Street Team Leader Testimony

I have a testimony.

It's not about a dramatic life changing moment at the Let Us Worship event.  Many of those happened for sure and they are real and beautiful. Glorious testimonies will be shared about them, praise Jesus!

This one is about a collection of small moments that changed a heart one drop of love at a time, in the context of family.

More specifically, in the safety of Kingdom Family.

This is about how the Father nourishes and mends His children's hearts and whole lives through the faithful embrace of loving, Holy Spirit filled family.

I will start by jumping right into the flow of a transformative story that began about a year ago when God introduced us to Burn 24/7.  A story for another day.

But for now we find ourselves at the junction between the very end of this summer and the beginning of my daughter's grade 12 year of school. 

She is nervous and she is hopeful and she is praying.

She is wondering does she belong, is she included?

Or even noticed? And does she matter?

Then into my email drops the invitation.

There will be a street evangelism team to prepare the hearts of the community the week before the Let Us Worship event.

Interested?

Oh man, bad timing.

First week of school and all.

Grade 12 no less.

Sorry, not going to work.

Then the personal invite, from family, comes in a text to my phone.

For my daughter personally.

From those who see her, those who call her out from the crowd.

Those who have invested heart and built the scaffolding of friendship for her.

Those she knows she can trust.

The Lord tells me: "Yes."

He says:"This is My strategy of healing.  It starts with positioning.  Put her where I can work best.  Connected into the Body of Christ."

When she is read the invite she wonders out loud if she is ready?

Is this for her, and does she have the courage?

But she is willing to take a step out and to learn.

Because this is with her Jesus family. The Burn family.

Who she already feels at home with.

They won't leave her on her own and walk away.

So as the story goes, she attends school by day.

Holding it all in and all together.

Only to melt into a puddle of tears in the van in my arms after the bell. 

She felt disconnected and invisible.

Teenage high school society can be so hard to navigate even at a small Christian school with good people.

Especially with autism complicating and confusing it all.

And when she walks to the beat of a different drum than most.  By divine design and by choice.

But here is the shift.

By evening, after drying her tears and changing her clothes and eating a quick dinner, she knew her team awaited her.

So she bravely stepped into what God had planned for each location each new day.

You know.

Street evangelism.

Walking up to complete strangers and telling them about Jesus.  

No sweat, right?

Some are high.

Some are scary.

Some don't care.

Some want to hear.

All need the good news.

Each night she came home glowing and joyful.

The first night they were taught how to hear God for a treasure hunt. 

She said she wasn't sure she could hear Him.

Then He gave her a download of a powerful poem for the lost and lonely who need to know they are never alone.

And to confirm it God gave a teammate a matching picture in the form of a drawing.

Evening by evening she grew.

And she grew.

She grew more brave.

More confident in her God.

More confident in His constant presence with her and in His voice in her heart.

And she grew in a love for others and in her prayers for them to know God's love.

She grew in the understanding of building friendship.

Again I highlight that all this came about in the context of Kingdom family.

Not just a family in name, but in action.

Fast forward to the Sunday of the Jesus concert in the park: Let Us Worship!

She boldly joins the Greeters team.

She is fearless.

She is independent and she is connected to the team.

She enjoys talking to people that she knew already and that she just met.

She worships with her hands and head held high to her Savior.

She joyfully twirls through the crowd collecting offering money in a bucket.

She finishes up her responsibility and climbs into the van at the end of the day vibrating with excitement, exclaiming that she had: So. Much. Fun!

She stood up and testified later that she had no challenges that day and that the worship was what was right about the whole thing.

Yesterday I read her the invitation to join the launch of the weekly Burn Street Team. 

She said: 'Mom! I'm already on the team! Yes!"

These are small things in one life.

But as I have learned over the years as a mom of three amazing kiddos, two on the autism spectrum, the small things are the big things.