Evangelism in a Hostel on the Isle of Skye, September 22nd, 2018

It has been a long time since I have last written. I have been busy moving (albeit temporarily) to a new country and settling into Glasgow, Scotland. I’ll only be here until December, but there was a lot that I had to do and get used to. Evangelism opportunities that I have acted on have been scant— the only one being in this post. There has been a deep fear of man in my heart, brought on by my own sinfulness and fear of being in an entirely new place. Galatians 1:10 comes to my mind. Please pray against this sinful fear, that the Holy Spirit would convict me and bring me to repentance. That being said, the Lord worked and His will was done on this night– there is even room for more conversations to happen in the future. This is something that I pray for and I hope you will pray for this too.

This weekend I went on a trip with my study abroad group, which consists of ten girls, one boy, and our professor. We went to the Isle of Skye, a beautiful place full of God’s glory in creation. Seeing grand mountains, cliffs, and the sea reminded me of Psalm 8:4 “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”. Our group stayed in a hostel, which was a new experience for me. I, six other students from my group, and five others from various countries were all seated in various places in the kitchen, which was one of the communal areas. One of the girls asked me where I went to church in Glasgow, and then proceeded to explain to me that she used to occasionally go to a Calvinistic church but was on the fence about predestination and total depravity. Before I got to say anything of substance, her friend chimed in and told me about her relationship with religion. She had gone to Catholic church on and off for the majority of her life, and then occasionally went to a nondenominational Bible study. At the heart of the matter, both of the girls were expressing that they needed to “just get back into it”.

My feelings on this way of thinking are detailed in my Evangelism with C post, but in short, this way of thinking does not indicate any knowledge of the Gospel. While religious involvement is neither something that proves nor disproves someones faith, we are commanded to meet consistently with other believers (Heb 10:25). IF Christ’s death and Resurrection has a practical application in our life, our lives will be transformed and we will 1) slowly become more separated from the world, and 2) be devoted to God’s glory ( 1 Cor 10:31, 1 Cor 2:12, 1 John 2:15-17). Furthermore, there was no mention of Christ Himself in this conversation, but rather the ritual of going to church to hear an uplifting and encouraging message.

I decided to ask the Catholic girl, Sarah, about her beliefs. My main question was if she thought that Scripture had authority or man (that man being the Pope). She said that she believed the Pope was fallible, but that there was no Absolute Truth. The Lord gave me a wonderful opportunity to then talk about how there has to be a standard that is outside our thoughts and feelings, because our thoughts and feelings lie to us all the time. She disagreed, and I used the example of “I feel like it is okay to steal your money, because my religion requires this so I can get into heaven. If I stole your wallet tonight, would you be okay with it?” She said no, and I said that she and I both inherently know that stealing is wrong, and this truth is written on our hearts AND in Scripture (Romans 1 and 2).

Then I began to take her through the Law. After this, I asked her if she thought she should still go to heaven, given that she has broken all of God’s Laws. She then got kind of upset, because she thought that I was trying to assert that only she should not go to heaven. Her friend, the one I was originally talking to, explained that that was not what I was trying to say, and she eventually admitted “no”. I then said to her that this shows that we have a need for a Savior, and that Savior came in the form of Christ. I told her that the only way she could obtain eternal life was to repent and believe. The Lord gave me an amazing opportunity to speak the full, true, Gospel that night, and I finished by telling her “I know this was a lot of information in one night, but I just want to encourage you to seek God in His Word, because THAT is where you will find Him”.

At some point during this conversation, quite a few people had started listening. I had started out just by talking to one person, and by the end of the conversation, four were engaged in listening to me, one man was someone who I had never met before. When I realized this, I praised God because that meant that more people could hear the Gospel.

Please pray for the hearts of those who were listening that night, and that God would lead them to repent and believe in Him for His glory. Please pray that the Lord would allow more conversations with my classmates to happen, and that they would ask me questions. Please pray that I would be steadfast in prayer for my classmates and that I would spend time in the Word so that I may be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks for a reason for the hope that is in me (1 Peter 3:15). Please pray that I would be more diligent and more bold in sharing the Gospel during my short time abroad. This is a gift from God, and pray that I may glorify Him in this time. Thank you.

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