Can i get a witness?

School started on Monday and i've a lot of things on my agenda for this semester, besides my normal 17 credits. May God helep me for real. Anyways, i was in my Intro to Art History class on Monday, when the professor asked each one of us to introduce ourselves. No biggie abi? Na ordinary introducion, tell us ur name, ur year, ur major and something interesting about urself plus what u did this summer. Hi, i'm Lagbaja..... Hello, i'm Temedo....... Hey, i'm Iroko tree...... and the list went on and on. When it got to my Christian broda's (we both attend the same campus Bible study) turn, this was how he introduced himself, "Hi, my name's Chris, i'm an 18-yr old virgin by choice, 'cos according to the word of God which i believe in, thou shalt not fornicate. I attend XYZ Church and u're all welcome to our Sunday worship service @ 10 a.m in ABC. Taste of the Lord's goodness, and see how sweet he is." Boy! Was i stunned? More than stunned. I was shocked... as in, see people boldly proclaiming Christ, no matter what the world may say or how they may be viewed. Anyways, when it got to dear Bijouxoxo's turn, who is a born again child of God (for about 8 yrs now), na so i just say my name, year, what i did in the summer. Finito.

Later that day, even up till this point, i'm still chastising myself for acting like a coward. An opportunity was presented to me to stand up for Christ, and what did i do? Let it slip out of my hands. Trust me, everyone in the class, myself included laughed when that kid said it, but i know deep down within me that he's going to touch someone's life with just that single statement. Whenever i remember the bible verse that says (i'm paraphrasing), "if u deny me before men, i'll deny u before my father" and the fact that on that glorious day, he'll spit out the lukewarm christians, i shudder.

Witnessing has been a big issue for me. I've tried several techniques, when i'm at my work-study job, if there's nothing to do, i make sure all i read is Christian literature, websites i visit are christian sites etc. Hoping that through that, an opportunity for witnessing would be created. One day, my boss at work saw me reading, "The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel" and asked to see the book i was reading, i gave him and he looked at it for about a minute and handed it back to me without saying anything. Immediately he gave me back the book, i had the urge, a very strong one too, to ask him if he would like to have the book for a day to look at it. What did i do? Took the book and suppressed that urge. It later dawned on me, that would've been a perfect witnessing opportunity. I've this other boss that doesn't believe there's a God. An atheist to the core, married with kids. What pains me most is that those kids too would most likely tow their parent's path. I've been praying for him, but i've not initiated any conversations with him yet in that direction.

What hit me most was when my friend from high school (secondary school, if you will) in Nigeria, who is based here called me 3 week ago. I hadn't heard from her in a long while. This girl was a staunch and i mean staunch Moslem from our h.s days. From the way she was talking, it seemed as if she had converted. I wasn't sure, so i asked her in a gentle manner, i was shocked and overjoyed when she told me she was now a born-again Christian. She was even trying to witness to me right there, on the spot. She then realized from our conversation that i was already a child of God. My people, there's no more time to waste for real, the time is near for the bridegroom to come for his bride, the church. The harvest is over ripe, but the workmen are few. I want to be one of the workmen.

This doesn't mean that i love the Lord less, nor does it mean that i'm a coward who doesn't want to be associated with God. I love the Lord with all of my heart, and i've been praying seriously and making efforts to winning souls for Christ. With what's going on in the world today, everyone who calls himself/ herself a child of God MUST be about his/ her father's business and MUST have a passion for lost souls.

My goal now, is to start small, when someone sneezes around me, rather than saying just bless you, i'd say God bless you. When someone asks how i'm doing, rather than saying just good, i'd say i'm blessed. When someone, regardless of who, asks me something about tomorrow e.g. "Are u coming to work tomorrow?" I'd reply, " I'm coming in at 9 am by God's grace." See, i've been doing all of the above, but i select who to say it to, and when to say it. My e-mail address signature reads, "Smile, Jesus loves you." But when i'm mailing some people i include it and to others, i don't maybe 'cos i don't want to be viewed as "somehow" or as an "overspiri." At this point i'm like, to the bushes with that, what's the point of thinking about how i'd be viewed by people when to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Since i can acknowledge the fact that it's in him and him alone that i live, move and have my being, so why would i be shy talking about my father? I've been praying seriously on this issue. Do u guys have any ideas to help me?