Quietly Outspoken

In Mark 16:15, Jesus said, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." Unfortunately, many churches and individuals do "check preaching" as I say. They help to financially support missionaries to go and preach the gospel, but stop there. It's great to help support missionaries, and we should do so, but looking at the verse again you'll notice it doesn't say certain people only.

I'm not any different, I am quick to help support or encourage others to preach, but am slow to do so myself. In May, I received a message asking for volunteers to help serve at the Answers in Genesis gospel outreach booth at the Iowa State Fair. I put my name in for a few shifts, the first of which was

Friday morning.

The booth has a hand built model of Noah's Ark along with different displays asking questions about how Noah did things, evolution, and knowing Christ. I sat near one of the TV's showing a short movie about the new Ark Encounter in Kentucky. Other volunteers were handing out ark themed gospel tracts and we did sticker tattoos for kids.

While parents waited in line I would ask them about the ark and talk with them as they allowed. I saw one passer-by reading a question, so I asked him his thoughts. He gave them quite loudly and walked off. The question I heard the most though was, "What?"

When using mechanical ventilation in the quad life, you have a quiet voice. It works fine in classrooms where I'm the only one speaking, but not when there is a lot of background noise. Therefore, I kept trying to take deeper breaths and talk louder so people could hear. By the end of my three-hour shift, my lungs were sore and my throat was still sore 11 hours later.

I was able to hand out a number of tracts at least and did have short conversations with people. I'm scheduled to go two more times this week and I am looking forward to them again. I don't know how much this will make me into a preacher, but it is fun to spread the gospel. Hopefully by my next post I'll still have a voice!