My Husband, The Conversationalist

Recently we were visiting with some acquaintances. We know them but we don't know them well. As Greg was visiting and asking questions, I was grateful to have him there and reminded of how God has uniquely gifted him in the area of conversation starting. Greg is a pretty quiet guy by nature, so most people would not think of him as a conversationalist. But quite the opposite is true. Greg is a bit of a "Jack of all trades" in life experience. He's able to draw from that and connect with just about anyone. I've never seen him intimidated by what another person does for a living, and that also serves him well. I've always said if Greg meets an astrophysicist at a dinner party the conversation would go something like this:

Me: Greg, this is Mary's husband, Frank. Frank, Greg. Greg, Frank.

A little later in the evening.

Greg: So, Frank, what do you do for a living?

Frank: I'm an astrophysicist. I work for NASA.

Greg: Oh, cool.

A little later in the evening.

Greg: So, Frank, are they still using the 25679-V at NASA these days?

Frank: With surprise and delight on his face says. Well, yes they are. In fact in my first 10 years with the company all I worked on was the 25679-V. Most people have never heard of it.

Me: Raising my hand in the background. (Yep. I've never heard of it).

Greg will then go on to explain how he knows about the 25679-V, and about 20 minutes of conversation will ensue.

Again, this is my imaginary re-enactment, but I've seen this sort of thing happen time and time again during my marriage to Greg. It is remarkable to watch. I'm very grateful for this conversational gift God has bestowed on Greg. I watch and try to learn.

Radical Conversion

Right now, in my Bible reading time, I'm reading through the book of Acts. I love this book! It's full of the gospel. Now I'll share a few verses from Acts chapter 9 and then a few thoughts.

But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank. Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; and taking food, he was strengthened.
For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”

Wow! What a radical conversion! But, no less radical than when God took this wicked heart of mine and gave me a new one that desired Him, no less radical than the conversion of any Christian. The work of conversion is done by God through His Son, as so clearly demonstrated in these verses.

I'm also struck by the sentence "For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name." No health, wealth, and prosperity promise there but a promise nonetheless, the same one given to us.

Reconciled

A couple Sundays ago, we sang this song in the worship service at church. I love the words to this song, so I thought I'd share them with you.

Reconciled (by David Charpie)

No more at war with God. I stand in grace, His wrath appeased
His justice fully satisfied, hostilities have ceased
No fragile or uneasy truce marks this our conflict's end
All enmity has been erased, my God now calls me "friend"

A treaty of my own I could have never hoped to bring
No strength my own could shield me from the fury of the King
For I was the offender who rebelled and chose to sin
And He the Just Avenger who will every battle win

But Jesus Christ himself has made this peace on my behalf
His blood has paid sin's penalty no more I fear God's wrath
O sing the love that bade my sinning sole be reconciled
Though once a rebel I've been made the King of Heaven's child!

Evangelism Evening/Tip 06/18/10

Tonight I leave you with an evangelism tip.

A lot of people say they hold back on sharing the gospel with strangers because they wouldn't know what to say or they're afraid they will get a question they cannot handle. I struggle more with starting the conversation. I'm a quiet person by nature. I don't start a lot of conversations. I can handle silence in a room, so I don't usually fill it in with conversation either. With this in view, approaching people and starting a conversation about the gospel has really been a struggle for me. I had to learn how to share the gospel, and I had to learn how to start a conversation in general.

Here's a few of the ideas that have helped me get in the mindset of starting a conversation.

• When walking down the street or in a public venue, I look people in the eye.

• As I'm walking and looking people in the eye, I smile at them.

• I say "hello" to strangers as I walk by them.

• If I'm standing behind someone in a line at the checkout and I observe something unusual about them, I say it out loud and ask questions if appropriate (Example: "Wow. That's a lot of eggs. I'm curious what someone would do with so many eggs.")

• If someone has a tattoo, I ask about it. ("Hmmm, that's an interesting tattoo. Tell me what it means?")

• Because I am hesitant to start a conversation with other people, if a stranger starts a conversation with me, no matter what the subject, I make sure they walk away from me with a gospel tract in their hand (usually the one I wrote). It feels less intrusive to me if they started talking to me, so I try not to miss the opportunity that God has laid in my lap.

• Stay in God's Word constantly, so you are prepared for the opportunities He gives you.

• I try to deal with sin quickly by confessing it and looking to the cross for my help. If I am ignoring sin in my life, I am likely to avoid my Bible. If I am ignoring sin in my life, I am likely to pass up an opportunity to evangelize because I think to myself, "Who I am to tell them what to do."

Those are a few tips that have helped me to get in the pattern of starting conversations with other people. When I'm out seeking to evangelize and that is my sole purpose for the evening, I still have to start the conversation from scratch, and there's still a level of awkwardness to it, but developing the habit of engaging in conversation has made the process easier for me.

The Making of an Egyptian

I mentioned in the previous post that Wednesday night was an Egyptian costume contest at our church's VBS event. I documented the process in case you might have need for this type of thing in your life someday.

Step 1: You will need a pillow case. It would be wise to make sure the pillow case fits the child. We did this by placing the pillow case over her body, head and all. (As I took this picture, Emily said, "Wait, I think I might have blinked."--always the comedian).

Step 2: Cut a hole in the top of the pillow case for the child's head to fit through and one hole on each side for the arms.

Step 3: Cut a collar out of felt (felt is very inexpensive to purchase by the yard, and 1/4 of a yard was sufficient for this project).

Step 4: Decorate the collar with jewel stickers (they can be purchased at the local craft store). The finishing touches were a painted wooden cobra (also found at the local craft store) glued to an old headband, painted gold. A piece of gold ribbon for a belt, and you have yourself an Egytian costume.

A Week With Emily

As I mentioned in Monday's post, this week our church was hosting VBS. I volunteered to run the "snack shack" for the week. With that big job in view, I took the week off of work (so glad I did that) to spend the week in ministry. I also invited my niece, Emily, to stay with us for the week (glad I did that too). It was a good week and a busy week. Emily was a great help with the snack shack preparations. I took pictures of our week together, and I'll share them in this post.

Monday's snack was pyramid-shaped sandwiches. First the proper sanitary precautions needed to be taken. (She wasn't too thrilled about the shower cap, but she was good a sport nonetheless, even let me take a picture of her).

Emily put the filling in all of our sandwiches, and I buttered them for the grilling process to come later that evening. (We had grilled cheese, chocolate and marshmallow, and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches that evening).

The next night we made desert dessert cups (vanilla pudding mixed with whipped cream, topped with vanilla cookie crumbs and decorated with a couple gummy worms hanging off the side of the cups). Emily had a little fun with the gummy worms, as you can see in the picture.

At the end of the VBS session on Tuesday night, the kids were instructed to come the next evening dressed as an Egyptian, as there would be a costume contest. That was a curve ball I wasn't expecting. Wednesday morning we spent some time making an Egyptian costume. (I'll write a separate post on the making of the costume).

Recently Greg dug out a small air hockey table given to him and his brother as a gift several Christmases ago. We played many games of air hockey throughout the week. Emily loved the game and improved greatly as the week went on. She said she needed to play me first because I am level 1 and then Greg because he is level 2 (I thought the comment was slightly insulting.....but not entirely untrue). Emily is a bit of a trash talker when she plays the air hockey. I was the recipient of comments such as: "Come on, you're playing like a girl." and "Oh, it's on now!" several times throughout the week. When Greg and I played against each other, Emily would provide play by play commentary and commercials. It was quite entertaining.

On our last day together, Emily and I went to Bunker Beach (a local water park attraction complete with wave pool, waterslides, sand play park, and a lazy river---Minnesotans are good at the summer thing---we have so little of the warm weather, so we live it up for three months--lots of fun summer attractions in Minnesota). We had a great time. We spent a lot of time in the wave pool--got a little too much sun--went down a few water slides.

At the end of the closing program tonight, Emily went home with her mom (so great to have her mom at the program). It was a fun week spent in ministry at our church and ministry with my niece. I'm grateful God allowed it.

Happy Birthday, Greg!

Today is my husband's birthday. Greg is celebrating 40 years on this earth. I am grateful to God for Greg. He is a man of God who gives importance to his role as leader of our family. God has gifted him and given him talents in areas that would fill up several blog posts. I enjoy watching him use those talents in ministry for the Lord.

Greg, I pray for God's continued growth in your life in the year to come. Happy Birthday, my husband!