By Annelise Jagitsch
“We are students at a school in Oklahoma and we are here in Michigan for a week of training. Every year we have a Mission Week at school so this year we came up here. We are part of what is called Mission Track and we are learning how to be missionaries.” I was standing next to Ahmi as he told some random dude in the mall all about who we were and why we were there. I had been paired up with Andre and Ahmi (both my classmates) to do mall evangelism for about an hour Thursday night.
Amhi continued, “We are staying at the Adventist Frontier Missions training center and learning all about different countries and cultures and how to share our faith with people from all over the world. Tonight we are here to pray with people in the mall. Can we pray with you?” The guy was fixing phones and had listened as he worked. He turned us down but thanked us for stopping by.
Why are we doing this? I thought as we walked away. A few minutes later the three of us turned a corner and met up with Mr. Brooks. He immediately pulled us towards a cookie shop that was about to close. We ended up praying with the girl at the desk. She didn’t really want to pray with us but said she would if we bought some of her cookies so we bought the cookies and then prayed for her. See people don’t even want us to pray with them! I thought unhappily. I wasn’t having an easy time with this assignment at all.
The mall was about to close so we started back towards the entrance to leave. As we passed Victoria's Secret we met a security guard. We stopped and thanked him for his hard work. “You know we are actually here at the mall tonight to pray with people.” Mr. Brooks smiled and continued, “Can we pray for you tonight?” The guard smiled and said yes. We bowed our heads as Ahmi prayed. “Thank you!” the guard smiled once more and shook hands with each of us. As we made our way back to the entrance I realized why we had come to the mall. It wasn’t about us or being comfortable. We were here for the people. We were here because Jesus died for these people too.
Many of the people in that mall were working hard and had just finished a very long and tiring day at work. Our prayers were blessing all these people. We had good news to share with them and that is why we were here. To bless people. We were being missionaries. We were being ambassadors for our Lord and Saviour. Sharing Jesus with the people around us hoping we could brighten their day a little. It didn’t seem like such a burden anymore.
Being a missionary is a big job. Most of the time you will be far from your comfort zone and sometimes you might be in some awkward situations but you know what? Jesus endured lots of awkward moments. He endured some pretty humiliating moments too. He hung on a cross naked for everyone to see. That’s pretty humiliating. But you know why he did that? Because he loves you and he loves me. He loves people. Every single last one of them. That’s why sometimes we step out of our comfort zones and go ask a stranger if we can pray for them in the middle of the mall. Because Jesus loves them and he has given us the task of showing his love to those around us.