Did You Say ‘Grand Canyon’?

Phos House Evangelism Day – Pt 2

“A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of having a time to do evangelism with some of my housemates. Together, we decided to walk along the lake shore trail to see if the Lord would lead us to anyone. As we were on our way, we walked past two African American men by the lake. I had the thought of going over to them and talking with them, but decided to walk past. However, they kept coming to mind, so eventually I decided to walk back and talk with them.

Jack (my housemate) and I walked over to where they were, and awkwardly said “hi”. They said hello back, but then the conversation seemed to die out. So I stood there awkwardly, staring at the lake, trying to figure out a way to start a meaningful conversation. I heard one of them mention the Grand Canyon (my parents are from Arizona), and I quickly chimed in “Did I hear you mention the Grand Canyon? I have been wanting to visit!” From there, we started a steady conversation. We talked about a lot of things. We talked about how to make the world a better place and about God. I got to explain to them why I believe Jesus is the only true source of hope for the world. They seemed truly interested and asked me several questions related to my faith.

I hope that God used my words to plant seeds for the future. There was one thing that they told me that was especially impactful to me. They told me that they feel that people can sometimes be intimidated by them because of their race, and because of that, they both said that they really appreciated me coming up to talk to them. It was a rare occurrence, and it meant a lot to them. That stuck with me. If I am honest, I was feeling insecure and inadequate about sharing my faith that day, but it was amazing that God used me despite my feelings of inadequacy. We serve a great God who does mighty things through broken and fragile people. I’m so grateful for the opportunities that the Lord has given me through being at Phos house.

By Nathan, UW Madison scholar living at Phos.