Turkeys, Turkeys, Turkeys, Outreach?, Turkeys

Thanksgiving is here and it's time to reflect on the things that we are thankful for. I know God has blessed me in numerous ways through friends, family and physical needs but of these things, salvation is the most important. While all these blessings are great and need thankfulness, we tend to forget the most important person God has blessed us with: Jesus. Last Saturday I had to privilege of going to Turkey Outreach with a group from the Gathering and Frontline. Frontline has been doing this program where it hands out turkey dinners and share the Gospel to the less fortunate folks for a few years. Since I had football practice later that day, I could only stay for two hours, enough time to help unload turkeys from the truck.

While unloading the turkeys, one thing kept going through my mind. "Don't waste this time by talking to your friends from school who are always available, rather spend it sharing with someone you may not see on a regular basis." I was given this opportunity for a purpose and wasting it was not an option. I was convicted to go talk to someone with the purpose of sharing the Gospel. There was a group of dudes just hanging off by themselves in a corner. They didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the Frontliners so I approached them after taking a couple of deep breaths.

After a couple of preliminary questions, prepared myself for the awkward stage of turning the conversation into a spiritual one. To my surprise, there was no such stage. The individual that I ended up talking to was actually a believer from a drug rehab center. He has recently gotten himself clean and was a new believer. What was really amazing, was that he was struggling with the same thing as me, sharing our faiths to the ministry in which God has placed us. For me, I have difficulty sharing with my peers and with him, he has recognized that God wants him to reach his fellow rehab patients. What fueled the conversation was being thankful for salvation. Just talking to this guy was a continuation of what God has been trying to say to me. "When we are truly thankful for salvation, we can't help but talk about Jesus, we can't help but read about Jesus, we can't help but think about Him."

When I was driving back to football practice, I realized that though I didn't exactly share the Gospel to one who's never heard it, the Holy Spirit used that conversation to encourage an individual is able share the Gospel with even more people. It's awesome to see God's divine plan in work.

Now that's something to truly be thankful for, not only at one time a year, but rather all the time!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!