(Here are testimonies from Mike, Chris, Michelle, and Amy – our four person outreach team from the KKNK Festival Outreach. May they be an inspiration to you!)

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I looked at my phone screen, and I was stunned.

Someone had sent me this, and I had no idea who it came from. True, I have to admit, that for the last few days, our team of four had been attending the annual arts and music festival in Oudtshoorn, known as the KKNK. We had been walking through the town, distributing Gospel tracts, encouraging others in their faith, and offering them Jesus’ message of love and salvation.

I would often my cell number on the material I was handing out, and repeatedly told people that if they had a question regarding the Bible, Jesus, or would like simply someone to pray for them, then to not hesitate and give me a call or text.

It was late at night, and everyone was tucking in for bed when my phone went off. I reached over for it, expecting a last minute message from my wife or small video clip of our 2 year old, Samuel.

Instead I was met with these words:

“I just want to end it all”

I held the phone in my hands, not knowing how to reply. At the same time, I desperately called out to the Lord, asking Him for wisdom in my response, and that He would dictate the words that this person needed to hear.

Immediately I felt a calmness within, and I knew Jesus was in control.

Our conversation went something like this (condensed):

And what about your parents? Brothers and sisters? Relatives? Friends? You’re just going to leave them all?

“Yeah”

Selfish Decision

“I want to be with my father that’s all”

Well, I’m sorry you feel that way, but life isn’t about you doing what you want. It’s about you doing what you know is right. Besides, you think your dad will be proud of you for giving up?

“As long as I can be with him, everything will be fine”

Only for you. You’re going to leave behind a whole bunch of people in grief, just because you’re not happy with the way your life is going. But know this: that decision is on you. No one is forcing you to do it. And you’ll have to live with the knowledge that you intentionally hurt the people closest to you, and carry that for all eternity.

“When is it going to end? I’m so unhappy. How can I be happy if everything is wrong, all the time?”

Your unhappiness? Thankfully you CAN change that! That’s also up to you! You can choose to be happy, even in the worst of circumstances. Start with a smile. Just make yourself smile for 2 minutes and see if you don’t feel better.

“I can’t smile. I can’t. I’m in too much tears now. Please pray for me. Pray for me to be happy.”

Dear Jesus, thank You so much for P. Thank You that You orchestrated this chance meeting, and that she is coming to You to ask for help. Lord, she is asking for happiness in her life. Please come through for her in a big way, reveal Yourself to her in a way that she will know that You are Love, and that You deeply care about her. Fill her heart up with peace that passeth understanding, joy unspeakable, and happiness. In Jesus Name, Amen

“Thank you so much. My faith is not so strong that I can smile but one thing is for sure! I’m never gonna give it up! It helped me and your right about my father: he will never be happy if he know I gave up!”

By now, it was well into the night. We spoke for a few moments after, and promised to speak more in the morning.

First thing I received from her was: “Good morning Michael! I Feel Awesome!”

That’s great! Good to hear it!

P. and I have stayed in contact since. She’s receiving inspiring material, and knows our door is always open if she is ever in town.

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I was walking away from the festival area heading into the local town area, there was a man standing under a tree by a wall, he seemed like he was waiting to get himself into trouble. I asked him why he was here and if he had a house to live in. He said, “yes I have a house”. So I asked, “why are you here if you have a house?”. After three times asking and him repeating his answer(me thinking why do I keep asking, but still feeling like I needed to). He then said, ” I have a house, but am unwanted for bad behaviour so I live by the river now.”. After asking him if he had accepted Jesus he said, “I have accepted Jesus, but it seems life has only gotten worse since I accepted Jesus into my heart. So I explained that only Jesus knows our life and why things happen, there are also two reasons why: the first one being that as the Bible says that, “If we know these things happy are ye if ye do them.”. So if we do things that we know are wrong we are not going to be happy, we’ll feel guilty and know that we disobeyed Jesus. And the second one I explained the story of ” I’m a live one!” and how the devil knows our potential and how God can use us, so he fights us. We prayed for the Lord to give him the strength to make the right choices. We saw him again on the following two days and he looked so bright and happy. TYJ!

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I noticed a young man (Richie) sitting on the side of the street, just swiping around on his phone. I approached him, and gave him a comic tract (“Refocus”) Soon, we were in conversation, and discussing issues – the relevance of Jesus to our present life as well as our eternity, the need for freedom from sin, and the importance of continued personal change. Eventually Richie agreed to accept Jesus into his life, and we prayed together right there. He didn’t have a Bible, so I left him with one, writing his name, the date, and my details inside. I recommended that he first read the Gospel of John, as that has a well-rounded message of Jesus’ life and ministry. He thanked me, and we parted ways.

A few days later, I bumped into Richie again, though only in passing. He greeted me cheerfully, and told me he was working at one of the tourism stalls in town. A few days later again, I was passing nearby, and decided to stop by and see how he was doing. As I stepped in, and round the counter, guess what I found!? Richie, sitting down, engrossed in reading his Bible! Looking up, he smiled, pleased to see me. I asked him what he was reading, and he showed me – John, chapter 5.

This was the first time in all my witnessing that I’d seen immediate progress like this! I know that the Word never returns void, and that seeds planted bear fruit, whether we see it or not. (Isaiah 55:11, Matthew 13:1-23) Still, it was so encouraging to see Richie eagerly reading his Bible, and progressing through the very book I recommended. Just five chapters so far, but I believe they are the first of many, many more to come!

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I met a man at an entrance way to a bar that led to stairs going upward. He was manning the door and after us talking a bit he said, ” I’m working for my brother, am drinking, you know what tomorrow is(Good Friday)?”. So I told him,” you need this job, but you don’t need to drink tomorrow and you never know what the Lord has for you in the future, it may be a totally different life. We then prayed together and when we finished he looked so happy, opened his arms then stopping mid-air wondering if it is okay to give a hug. We parted and it seemed like he felt purpose and hope and like the Lord understood him. TYJ!

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Michelle and I were walking down to our campsite. It was just before dinner and no one was really around us on the street. This, combined with the fact that the two of us were already late, had us hurrying without really bothering to pass out tracts to the one or two people who were passing. But as we came to the last stretch in the road before our campsite, two young women came walking past.

We gave them a tract, even though we were in a hurry, and they seemed interested so we stopped and began to talk with them. Michelle asked them if they had received Jesus as their friend and Saviour after we had introduced ourselves and talked a while. The one girl said no she hadn’t but she would very much like to. So we prayed with her right there, and what happened was something quite different than I expected.

I’m normally not the talkative partner, and I don’t really ever feel led to wax lyrical or be the inspirationist, but I really felt strongly that I should tell her how much Jesus loved her, and that He’ll never ever stop loving her, He’ll never leave her, and He knew her better, understood her better, than anyone else. After I had said this to her, she simply burst into tears and was standing there crying, telling us how much it meant to her.

Then I did another unusual thing for me. Again I felt led to do something out of the norm for me, but this time it was to give her a hug. So I did, and she hugged me back tightly and I just held her for a while while she cried. Then we exchanged phone numbers and she promised to keep in touch, hoping to meet up with us before we left Oudtshoorn.

The following day I got message from her thanking Michelle and I or stopping to talk with her that day. She asked if we could meet up the next day, and I was more than happy to. We met for an ice cream at 1:00, and we found she had brought her sister. It turned to be just as fruitful as the time before, as Michelle was able to inspire her sister by lending a listening ear (which she was very thankful for, as she said she had been keeping it all inside and no one had just sat and listened to her) and I was able to encourage N to just be herself, to value herself and dare to be different, because Jesus loved her the way she was.

At the end of that meeting, they were both crying again as Michelle led us in a prayer for their home life and atmosphere (which they said was difficult), their dreams, and their hopes. As we parted way, they were both thanking us profusely. About an hour later I got a message from N saying Thank you guys so much for giving me Jesus. I don’t know how you knew what I needed or how you knew to stop and ask me on that road. I am so overwhelmed right now. Please tell God that I’m so grateful for having met you guys; I know He can hear me, but tell Him from you guys too.

I’m so thankful that God brought us to the right place at the right time, even making us late, so that we could meet both N and her sister to show and remind them both of how much Jesus loves them.

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On my way to meet up with my teammates, I walked past a group of guys who were obviously enjoying the weekend. I planned to not say anything, but to just quickly give them a Salvation tract, and wish them a good day. As I did so, one of them stopped me and asked what this message was about. I replied not to worry, just have a good evening, and read it later. Again he asked me to tell him what it was about. I was like: “Dude, it’s long, and if I get into it now, you’re not going to want to hear it.” He stood up, and said loudly: “No, I really do want to hear what this is about!”

So I got on their level, and he sat back down and I said to them all: “Hi gents. Now look, I’m on my way, I need to go meet my friends, and I didn’t want you guys to think that I’m here to stop you or force you to do anything. But your friend asked, so is it alright if I can speak to you?”

They all said yes, so I began telling them that I was part of a team from Cape Town, and we had come over the Easter weekend to tell people about Jesus. As soon as I mentioned His Name, everyone stopped talking and began listening intently. I told them about who the historical Jesus was, and how his enemies called him all sorts of names: winebibber, glutton, false prophet, etc. I explained that Jesus came to love the unlovely, the rejects, the losers. I spoke of his never-ending love for all of humanity. Throughout this, I could see that while they were listening, I wasn’t make myself understood in a way that they really got it. I stopped, and silently asked Jesus for an answer. Immediately, just like that: I got it. Ha! The Lord is so good, and He’s always ready to give us the answers we need. So this idea was to put Easter on a personal level. I told them: “Okay, so on Friday we mark the day by remembering His death on the cross for us, right? Then we have Holy Saturday, and finally Easter Sunday. Right. Some of you may feel like you’re a Friday: You’re dead, you have no hope, your too bad for Jesus. All is lost. Or maybe you are like a Saturday: you feel like you don’t know. You think you do okay, you think you’re a good person. You go to church, or you read the Bible sometime, but you don’t really have a connection to Jesus. You don’t know personally that He loves you. Well, I have great news for you! Jesus is just around the corner! Easter is tomorrow! And you can have an Easter resurrection in your heart. You can dedicate or re-dedicate your life to Christ right now, today! Anything you think is old or dead or ugly about yourself, you have the power to change it if you invite Jesus into your heart and experience His Love.

There we were, talking about the Lord. With a bottle of beer in one hand, and a cigarette in the other, these 7 young men decided to give their hearts to Jesus. We put everything down, bowed our head, and said a short but heartfelt prayer. After, I felt that I needed to pray for the first man that originally stopped me. I asked the Lord to anoint him, to raise him up in his family, friends, and community. To make him a leader, and a force for good in his lives and those that he would impact. I left my number with him, and promised to stay in touch if he ever wanted to know more. We all shook hands, and gave big hugs. There were tears in the man’s eyes, and he said: “You have no idea how much you changed my life!”

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We decided to end our outreach at 18:00 so we would have enough daylight hours to pack in the evening so we could leave early the next morning. I was determined to distribute the entire stack of tracts I had on me. At 17:50 I reached the entrance to our camp site with still 2 tracts left. There was nobody in sight, so I crossed the road, went through the park and saw three people(2 guys and a girl) by the river. They said that they had Jesus in their hearts, but really needed to change some things in their life – and they had a question, ” Is it okay to drink? “. I answered, “It could be okay if you drink a little and don’t overdo. You don’t want to do things you don’t mean to or harm someone or yourself (they nodded and agreed). If you find that you have no milk to put on the table you might have to plan differently. Or if you drink a little and find that you can’t stop, then it is better to not drink at all.”. The older guy, “I can stop any time.”. The younger guy said, ” I can’t stop, when I start I can’t stop. “. So I told the one, ” Then you need to be a good brother and at the very least not drink anything in front of your brother.” . They looked at each other amazed and said, “How did you know that we are brothers?”. I hadn’t known in fact; I meant it figuratively. So I realized and said,” Jesus knows. “. Then we discussed change and how they can claim,” I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. “. The one shared a testimony, ” I used to smoke a hooka pipe, I ended up with a hole in my throat, coughing up blood. They sent me to a big hospital in Cape Town and they couldn’t find out what was wrong. The scan showed that I had TB, but the tests showed I didn’t. I was in the trauma ward, people were dying all around me on both sides from serious injuries the whole time. I wanted to go home and see my mommy, but couldn’t because they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. The interesting thing is that every time I felt like I missed my mommy the Lord had someone in the hospital come and see me to be like a mom to me – and they didn’t even know that I missed her.”. They were so receptive asking if I could please pray for them together. We prayed together and I was so thankful that He led me to them with my two last tracts.

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Around noon, I noticed a man sitting on the floor outside a bar, and sat down next to him. After looking over the “Tired of Making the Same Old Mistakes” tract I gave him, he began telling me his story. He has a wife and two children, but lost his job due to drinking too much. Then, instead of looking for a new job, he was leaving home each morning and simply drinking his time away, wandering the streets, and returning home late to sleep. Tears filled his eyes as he told me “I want to be a good husband and do right for my children, but temptation keeps overtaking me.” I encouraged him that no matter what state we’re in, Jesus loves us and can help us change. Wonderfully, He prayed with me right there to accept Jesus as his Saviour! Then we spoke some more, and went further into the Bible together. He grew excited as we spoke, and eventually stood up, exclaiming “I’m going home right now! I’m going to go home and spend time with my family. I’m going to change!” Praise God! I left him with a prayer for continued growth and our details.

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Spoke to two ladies, and to my surprise found out they had never yet accepted Jesus as their Saviour. After explaining all about it, we prayed together right there. Then I asked if there was anything I could pray FOR in their lives. After a few moments of silence, one lady spoke up. “Please, please pray for me. I have schizophrenia. It makes it very difficult for me to lead a normal life, and constantly drives away those close to me. Wow, that was a serious request. The Lord brought to my mind James 4:4 (God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a SOUND MIND.) I lay my hands on her and prayed, claiming that scripture and asking for deliverance. After the prayer, there were tears in both their eyes. I’m so thankful that I was there to pray with them and know God is working in her life!

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While speaking with a man (Dave) near the main festival area, particularly discussing academic knowledge of God vs personal experience, I was surprised by a hand on my shoulder. “Chris, Chris! Remember me?” the smiling man beamed. It took a moment, but I remembered meeting him last year in another part of town, and praying with him to accept Salvation. Aubrey (the man) then asked “please won’t you pray with me now? I have a few issues that I need God’s help with!” Of course I agreed, and, excusing myself from Dave, stepped aside with Aubrey and we prayed together. After the prayer, he hugged and thanked me, and was off. Going back over to Dave, I could see a profound difference in the way he interacted with me. Before, I was just a stranger speaking with him. Now, I was a missionary, with fruit from previous outreach. It was very inspiring for me and impacting for him as well!

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Reactions:

“This message you give, this way you talk to people about Jesus. It’s really cool!”

“It’s nice to be able to talk with you! Your words make me want to really try my best to act like a son of God!”

“This is truly interesting! Thanks for bringing it right to me!”

“What are foreigners like you doing here at KKNK? You must really believe in your cause!”