Reason to CELEBRATE!!!

There have been a lot on my mind this past day or 2 but there is nothing more important to share than the experience today. I celebrate today not because of independence day for the United States but rather the awesomeness of knowing that 5 people have accepted Christ! My partner today Tim, and I had the privilege of seeing 3 of these 5 accept Christ.

Today we went sharing at Magic Island where many gathered and camped out in preparation for the July 4th festivities and fireworks. The story that resounds most for me today was seeing 2 guys, Taylor and CJ come to know God. Tim and I had been walking around talking to people for a while and we hit some what of a slump. People just didn't seem to want to talk and we couldn't find people that weren't sitting in giant groups hanging out. We noticed a guy sitting on a ledge by himself and Tim was like, "Let's do this." While we approached, some of his friends approached him as well. I was like, oh shoot, more people, what are we gonna do? I did not want to initiate. But Tim decided to still initiate and so he started talking to the guys. He asked if they were willing to listen to what he had to share about something that had transformed his life and they said sure. So there were a couple guys but the main to were Taylor and CJ. Tim basically jumped straight into the gospel and started sharing the four spiritual laws in our booklet that we use.

I then decided to sit with CJ and share a booklet with him so he could better follow along as Tim read and explained it. They were both following along well. At one point, I was slow to turn the page in the booklet and CJ took the booklet from me, turned the page and gave it back to me. We get to the end of the four laws and ask if they want a life with themselves as the center on the throne of their life or one with Jesus in the center on the throne with them yielding to Him. They both decide the life with Christ as the center. At this point, I was like wow, hmm, this is something. And so we went to talking about the prayer to accept Jesus Christ. I read through the prayer with CJ and afterwards asked him what it meant. He highlighted how Jesus died for our sins and our sins are forgiven. He mentioned how we can have eternal life by believing that Jesus is our Lord and Savior. Then I was like, this is it! He's got it. And so we prayed the prayer together. I mean I was just reading it and I look over and CJ has his head bowed and eyes closed and he just repeats after me. And afterwards, I'm just in awe of what God has done and excited to be there to see this new brother in Christ. I talk to Tim afterwards and the same thing happened for Taylor as well. How awesome is that!

And so God totally worked in the lives of Taylor and CJ. Keep praying for their walks as well. We saw how powerful prayer was today, asking God for an external perspective, to be filled and guided by the Spirit, and to see God to work in powerful ways.