Fireworks-less Fourth and Evangelism

This was my first year of my entire existence that I haven't watched fireworks on the fourth of July. It was acctually quite tragic. We went to a baseball game the day before and there were fireworks after that, so my family decided we already saw all the fireworks we needed to see. So although we did get to see fireworks, it wasn't on the Fourth. I may be scarred for life! Okay, not really, but maybe for the rest of this week... As some of you know, I have an immune system like none other. I heal fast. :)

This morning, instead of going to church with my grandparents like we usually do when we're in Chicago, we went to church with my aunt. She calls it "the loud church" because 1)the church is really big, 2)there's a big choir, 3)it's a gospel choir (which I LOVED, by the way), and 4)everyone-big congregation-gets really into it and claps a lot. I loved it!! I really want to be in a gospel choir sometime and talking to my dad about it, I just found out that we acctually have a gospel choir in Eau Claire that's open to the community!! Yet another thing to put on my list of things I want to do this fall... (including possibly trying out for My Fair Lady at the State Theatre because I LOVE that musical-although I have no idea what part I would be able to get-or Beauty and the Beast at the Children's Theatre, cross country, a possible job at The Living Room-my favorite cafe in Eau Claire, and a few other ambitions). So the worship was awesome and then there was the sermon. There was a guest speaker (sorry, I don't remember his name...) and he talked about evangelism today. He spoke from 1 Corinthians 3:4-9. How one person plants, another waters, but it's God who makes the growth happen. But what really got to me was the stories that he told. There's no way that I could be able to tell the full stories-accurately or short enough-but I'll try to kind of sum one of them up. The first one was about a girl named Maria who lived in Brazil. She had been a Christian for three days and while in church that Sunday, heard the pastor talking about evangelizing. Maria made a promise that she would share what God had done in her life and planned on sharing on at least one of her bus rides home. Both rides, she sat next to an old, grouchy, elderly person and didn't share with either one of them. So when she was about to go to bed that night, she remembered that she promised God that she would share what He had done in her life with at least one person. So she got this idea to get out the phone book and she closed her eyes and pointed at a name in the phone book and then called the house. Maria started freaking out again when the guy who answered the phone sounded angry and said, "Who is this??" a couple times, so she just sang this song that was sung at church that morning when people were called down if they wanted to recieve Christ. It turns out that the man and his wife were both saved that night after talking with Maria. Later, she found out that the man had slipped into depression and no longer wanted to live. His wife didn't want to live if he wasn't living, so she was going to commit suicide with him. The guy went out and bought a bottle of insect killer and mixed it into 2 glasses of an alcoholic beverage and the couple was lifting the glasses to their mouths when the phone rang. Hearing that, I got goosebumps (or as a friend of ours calls them, glory pimples). Shivers were going up and down my spine and I was so close to crying. After hearing the message, I really feel like there's one friend in particular that I need to talk to (Alyssa, for those of you who have heard about her before and I've felt like I need to talk with her about my faith before). So I e-mailed her hoping to get together at the end of this week when we're home, and before I go to camp. So please be praying for Alyssa and that her eyes would be opened and that when I get the chance to talk to her, that it wouldn't be me speaking to her, but God speaking through me!! Because we all know that there's nothing that I could do or say by myself that would make anything as awesome as that happen!!