By Micah Hoover
Vida220 Student – Team Siquirres
“Evangelism” can sometimes seem intimidating, yet Jesus’ invitation to invite others to follow Him might sometimes be as simple as becoming friends with our actual neighbors.
On the very first night of outreach as we arrived in the hot weather of Siquirres, Costa Rica, our pastor dropped us off at our house and our new neighbors happened to be outside. We started talking to them and eventually invited them to church the next Sunday. That Sunday morning, the daughter of the family, Sammy, was waiting for us, and that is how our relationship with Sammy started!
Over the next few weeks Sammy and her siblings continued to come over to our house to play games, hang out, and to just talk. As we built relationships with them, they continued to come to church with us and eventually Sammy joined us at youth group. Sammy also became our first invite to the Alpha program we started with the youth of the community.
Throughout all this time we never really saw or heard much about Sammy’s dad. Then one week he came with her to youth group and continued to come after that. He even wanted to start coming to the Alpha program. As they spent time in our home, we could see that God was really working on both their hearts and drawing them back to him.
Therefore, we were deeply saddened one day to learn they were moving away, and it would be much more difficult for them to come to church. However, several days after they moved, they showed up at the church worship night! This showed an impressive commitment to God and to the church as they now lived 40 minutes away and the event was 10pm-midnight! Seeing them grow from not going to church at all and then coming to this late night event was encouraging to our team. God is at work in this family! And our ability to see the unexpected started with simply talking to our neighbors and opening our home and schedule to them.
Who is your neighbor?