Wednesday, 8 June 2011
Gandhi eat your heart out...
Wow wow wow had the coolest experience today. Lol! Jesus is gangster I’m telling you...hahaha!! I LOVE SERVING HIM! It's such fun! Sooooo I was meant to be sharing the gospel with a group of students in their early twenties...(or at least I thought I was)...most of whom were living below the poverty line, studying at this government funded scheme and they were being trained for work. Anyways so we get there and the way the centre co-ordinator is taking me round the whole premises talking me through every classroom...notice board...poster...sign...I’m thinking that He doesn't realise why I’m here does he? And he didn't. He thought I was here to present a motivational lecture to his students...hahaha...so hilarious! He had no idea I was there to empty hell and populate heaven!!
So I explained that I'm here to tell these students about Jesus - not here as a motivational speaker. But being a strong Hindu he obviously wasn't happy about that one! Hahaha. He asked me to think again as that just wasn't company policy and that could I instead just give a professional two hour lecture without sharing the gospel. Having worked in a school for eight years obviously I understand about protocol and policy but I just wasn't gonna budge. I explained that I was happy to motivate the students concerning their career choices and work ethics using my own life experiences but only if I was allowed to talk about Jesus. Yet the whole time I'm having this convo I’m saying to Jesus - "Lord what the frick am I gonna say to these people for two whole hours???...How am I going to inspire them to overcome every obstacle and motivate them to be the best students they can ever be without telling them directly about their God given destiny???"...Lol...Dilema or what. So I thought okay well I’ll share some of my testimony I guess and get them to see how I overcame my crazy past and changed my whole lifestyle.
But then I suddenly thought flip, my mama doesn't even know about my boozing and drug taking past so I reckon I had better give her a bit of a heads up before she gets the shock of her life during my little lecture. So as we're making our way into the room where all the students were I quickly tapped my mum on the shoulder and said as quickly and as casually as I could… "errr yeah mum before I got saved I was heavily involved in drink and drugs...okay"...and then I was hoping to just leave it there and keep walking but alas that was not to be the case…because quite firmly, with a distinctive no nonsense expression on my mum’s face she responded in a rather stern Indian accent "you are not telling them that". Hmmmm okaaaay then. Roger that, mum! Right so...what now...can't share the gospel...can't share my testimony...two hours of just standing there is so not gonna cut it...hmmm the poos really hit the fan now eh? Hahaha. And then before I knew it I was standing before more than 50 young adults and being introduced as their motivational speaker for the day. Hahahahahaha...so hilarious. And at this point I had absolutely no idea what I was going to say! And so I literally thought to myself…”Right Jesus…they’re all Yours…do your thing…cause I have NO IDEA what to do here!"...and then suddenly I began to speak.
Now you wouldn't believe me if I told you but I gotta say I was flipping DYNAMITE!! Now I know it was Jesus who did it...trust me it could only be Jesus...and I ain't even tryna do the whole false humility thing because I know it was Him but I'm telling you boy did He make me sound GOOD! Forget anyone else, I WAS INSPIRED by the words that came out of my mouth!! Hahaha! There I was talking to them about my own path and work ethics, my struggles, failures and major setbacks...sharing how Jesus came along and changed me into someone who could do anything she put her mind to...I talked to them about the spirit of excellence and the need to be a servant before ever being a leader...I shared my thoughts on their economy...the culture...the perils of modernisation...I spoke to them about goals...purpose...dreams...the trappings of wealth and pride...I talked them about the treasure that lay within each one of them...their ability to change not only their generation but the entire universe...I talked them through a business plan and shared about having a distinctive product and the importance of an effective marketing plan...I talked to them about renewing their mind...focusing on the positive and rejecting the negative…and I spoke to them about LOVE!! I said soooo much more but its too much to write...
In all of this I was able to tell them again and again how Jesus taught me everything I know and that HE CHANGED ME...HE WAS LEADING ME AND WAS MY SECRET WEAPON! Oh my gosh I can't believe what came out of my mouth and the way that it flowed and my Hindi was so pukkaliscious...OH HOW GOOD I SOUNDED!! Eat your heart out GANDHI! Hahaha! And then the best bit...I was able to share the gospel in response to one of their questions to me during the Q&A session aaaaaand I was also able to invite them all to church on Sunday. I'm amazed at how two hours went by in a blink of an eye...Maaaaan I was blessed! They clapped for me again and again sooo loudly every time I came out with a response to their questions...I’m telling you my responses were passionate, eloquent and sooo darn inspiring...I was like…hehehe Jesus stop it you're killing me!! I'm telling you they were floored...forget them, I was floored...wow Jesus rocks...I told you HE was gangster...they even bought me a gift...a nice little fake Tommy Hilfiger wrist watch...bless their little cotton socks...
Oh wow...I’m really just sooooooo tickled by how God did His thing!! After the lecture the centre co-ordinator insisted we talk. Ooooh he sounded serious. He said he was amazed with how awesome the lecture was, that in fact whenever he'd heard a Christian speak it has always been awesome and that he would be stealing a lot of what I said. Great I told him - it's all from the Bible anyway so feel free to nick it mate...Then he said despite the lecture being so inspiring he couldn't understand why I felt the need to have Jesus as my focus. I explained that I believed that the students real problem wasn't a lack of education or earthly limitations but they needed to be reconciled to Christ...and that there was no point training them for life if they were going to lose their souls. He asked why I thought anyone would lose their soul eternally and so I explained that the wages of sin were death. He had never heard that concept before and couldn't understand when I explained that no other faith provided a real solution to the problem of sin and that no other faith demonstrated AGAPE LOVE like true Christianity. We spoke for a long time about this but he couldn't accept what I was saying and insisted that Jesus was actually only a guru. I said "cool if that’s what you think but you can't change my experience". I thanked him from the bottom of my heart for letting me speak to his students about Jesus because he really didn't have to do that. Nevertheless I'm excited because one day he'll realise what an amazing door to salvation was opened today and his part in it...when he and his heavenbound students by God's beautiful grace come to know the Way, the Truth…and the Life...
Happy days!