You'll meet a huge need in the inner city ... HUNGER ... and shine the love and mercy of Jesus.
Mariska Nel has been learning how to talk with others about her beliefs in Christ. The more she jumps into spiritual conversations with others, the more God reveals to her about why He has called her to tell others about Him.
Mariska has discovered 4 major reasons that God commands Christians to evangelize:
Mariska believes that people crave salvation, but often settle for quick fixes like fads and self-help books because they haven’t heard about their true Savior, Jesus Christ.
“How will they change if there’s no one to tell them how?” she asks.
Though she knows He doesn’t have to use her, God is showing Mariska that He wants and chooses to use her to introduce others to Himself.
“We are the doorways for God to introduce Himself to other people,” Mariska says.
Mariska is learning that though faith is stirred up by things we cannot see, it grows and takes root by things we can see – how God is changing lives.
“Sharing our faith is bringing the Bible to life, bringing God to life in the world we’re in today,” Mariska says, “We provide people with living testimonies that what the Bible says is true.”
As Mariska has stepped into spiritual conversations with her roommates, co-workers, friends and even strangers, she’s realized that almost everyone is looking for someone they can connect with, someone who’s real.
“People are tired of fakes,” she says. “They crave real stories of real people in real situations. She can offer that to them simply by telling her story.
Mariska has found her own faith strengthened as she talks with others about Jesus.
Making spiritual conversations part of everyday life has pushed Mariska to continually stay connected to the Lord, trust Him with fear and the unknown, and even experience His love in a new way. He blesses her with the joy of getting to watch firsthand as He speaks to people and changes lives.
“It is exciting for me to speak with people and share truth with them, and then afterwards think about how I have grown and been blessed, too,” Mariska says.
When Mariska first arrived in the U.S. for her internship, she expected to be one of only a few Christians in her workplace. But as she became brave enough to tell her co-workers about her beliefs, she realized that there were actually several Christians working alongside her.
“I thought, wow, how little is my faith in thinking that people wouldn’t be followers of Christ when they actually were,” she says.
Several of her co-workers were looking for churches or Bible studies to attend, and because Mariska spoke openly about her faith, many of them have now found Christian community that they would have missed otherwise.
Mariska is still learning what it means to overcome her fears about evangelism and navigate through spiritual conversations with others but she has answered “yes” to God’s call to evangelize.
What will your answer be?
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