Happy Saturday!

I was just briefly going through my google feed reader when I came across my friend Melinda's post. In it, she very honestly, but sweetly shares of sister Rachel and their relationship. It blessed me this morning so I thought I would send my readers over to read it.

Interesting tidbit about Melinda and I. We met in Oregon. I was visiting a home fellowship one Sunday and I had shared where I was from. A couple (and their daughter, Rachel) came up to me afterwards asking me if I knew a family that used to be from my area. I did. Come to find out this couple was from Oklahoma! We kept talking and realized we had even more mutual friends (mostly thanks to the homeschool scene). It was such a treat to talk of friends from home after being away for several months. Anyways, Melinda's mom told me she had a daughter my age, so I gave her my contact info, sincerely hoping to hear from Melinda sometime. Melinda promptly emailed me... and the rest is history! Melinda is a sweet friend, and though we haven't gotten to spend as much time together as we would have liked, we stay in touch, and I'm thankful.

Go check out her blog.

I'm off to finish my laundry and cleaning this messy room so I can escape this afternoon to a quiet place somewhere to do a little a lot of Bible reading* and photo-editing.

*only eleven days left! where are you? how can I be praying for you?

I would like to introduce you all to Marcus. he's the real deal and a great friend to all who know him. There are several reasons why I have chosen this day and way of introducing him to you.

First of all, today was his birthday and I want to give him a personal shout out just to say, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Second of all, he's got a great blog he's got going on over here that you would do well to visit.

Thirdly, he's really been an encouragement to me when it comes to my favorite topic as of late: evangelism. When I blogged about going door to door, Marcus emailed me and shared what had been on his heart. He incredibly graciously has allowed me to post parts of that letter. I can't help but think that it would be beneficial for my blog readers to read someone elses heart on this matter other than my own.

...The past few months God has really been working on my heart about telling others about Him. [a mutual friend] asked me to teach the youth on Sunday nights this past summer, and I really wanted to share with them what I feel that God placed on my heart. I was not very comfortable sharing the gospel with other people, and so I thought we could all learn more about it and practice sharing the gospel so that when God gave us the opportunity we could boldly share. I always thought that I did not know know enough or I would somehow mess it up when I shared the Gospel. As the weeks went by, I learned a lot and God really begin to change my attitude towards evangelism. I could do this, God had called me to do this, but I had to trust in him and open my mouth and let the Holy Spirit speak through me.

Jesus Christ was in Heaven, but he chose to come down to earth and humble himself to die for ME! He was willing to do that for me, but I was too afraid to open my mouth and tell the people I know and the people that live in my town about Him. There was something wrong with that picture...the fear of man was greater than my love for Christ. I told myself that cannot be...I LOVED Jesus and was so grateful for his free gift, but God kept working on my heart..."If you really love me, then why wont you tell others about me?"

I felt so guilty and ashamed, but God continued to work in my life and tell me that he still loved me and had chosen to die for me. Nothing I could do would seperate me from his love. His grace and mercy was more than enough and even though I have failed to share the Gospel with others in times where he has given me the opportunity, he has forgiven me for all the times I stayed quiet.

Anyways, I write all of this to say that I am in the same boat you are in about evangelism. I want to share the Gospel with other people. I want to tell the world of what Jesus had done and the free gift of eternal life. I know that we are in separate states and all, but if you ever want to get people together and go door to door to share the gospel let me know and I will be there if I can. ... If you go door to door while I am here at school text or call me and let me know so that I can partner with yall in prayer. There is a battle for souls going on right now in our world, we need to be bold and share the Truth with the lost.

This summer in our class we came across this quote that I thought was really cool. It really puts it into perspective that we should not be afraid to tell others about Jesus because if we don't tell them, they may not have another chance.

 "If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for."  --Charles Spurgeon

See? You really should go read his blog and be encouraged. He hasn't been blogging long, but he even has a post about his own 6 month trek through the Bible which I recommend to my fellow Bible challenge readers as having some important insight. 

Hopefully everybody has a friend like Anna. She's the kind of person you can be yourself around, even if you're loud and silly. If you ever feel like talking about yourself, go have a chat with her, because she gives you all the opportunity you need to spill life's joys and trials. You'll leave still wondering what she's been up to lately, because for the last 5 hours, you've talked about you.

5 and half years ago -- though I can't believe its been that long-- her dad flew her, my dad, and I out to Zion Nat'l Park in Utah and we had a 3 day hiking and rappelling adventure. Even those moments when I thought I was going to die, I look back on with fondness. : ) Good memories. Good friends.