I must say when doing this sort of evangelism we in the AYS Department know that some unexpected things would turn up. We had a very, very, very limited amount of books/tracks to hand out but we expected that. We had over 120 mp3 CDs filled with sermons to distribute to the community. We were expecting a limited amount of participants (ranging anywhere from 8 to 20 including the AYS Department) but what we ran into was roughly 20 children and one chaperone waiting to partake in today’s evangelism. It was the cornerstone class along with a couple of younger children ranging from ages 10 – 18 (7 of them were in the teenage range).
With the determination to serve God no matter what, we still went out into our community. We diverted from the original strategy. While walking down Utica heading towards Fulton Street, the Sabbath School Teacher Julian, AY Leader Ann Marie Brown and I decided that we would break into three groups. Julian and four teenagers went to Fulton Park to hand out track and minister to the people there. Ann Marie and I broke off into smaller groups. Each group positioned in front of the station of the two entrances located on each side of Malcom X and Fulton Street. It was there we realized something. The little children have a great desire to evangelize, but their measures about doing so needs to.
When heading to the subway station, the children would rush the people down and stick their hands out to give a person a track. No introduction, no nothing. Though their evangelizing was done with love, you could see that in groups, the kids treated evangelizing as if it were a competition; rushing to see who can hand out the tracks the quickest. We realized that we have to remind them what the purpose of evangelizing to our community and show them what might be a better way of handing out tracks. A method that I seen working was keeping them close but pairing them in two (it reduces the competition a little). Then I rotated each child with an adult to show them how to best evangelize.
I remember when I was with Justin Adams in front of the train station. Within a short time, I seen him interacting with members in the community and reciting some of the introductions which were thought to him (Asking individuals if they needed prayer and introducing himself to the people he approached). I believe that if we pay close attention to our children, mentoring smaller groups and taking time to nurture every aspect of their lives, we would be amazed of the growth that God would have used us to make them become. I thank HIM for allowing me to share this experience with these beautiful young ones. I will make a conscious effort for those who are reading, please pray for Leroy and Jamal (with employment, like many), and the various people we prayed for and distributed tracks and CD’s too. May it help them to strengthen their lives with our God and commit themselves to him totally (for those who haven’t).
Written By:Naquan Taitt
Photo By:Canetta Baker
Each CD Contained about 63 sermons from various Adventist Pastors across the nation thanks to
apwin.org
