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DAY 5: The beautiful thing about being a part of the kingdom of God is that any risk we take is not really a risk at all. No matter what the outcome of our actions, as long as we are following His will, God is in control no matter what. It was a blessing and a privilege to be a part of the risk and the will of Christ on this day. We started off the day with every intention of returning to our work project, but God clearly had different plans for us considering He sent heavy rains upon us all morning. We took the time he gave us to dig deep into his word and explore the internal fruit that comes from within a missions team; a fruit that is rarely the cause of a mission trip but its outcome is just as vital as any outward work being done.

After some great Bible time, all the while waiting to see what the rain would do, a plan B was created. The weather lightened up enough to be outside but was still too damp to do the painting we had originally hoped to do, thus we went into Sangre Grande with gospel-oriented surveys and spent most of the afternoon sharing with locals about the life-altering love of Christ. It is difficult to sum up an afternoon like that, because every individual had such a different experience, but I can tell you that despite the differences between our conversations, Christ was a clear part of every one of them. It does not cease to amaze me the way that the culture here allows us to openly evangelize in a way that would never be so well-accepted back in the states.

After lunch and more surveys the team got ready for an evening of hard-core evangelism. A friend of the Heerah’s graciously allowed our team to put on a program in front of their store in Sangre Grande so that we could share the gospel to the streets of Trinidad. Crowds gathered from across the street in front of stores, in front of our space on the side walk, and packed around the area that we performed, all curious to see what the crazy Americans in matching yellow shirts were going to do.

The crowds were not massive, but they were consistent and we considered ourselves blessed to have any listening ears at all. For the first segment of our program the team sang two worships songs together, Hope Ruffner shared her testimony, and the skit “Decision Time” was performed.

After about a half hour of talking to the listeners on the street, getting responses, and handing out tracts, we started all over again. This time the team sang two different worships songs; John Shull shared his testimony (beautifully, I may add), and the skit “King of Hearts” was performed. An eloquent, but ultimately welcoming and clear presentation of the gospel by Ronnie Heerah followed both segments.

Naturally, we did hit some bumps in the road, but every one of them was extraordinarily handled. For example, when drunk and mentally unwell men showed up hoping to become best buds with some of us, the men on our team (leaders and students) swung into super-protection mode making sure that every person felt completely safe the entire evening. One drunken man yelled that he was “vexed” at one of our college leaders because he would not allow the man to marry one of our team members. It was honestly hilarious and handled in a way that allowed us to laugh rather than feel uncomfortable or unsafe. I could not, and I think I speak well for all of the girls here, ask for a better group of guys to protect us and work beside us.

Our time on the streets today was really incredible. We saw a huge interest and spoke some real truth to many people we had never met and may never see again. God was in every detail, every word, and every moment calming and guiding hearts. We left Sangre Grande with joy in our hearts and a thirst to seek more opportunities to share in the same way that we had this evening. We have tasted and we have seen that God is good.