Learning New Ways to Reach Out by Lori

One goal that Chris and I have is to disciple Christians here in San Vicente in reaching out to their neighbors. With that goal in mind, I gathered several of my Christian sewing students during Nov. to share how the community wide sewing classes could be used as a vehicle to launch new friendships and draw people into God’s kingdom. Each of them expressed that the importance of evangelism is stressed at church, but the specifics of “HOW” has eluded them. So, we spent some time talking about “friendship evangelism” and building new relationships outside of the church setting, being sensitive to the Lord’s leading, and looking for people who God is drawing to himself. I shared how wonderful it is for us to be able to work alongside of our Heavenly Father when He is working in people’s lives.  We closed with a time of prayer for the upcoming classes and asked the Lord to bring new people.

Four ladies accepted the responsibility of assisting me during the next week’s sewing classes with each lady committing to helping for a full day of morning and afternoon classes. Each took a few invites or posters with the task of connecting with new people.  Wow! The Lord answered our prayer with 13 brand new students just on Monday. Then word spread and before week’s end, 24 new students had come to learn how to sew by creating Christmas wreaths, stockings and table runners. Most of the new students had no experience with a sewing machine so it was wonderful to have a “helper” teaching the basics and sharing stories of going from no knowledge of sewing to having their very own sewing businesses. This was an encouragement to those who were struggling at mastering just sewing a straight line. But the real win was seeing my team of shy ladies reaching past their comfort zones in order to connect with new students and begin friendships. They sacrificed working on their own projects so that they could spend time ministering to the community at large. What a blessing they were. I’m looking forward to seeing new fruit during the coming months. Join us in praying that the seeds that were planted will have fallen on fertile soil.