again, you’ve lost nothing by trying.”

They both shook my hand and he said ” I’m still unsure about asking that, but we’ll see. Really appreciate the conversation.”

  • While walking on the street handing out pamphlets, I saw a young woman sitting on the curb with some friends. I first offered her a tract, but she shook her head. Turning around, I began speaking to her friends about Jesus and His Love. Meanwhile, this woman kept on shaking her head. Eventually I had to stop and ask her if everything was okay. She said that she had a terrible headache and talking was bothering her. So I said: “If I pray for your headache to leave, can I talk to you about Jesus?” She replied: “Yes please! Anything to take this headache away!” So I got down on her level, put my hand on her shoulder, and asked Jesus to take away the pain in her head as a token of His Love and Mercy and Power. I didn’t feel any anointing or power moving through me, but when I finished the prayer, I asked her how she felt. Miraculously, she was completely better! I told her all about Jesus and how He went around everywhere doing good. She prayed to accept Him into her heart and life, and we swapped details so I could give her a Bible promised to keep in contact. As I was leaving, I heard her say to her friends: “I really have Jesus in my heart.”

 

  • We were handing out tracts in the late afternoon when my attention was arrested by a few friends sitting by a fire long gone out. Hesitant, I prayed and asked the Lord to give me the right words to say. Taking a deep breath, I walked over, introduced myself, and gave a tract to those who wanted. Before I had turned away, a gentleman asked me my purpose. But before I answered, I suggested we rebuild the fire. In no time at all we had a roaring blaze going. As we settled down and warmed ourselves I told them that I had come from Cape Town (a full day’s drive away) to tell others about the Real Jesus.

I explained that nowadays we are often given a picture of Christ wrapped in swaddling clothes of tradition, hanging on a cross too far away to be relevant, and left with nothing but empty words and spiritless actions. I went on to say that Jesus suffered and experienced many atrocious acts in His life, not only just at His death. Here was a man born into foreign military occupation, the Romans, who had little to no regard for 1st century Palestinian customs and laws, was himself the subject of xenophobia and genocide (King Herod murdering all children in Bethlehem under the age of two), became a war refugee in Egypt, was discriminated because of His upbringing (“can anything good come from Nazareth?” John 1:46), wasn’t popular, most likely wasn’t good looking or popular, being tempted in all point like we are (Hebrews 4:15), was mocked, reviled, rebuked and received such heavy opposition from the religious and judicial governing bodies of His day, that they eventually got so mad they killed Him for daring to challenging the status quo, and tell them they were wrong. And yet, through all of this, His Message of Love and Mercy remained the same: A constant, unchanging appeal for mankind to repent, to take off our sinful nature, take on the mind of Christ, and to actively love and respect our fellow man.

Now, let’s take a step back and compare Jesus with another person who also shaped the course of history: Thomas Jefferson. He was hugely integral in founding America, composing the Declaration of Independence, passionately fighting for freedom from tyranny, and equality for all men. And yet, he lived a life of total conflict. We know he racked up massive debt turning his house Monticello into a mansion. He even fathered six children from one of his slaves, Sally Hemmings. We can see and admire the man for being great, but we can also find fault with him for his shortcomings. You can’t do that with Jesus. There is no record of Him ever doing wrong. He did everything right, all the time, everywhere. He was right when He broke social rules. He was right when He loved the unlovely and the rejects of society. He was right when He accepted people as they are, and at the same time drawing them up to His standard. Even when He gained popularity and could sway the public for personal gain, He wouldn’t. Even if it meant to propagate His own message of Truth, he carved out His own path. Human nature does not do this.

Let me explain: Typically, we begin our protests in an organized, respectful, and peaceful way. When the opposing party refuses to accept or accommodate our demands, we up the ante. We show our force. We begin to make right by might. And in doing so, we cross a line. But Jesus never did this. He began and finished His message on the same note: a glorious melody of truth, of God’s unconditional Love for Man, and it’s our job as Christians to carry this tune into the hearts and lives of others we meet on a daily basis; to change our neighbourhood, our society, and our world. By now, it had gotten quite dark. I could see the words I said had left a profound effect on my audience, and wanted to leave them in that moment. I excused myself, and thanked them for sharing their fire.

As I got up, one of the members loudly said back to me: “No, thank you for sharing your fire!” I knew what that person really meant.

  • I was walking down a street and then handed a pamphlet to some one. He stopped and then said “you were here last year? A girl gave me one and I’ve been receiving every week a devotional on WhatsApp! He said he wanted to help us give out the tracts if he had time. Was happy to see that we were here again this year!

 

  •  Walking down a street it was quite there was one lady on the steps. I went and greeted her and gave her a tract and ask her if she had Jesus and she replied yes. I ask her if she wanted me to pray for her and she said yes and was happy that I asked. I gave her an Activated. She wanted to give some tracts to other people so I gave her some. I’m not so used to give my number so I didn’t offer. When I left I felt very bad that I didn’t leave my number. The next day I was walking down the street and she was there. She was so happy to see me she gave me a big hug. We exchanged numbers and she was happy that she going to receive the weekly devotional.

 

  •  Gave a tract to a lady she asked who did the illustration. She got one last year and liked it. She read the one that I gave to her. It was(No Matter What Your Circumstances,). She said that is what she needed to hear. She has a expo and it doesn’t seem to be kicking off. It gave her a bit of hope. So I told her we will pray for her. And she said she will pray for us to

 

  • Two ladies on the sidewalk sitting and chatting. I gave them a tract and ask them if they knew Jesus and they said yes but hadn’t prayed to receive him. So I prayed with them and gave them a gospel of John they were happy. One of the lady wanted to have another gospel of John for her teenager. So I gave her the tract ( The Wishlist ) so she could pray with him to receive Jesus. She took it and a gospel of John. Was happy and is going to tell him about Jesus

 

  • Met a lady. She was waiting for someone. She knew the Lord. But hadn’t received Jesus as her savior. She was happy to pray and receive him. I asked her if she wanted me to pray for something. And she replied yes for my son he is doing bad things and he is with my mom. She was very discouraged. So I prayed with her. She was so happy for that. When I was finished with her the person came to pick her up. It was perfect timing.

 

  • This lady asked what we were handing out. So we explain. And she was so happy and said it’s so nice to see Christian people here. Exchange are number and want to meet when she gets back in Cape Town. The same day I send some thing to her. And the next day she was thankful for it and said. “Helloooo! Oh my word thank you so so much, so needed this morning, been a tough day! Lots of tension between the boss and I – he’s not a very easy person, golly!” So glad it helped her.

 

  • I gave a pamphlet to a lady. She was already saved so I asked her if she wanted me to pray for her. She look like she was going to cry. She said yes. She got accused of stealing but she said she didn’t do it. Her family doesn’t want anything to do with her. Was discouraged about it. I prayed with her. She was happy and wants to get the devotional too.

 

  • I was giving some pamphlets on the street & I gave a pamphlet to a group of people and said Jesus loves you. This lady said no he doesn’t love me! And I said he loves you. She said not me I’m now divorced and have 3 kids. She doesn’t understand why the Lord is doing all of that to her. We were walking while we were talking. And I explained to her that it wasn’t the Lord doing that but choices that people make. And people blame it on God. But we decide to do these things . She was really listening and agreeing to what I was saying. When I looked around her friends had all left. She had been listening so carefully, she hadn’t even noticed. So I asked her if she wanted me to pray for her. She replied yes. After we prayed we exchanged numbers and will stay in contact and she is happy to receive the devotional that we have.

 

  • Two women were trying to hail a taxi, but in their high heels, they weren’t getting very far. I sprinted and chased the taxi uphill. Finally, he came to a stop. I asked him to turn around for the ladies, when I discovered he was off duty! Turning back the way I came, I apologized to the ladies and explained the situation. They responded: “Thank you so much! So, are you also going up to the Monument?”

“Nope!”

So, you chased that taxi just for us?”

“Yep!”

“That is such a nice thing to do! So what are you handing out?” I gave them each a tract with my details on it, and they promised to stay in touch after the show they needed to get to.

REACTIONS:

  • “God has definitely chosen you for this Work! I can’t explain it, but there’s something about you. I just feel that God has called you to come here and tell us about Jesus.”
  • “After we prayed, I have a tingling in my heart, and I just feel this burden is gone. Is that Jesus?”
  • “Thank you so much for telling me today about Jesus. I want to change my whole life because of what you told me!
  • Prayed for this lady. And when we were done. She said you made my day – no, my week!
  • “This conversation has been one of the most interesting I’ve ever had about Jesus! Keep on doing your work! Your making a big difference, and sharing a very real Jesus!”
  • “Continue! Continue! Continue! Continue! Continue! Continue! Continue!”
  • After telling someone Jesus loves them: “You know, my day hasn’t been going very well at all. I really needed this.“
  • “Normally we run away when we see missionaries, but these tracts are relevant – and funny! These are revolutionary! You’re now connecting and reaching our generation!”
  • “Wow! After praying with you to receive Jesus, I have a calm and stillness. Like when you see a big lake with no ripples, but you know it’s deep. That’s how my heart feels!”
  • “I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to meet other Christians, here in the middle of the festival!”
  • “I think you’re the coolest missionaries I’ve ever met! (and when we laughed and said thank you)-would you like that in writing, ha?!”