Unchurched Interview #1

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I interviewed my best friend from back home. She is a person that I have always had a spiritual burden for. When I approached her with the request of an interview, I explained that it was for a class to help practice various social skills and such. (I’ve learned through different relationships with unbelievers that, alot of times, we need to approach “spiritual” topics in a very simple, gentle way.) As I began with the first question, I could sense reserve in her voice. First of all, she isn’t a very secure person, so, she tends to think her thoughts are not valid. But, I assured her that no answer was any better or worse than the next and that I just wanted her to be open and honest with her thoughts. Some of her answers surprised me: When asked about the greatest need in her area, she answered, “I believe we need less focus on materialism and working and focus more on family and relationships.” When asked the question, “Why do you think most people do not attend church today?” she became a little bit defensive. She feels as though Christians have a tendency to be pushy in their beliefs, and a bit too judgmental. I can see where she is coming from because I have seen her experience this several times as we were growing up. It breaks my heart, but I was able to share with her about how God created us for relationship above all other things. Living a sinless life and attending church faithfully are things that we strive for after we choose to walk according to His will. I could feel that she was very receptive to this, which was wonderful! She hasn’t yet made the decision to give her life to Him but, I’m praying and believing that someday she will.
This interview was a great open door to pick her brain and to initiate good conversation. Something I’m in the process of learning is that we need to be sensitive and discerning when talking to people who don’t understand the Christian faith.

Chaplain Will

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It is easy to see that Chaplain Will has a deep burden to spread the Gospel and reach the lost. I love that he has responded to the calling of God on his life. Many people would have a difficult time going into the prison to teach severely broken people. But they need to hear it just as much as anyone so, I respect him very much for doing that.

I have to say that I was a little bit disappointed when he was asked about his long term goals. He said he would like there to be more halfway houses, discipleship opportunities, and community involvement. Those are all great but, it seemed as though he had no direct plan of how to make this happen. Maybe he isn’t as gifted in advertisement or doesn’t have the necessary tools but, he could find someone who is good at those things so that they can help accomplish these goals.

Finances seemed to be an issue as well. I know how hard it can be to seek out sponsors but, if the lack of funding is great enough, a person should do all that they can to get the help that they need.

Overall, I enjoyed having Chaplain Will share his ministry with us. His various testimonies were encouraging to listen to. He does a wonderful job at loving the lost as Jesus has called us all to do. We could definitely learn something valuable from what he has shared with us.

John Wega

John Wega is the leader/starter of the US Christian Commission in Gettysburg. As he began to explain what this "job" entails, I could barely keep up! It is unbelievable to me how he is able to manage all of these different ministries at once. To recap a little bit, he does street outreaches, runs church services, puts on live history performances, manages a museum, etc... Those things are only a piece of all of the things that he and his family does. Which, by the way, is the thing that amazes me the most about this ministry. John and his family started this from scratch. They decided to take on this amazing outreach out of faith and the Lord has blessed it abundantly over the past seven years. They only problem is that there are not enough people to team up with him to help. As the scriptures say in Matthew 9, the harvest is plenty but the workers are few. I meditated on this for a while after class had ended and thought about how much of a burden that would be for a man to carry so much weight with just the help of a few other people. The bottom line is, God is always faithful in providing what we need exactly when we need it. It blessed me to see John's passion for advancing the Kingdom of God through his gifts as a history buff. It confirmed in me again that there are no limits to spreading the Gospel!