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The Uncomplicated Truth about Practical Witnessig

Editorial, Kristi Jensen

When I was approximately seven years old, my mom would keep our refrigerator stocked with an assortment of sodas. Whenever my brothers and I heard the garbage truck come rumbling down our road, we would grab a few cans and run to our driveway to share them with the men holding onto the back of the garbage truck.

At around age 10, my mom would help my siblings and me bake chocolate-chip cookies. Once out of the oven, we would carefully arrange half-a- dozen of the warm cookies onto a paper plate and wrap the plate in aluminum foil. Once the plate was wrapped, we would run to the front of our house and put the cookies in our mailbox along with a friendly note thanking our mailman for his service and wishing him a good day.

These small, seemingly insignificant gestures taught me a valuable lesson: witnessing does not have to be complex or complicated.

Witnessing can be as simple as sharing a smile, a genuine compliment, or an encouraging word. An uplifting attitude, a non-judgmental, listening ear, or a hug may mean more to someone than you could ever imagine. There are so many people hurting in our world. You can’t solve every problem, but you can be a ray of sunshine to one person—and that ray of sunshine may change someone’s life.

I challenge you to make an effort to witness to a stranger every day. Here are 15 practical, uncomplicated ideas to get you started:

Smile
Ask questions and be genuinely interested in people’s responses
Offer an encouraging word
Bake treats to share with your neighbors
Write a heartfelt note to a friend or stranger
Pass out flowers to nursing home residents
Buy a homeless person a meal
Visit someone in the hospital
Give a stranger a genuine compliment
Share your personal testimony and tell someone what Jesus means to you
Volunteer at a homeless shelter, food bank, or community service center
Be a mentor
Babysit a friend’s children
Volunteer at your church
Ask to pray for someone

You absolutely can make someone’s day with a small act of kindness. Maybe a smile or a compliment seems insignificant, but I guarantee you, it can mean the world to someone—I know, because I have been on the receiving end of a ray of sunshine like that.

Practical Witnessing

Short stories to inspire you.

Green Smoothie
Witnessing

Christ's Method Alone (CMA) is a campus ministry at UC Berkeley that recently joined ASI. CMA conducts How to Get A's seminars, hosts Friday CARE groups, and coordinates other activities that lead to Bible studies and discipleship.

Not long ago, Delon Lawrence, a recent SOULS West graduate, came to stay with CMA and help out by preaching and working with campus ministries. Sean and Channchi, the founders of CMA, also spent time talking with Delon about setting up a sustainable ministry that could reach souls in the bay area while providing a way for Delon and others to earn enough income to cover life expenses. After looking at and praying about different initiatives, the idea to sell green smoothies door-to-door came up in August of 2017. Because of their experience (Channchi had sold some green smoothies on the side before, and Delon had 8+ years of experience as a colporteur), they decided to give it a try.

Folks started to buy the smoothies here and there, so Sean and Delon formalized the initiative into The Fruit Tree - organic green smoothies delivered to your home and workplace. Soon after, they began to sell in farmers’ markets. Now they have a few people working almost full-time on the project. The best part of The Fruit Tree ministry is the opportunities it provides to witness to others. Here are a few examples:

A vegan guy that connected Seventh-day Adventists with veganism now wants to attend our church.
A Jewish, regular customer of ours, told us she saw a documentary that mentioned SDAs as having higher life expectancies. This comment led to an at-the-door Bible study on health and the Sabbath.
A farmer's market vendor we met eventually started doing weekly Bible studies after Delon's interactions with him.
Clear answers to prayer as we follow God's instructions for medical mission work.
Smoothie Night at our local church where we invited The Fruit Tree's customer base to teach people how to make smoothies:

50 people attended, 12 non-Adventist customers from The Fruit Tree and 3 non-Adventist students from Christ's Method Alone.
A man shared how he lost 60 lbs after going on the Daniel 1 diet; now he's interested in coming to our church after the event.

God has given us light in regards to evangelistic medical missionary work being the entering wedge for the gospel (Evangelism, ch. 122). We also know that Christ's method alone will yield success: making friends and ministering to people’s needs (Ministry of Healing, 143.3). By following this counsel, we have seen folks who are initially pretty closed off to spiritual things, become open to the truth. Here are some practical steps you can follow to witness to your community:

Share knowledge or skills you already have. This could be helping students with getting good grades if you did well in college, or helping them with standardized test prep or grad school applications if you are a doctor, nurse, lawyer, etc. If you're a great cook, you can hold a cooking class at your home (advertise it as a Facebook/Meetup.com event and to your neighbors to get the word out). This not only meets a need with a talent God has given you, it allows you to build influential relationships that can be infused with gospel evangelism.
Start small, but start soon. A lot of evangelism initiatives never happen due to excessive planning. Have an idea to start a Pathway to Health-type event in your area? If you don't have access to the resources to host a large event, start with holding a free dental care clinic with one dentist or a health table with one nurse. Big initiatives usually start small; it's often best to get out and start and let God lead from there.
Don't be afraid of failure. Most successful evangelistic initiatives encounter a good amount of failure before things really start to work. Failure gives us a chance to pray, depend on God, grow spiritually, and learn from our mistakes. If you aren't seeing success right away, keep on moving forward in faith!

The Fruit Tree is expecting to continue to expand across Northern California and the team has been praying about plans to secure land and start a farm that grows nutrient-dense greens that can be used for the smoothies. They are also looking at other ministry initiatives for the farm such as a vegan bed-and-breakfast, a day spa with medical massage, hydrotherapy, etc. (i.e. a modern-day sanitarium). As this initiative has grown, The Fruit Tree is now seeking more workers to help sell drinks and work in the kitchen. They are also looking for donations and/or investments to help with securing land and appropriate vehicles (the team currently uses a Honda Civic and a Ford Focus, not the most ideal for a farmer's market organization :) If you are interested in learning more or helping out, you can reach CMA at info@christsmethodalone.org.

- Sean Wycliffe

Don’t forget to register for
PSI’s 2018 Conference on Philanthropy!

June 26-29, Fort Lauderdale, FL

Enjoy fellowship, workshops, roundtable discussions, forums, and much more! Session topics include:

Creating and Fostering a Culture for Philanthropy
Transformative Gift Development
Board & CEO Giving
Strategic Donor Retention
Hosting Profitable Events
Generational Capacity
Digital Fundraising
Fundamentals of Fundraising

Hair Stylist Ministry

My sister is a hair stylist and was out of the church for about 15 years. Ever since she came back in 2007, she has been on fire. Now she uses her salon chair as her platform to share Jesus. In front of her chair she installed a TV where she plays Doug Batchelor and other evangelistic programming while people get their hair done. She also personally witnesses to her clients. She has since been able to win over at least two people who were living the gay lifestyle when she met them. They have now chosen to live a celibate life, have been baptized, and are faithful members of the Adventist church. She gave a Muslim man a Melody Mason book that he saw on her desk. She usually has a book about the Sabbath or prayer visible to people when they sit to get their hair done. It’s a great conversation starter, even with very liberal people. She met one liberal lady who believes in late term abortion. The woman now says she is listening to Christian music because “her soul needs it.” My sister is a lay person using her business to witness to people from all walks of life.

- Nathaniel Oregon

Water Dispenser

This is only a simple, small way that I witness. I promised God that when people come to my house, I will always hand them a GLOW tract or Steps to Christ and tell them how much Jesus loves them. When repairmen come, I will give them a small tip and some literature about God. Last month, I could not get the water dispenser to work in my refrigerator. My daughter came to visit, and she and the grandchildren could not get a drink from the dispenser in the refrigerator either.
I called a repairman to come to the house. He walked to the refrigerator, put a glass to the dispenser, and out came cool, refreshing water. I thanked him for coming and talked to him about how much God loved him. I gave him Steps to Christ. He said that he was a Christian and would read the book. He thanked me for it. Could it be that God stopped the water in my refrigerator so that this man could learn about the truth?

- Carole Louis

Let Go

My wife and I have been selling things on “Let Go.” “Let Go” is an app that allows you to sell things to those near your town. We pray before we post an item on the app, and every time someone comes to pick something up, we connect with them quickly and give them a GLOW tract or the ASI Ministry of Healing. Several people have opened up as we talk to them. One catholic lady said, “I know God sent me to your house; we need to stay connected.” Another lady said, “I feel like we need to stay in touch; I read the paper you gave me and it was moving.” As we get rid of stuff around the house, this app gives us the ability to connect with people :) Now that we are in touch with them, we will slowly introduce Bible studies.

- Ricky Comacho

Youth for Jesus

Are you 15 or older? Do you want to learn how to give Bible studies, share the gospel, and reach out to your community? Join the Youth for Jesus program in Avon Park, Florida, starting July 1 and continuing until ASI’s International Convention in August. Enjoy workshops, community service, outreach, and evangelistic meetings! Build lasting relationships with like minded young people!

LEARN MORE

Address:

9705 Patuxent Woods Drive
Columbia, MD 21046 USA

Contacts:

Email: contact@asiministries.org
Phone: +1 (443) 391-7235

Links:

ASI Ministries