I honestly do not know if it was as dangerous as he made it out to be, but it sure did make me feel like I was on mission with God as a God smuggler! Each of us were loaded down with a backpack full of Bibles and we were trained in the Evangecube method of sharing the gospel. We were told that the bus would be back to pick us up at the end of the day and when it returned, we should have given out all of our Bibles and shared the gospel with as many people as we possibly could.
We were dropped off at the Ciudad de market... the city market. Moacir, my interpreter, and I headed out and started walking. We barely knew each other, but we knew we were together on this mission. Him as a seminary student learning how to share his faith and strengthen his translating skills, me as a seminary graduate living the life as a housewife not willing to waste her time.
As we walked along, I wondered, “LORD, how in the world am I to know who we are to stop and talk to?” As I prayed questions to God, Moacir prayed, “LORD, show me the people of peace!”
We walked past tarp covered booths as the rain fell on our faces when Moacir shouted, “Here! Here! We stop here!” I thought, “Who am I to argue!” I knew I had no clue. So, we walked up and there were three women sitting on footstools that were not more that twelve inches off the ground.
Moacir said, “This is my North American friend. She is here to tell the story of Jesus. Would you like for her to tell you about Jesus?” One of the women said, “I have been asking GOD to send me a missionary to share Jesus with my friends. There was a missionary here a few weeks back and I asked Jesus to be my Savior. You are an answer to prayer.”
So, I shared about Jesus and her two friends prayed to receive Jesus as their Savior. Our day was buoyed by this encounter not five minutes in and as the day unfolded, I lost track of how many people prayed to receive Christ as their Savior.
At one point, we went through five languages for the gospel to be heard. I was blown away. We ran out of Bibles fast and just continued sharing the gospel. At the end of the day one man really wanted a Bible, but we did not have any, so he asked us to come back the next day. So, we agreed. But, I did wonder how we would ever find him.
We arrived as the market was opening the next day in order to ensure our new friend would have a Bible. As we walked into the market again, I thought it would be impossible for us to know where to find him. Then I saw him across the street. I started jumping up and down. It wasn’t too hard to miss me because I stood almost a foot taller than most of the people! He waved at me and grabbed a friend by the elbow.
So, Moacir and I started sharing the gospel with our new friend’s friend. I realized that Moacir was speaking too quietly as he interpreted so I told him to speak louder. And I noticed that we had gathered a group of people that were listening. I would share and Moacir would interpret. I would press him to get louder because every time I looked up there were more people. Before it was all done, we were shouting as loud as we could so people could hear. I asked if anyone would like to ask Jesus to be their Savior and every person in the crowd lifted their hands. I was astounded.
Moacir started jumping up and down saying, “Tara, you preach in streets! You preach in streets like John the Baptist!”
It was in that moment that I caught the truth that I loved fulfilling the mandate to reach the nations! I have never in my life experienced anything like what I experienced on that trip, but I knew my life would never be the same.
