How not to witness: I can remember writing Scriptures to my Jewish family about my new faith and warning my loved ones that they were “going to hell.”  Ha!  As a new believer in Jesus Christ I was exploding with zeal, but Proverbs 19:2 says that we should temper our zeal with knowledge.

So how do we communicate this deep love that is in our hearts for Jesus with those who do not yet know Him?  I don’t know if there’s any one perfect answer, but I’ll share a few things that I’ve learned over the past 37 years on the mission field.

The greatest soul winner I ever met was a man named Jimmy Maynor.  He traveled around the world winning the lost to Christ.  When he was back in the U.S. he taught churches how to evangelize.  But something he said changed our lives forever:

“If you want to be a soul winner, you have to go where the harvest is.”  

For Jimmy, that often meant going off the beaten path and away from the places with creature comforts.

Up until then we had experienced a measure of success leading people to Christ. We always carried tracts and took our large family out witnessing to nursing homes, jails and other churches. Before 9/11 and today’s heightened airport security we had a blast going to O’Hare and talking with the people who were waiting at their departure gates.  (We found a “captive audience!”)  But moving to the Philippines took this desire to share Jesus to a whole new level.

We followed Jimmy’s advice and found a ripe harvest in a field 10,000 miles away.  Since 1986, we have led tens of thousands to Christ and worked hard to get them into their local churches and get them discipled.  The precious Filipino people watched every part of our lives as we lived among them.  We trusted God for His provision so we could go and tell the good news.  The Asian food was different and the extreme heat and mosquitoes were overwhelming.  We often ministered in the provincial areas where there was no modern sanitation and slept on the floors with our family.  We were out of the comfort zone, reaching the lost and growing in God.  No hotels, no restaurants, no air-conditioning—just souls, souls, souls!

Now God may not lead you all the way to the Philippines, but the point is that each of us should develop a greater sensitivity to those in our midst without Christ.  Most lost people are keenly aware that they do not have a relationship with God.  They’re hurting and bleeding like the wounded man in the parable of the Good Samaritan.  The religious man didn’t help but the compassionate man did.  When people have their lives in a mess they are finally willing to open up.  In these rare, honest moments people are vulnerable. 

By sharing the difference Jesus made in our lives and lovingly and compassionately reaching out to others, hearts can be touched and changed. 

Whether we plant the seed, water it or harvest it, the Holy Spirit is at work, wooing them to Jesus.

Each of us comes across many people in our neighborhoods, schools and work.  We might be one of the few believers they know.  One of our Chicago neighbors never paid much attention to us for ten years.  When her husband had a heart attack, she rang our doorbell at 9:00 PM one night and asked us to pray for him.  She told us, “I know you people know how to pray.”  People watch our lives more than we realize.

Timing is vital and being led by the Spirit is the key. 

Whether a person is ready to accept Christ or not, nearly everyone is thankful for prayer.  I like to lay my hand upon their shoulder or even hold hands as I bring their request before God.

This may seem hard to believe but no one told me about Jesus for the first 22 years of my life.  My kind piano teacher was a minister’s wife but she was probably intimidated by the fact that we were Jewish.  I am eternally thankful someone dared to tell me about Jesus.  My husband Daniel actually accepted Christ as a result of a tract that someone gave him one day!

A long time ago Jimmy Maynor was going door-to-door with a local Pastor.  They were tired and ready to call it a day when they decided to visit one last house.  Inside was Pat, an alcoholic Vietnam war veteran at the end of his rope.  Pat not only accepted Jesus, he went into the ministry and has pastored a church in Iowa for decades. 

I’ll close with a sobering thought.  In Thailand and in the pre-digital picture days we frequently developed our film at a particular photo studio.  For several years the same man kindly waited on us.  One day when we went to get our film developed he wasn’t there and Daniel inquired about him.  He was shocked to learn this 40-year-old man had just died in a car accident.  But what shattered us the most about his untimely death was that we could not really remember sharing God’s plan of salvation with him.

All around us people are slipping into eternity.  May God open our eyes to the harvest around us. 

“He who wins souls is wise.” 

Proverbs 11.30b

Written by Menorah McCarty