Every Tuesday evening during the spring and fall, Evangelism Equipping (EE) Teams from Faith head out into the community to connect with first-time visitors to the church. The teams are typically made up of one trainer and two trainees who are learning how to share the gospel through on-the-job training.
During a visit in April, Colleen Howard’s team set out to visit a woman who lived in an apartment complex. When they knocked on the door of #204, an elderly man answered. He had never heard of the woman who the team had hoped to visit with.
The team stood in the doorway, talking to the man, who was admittedly lonely. He was a 90 year-old divorcee – a former airline pilot with family scattered throughout the country.
John Marks, a member of the team says, “We began to treat this as an EE visit. It actually took us a while to figure out that this is what God wanted – that this is why he brought us here.”
The man invited the team in, and they began to ask him some questions. While he had no real regrets about his past, he recognized his shortcomings. He shared that he had a rough childhood with his parents often sending him away. He had more than one failed marriage and no real church background. Furthermore, he had no hope for eternal life.
The team proceeded to share the gospel with the man. John says, “There were a lot of tears throughout the conversation. He was very emotional.” When John asked him, “Would you like to receive the gift of eternal life?” he responded, “Yes. How do I do that?” John then led the man to pray to receive Jesus.
The next day, Colleen stopped at a thrift shop and found a New Believer’s Bible that she took to the man. She smiles, “He was still so concerned about us finding the woman that we had originally come to visit.” The following week, John called him and learned that he had been in the hospital. He fell two nights after the visit and spent three days in the hospital. “It turns out that he has a weak heart. It was good timing that we talked to him.”
Colleen’s team never found the woman they were looking for that night. After their visit with the man in apartment #204, they all agree that God led them to the person they were supposed to be with that evening.