Gift of God enlightens new believer

Every Christmas, Southcliff Baptist Church has a singing Christmas tree performance—believers standing on risers to sing praise to God during the holidays. This past Christmas, one of the performances fell on a Wednesday at the same time as a key Bible study attended by four Hispanic women from the church’s ESL class. Anna,* who leads the Bible study, decided this would be a good opportunity for further discipleship—and an intentional mode of evangelism.

“We decided to attend the performance together, and with that, be able to have them bring the rest of their family to enjoy the fun,” says Anna, a master’s in biblical counseling student at Southwestern Seminary. “The Gospel was clearly presented at the performance, and an invitation was made.”

Anna’s focus was on one of the women in particular—Luz. A wife and mother, Luz had been attending the church’s ESL classes as well as the Bible study, but she had not yet come to know the Lord. So in inviting Luz to Southcliff’s Christmas program, Anna hoped the Lord would move in Luz’s heart and call her into a relationship with Himself.

That night, before the performance began, another woman in the Bible study, Elia, revealed that her mother had died two days earlier. Elia spoke with Luz about her grief but also reflected highly on her mother’s impact. “Elia, a believer, shared that one of her fondest memories of her mother was that she always took them to church and would pray for them and read them the Bible growing up,” Anna says.

Following the performance, Anna sat with Luz and spoke with her about how her week was going. Picking up where Elia had left off, Anna then asked her whether she, too, had grown up in church.

Luz answered that her sister is a Christian and had always shared with her, but she herself had never been quite ready to “embrace it.” Anna took the opportunity to walk Luz through the Gospel and answer a few of her questions. Then, having been confronted just one more time with the saving message of Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension, Luz declared that she wanted to start a relationship with Christ. She was now ready to embrace God’s free gift of eternal life through Jesus.

Since that night, Anna and Luz have continued to meet for discipleship, and Luz has confirmed through both word and action that she is now a believer. “She has shared how much peace she has had ever since,” Anna says. In fact, Luz revealed that that is why she first came to the Wednesday night Bible study—to find peace.

“She is excited about learning,” Anna continues. “She has started journaling what she is learning about God, and she wants to learn how to pray and how to share what she is learning with her husband and son.”

*Full name withheld to protect future mission work.