Coming here has brought back some very fond memories. In 2008, Zambia was the first place where I had the opportunity to share the Gospel in a school. Earlier this week, I was even blessed to revisit the specific location where I first shared Jesus in public, Nelson Mandela Elementary School. (see photo) I would like to take a few minutes to share the story of how I got my start in evangelism here in Lusaka…
In 2008, it worked out for me to go on my first mission with my father, David Stockwell, and two other evangelists just a few weeks after finishing college where I studied physics. I had never been trained how to share my faith and I had never spoken in public. Therefore, we made sure to schedule a maximum of three school programs at any one time so that we could have one of the three American evangelists leading each assembly. On Monday and Tuesday, I went out with one of the evangelists and was mainly a photographer, but I also shared a one or two minute testimony in each school. Everything was going as planned…
However, it turned out that one of the teams had some trouble Tuesday morning. They were scheduled to speak at the morning assembly for a large high school, but they had some vehicle problems on the way there and arrived about thirty minutes late to find that the assembly had been released. After pleading with the principal of the school to allow the team to come back and share the Gospel with the students some other time, she finally agreed to allow the team to come back the next morning at 7:00AM.
After a busy Tuesday in schools, our three teams finally arrived back at the guesthouse where we were staying by about 9:00PM. Once we had finished praying together and sharing stories from the day, we eventually realized that we already had three schools scheduled for early Wednesday morning, and that the rebooking meant that we were scheduled to be at four schools at the same time. The only way we were going to be able to complete our new schedule was to have four teams the next morning.
Therefore, I learned around 10:00PM that I would be the main speaker at 7:00AM the next day presenting the Gospel to a school in Lusaka, Zambia! Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep that night, but I can honestly say that I didn’t “freak out,” or panic, or anything else like that. I actually had peace with the situation almost immediately. I knew that God had made this happen for a reason, and that He would give me the strength to do whatever needed to be done. I simply grabbed a piece of paper and one of the tracts which we were giving out and prayerfully wrote notes on what I was going to say that morning.
A few hours later, I was definitely nervous as I stepped up to the podium with 800 students and teachers at Nelson Mandela Elementary School waiting to hear me speak. I was very glad to be using an interpreter because it gave me a moment to think about what I wanted to say next while he was translating, and he did a great job of covering up for my pauses, stutters, and other errors! In any case, I got through the message and when it came time for the invitation, more than half the assembly said that they wanted to receive Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. God is so good!
After the program, I had the opportunity to meet the principal of the school. She thanked me for coming and explained to me that half of the school had classes in the morning and that the other half attended class in an afternoon session. She then invited me to come back and share the same message with the afternoon session later in the day! I told her that I didn't have anything else planned, so I would see her later.
In the five years since that day, I have been blessed to share the life-changing message of Jesus Christ in more than 250 schools with over 150,000 students and see more than 100,000 professions of faith. It is incredibly humbling to look back and remember the day that God called me as a 22 year old, inexperienced, untrained kid to share the Gospel in Africa.
Thanks for reading this, and thanks even more for your prayer and support as Youth Education Strategies continues to boldly proclaim the Good News of Christ to the nations!
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