Student Literature Evangelism Changes Lives


By Heidi Bryant


Daylight quickly fading, Nicki Fritz and Mario Bravo pressed on to their next house. Alive with activity and light, they could see people walking back and forth inside, yet they knocked on the door to no avail. No one answered.

Giving up, they began walking to the next door when Bravo felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw no one in sight. An intense impression echoed in his brain: Go back to that door, go back to that door.

Obeying, they returned and knocked on the door one more time. A young man opened the door, yelled “We don’t want what you have!” and slammed it shut. The two summer literature evangelists stood their ground. They knocked again. Then waited.

Finally, a girl quietly slipped out and shut the door behind her. Bravo showed her the Final Events DVD by Doug Batchelor and explained how it would show her what to expect in the last days of earth’s history and prepare her for Jesus’ soon coming.

Staring at them in awe, she explained that she was the only Christian in her home and she’d been really struggling. She needed encouragement badly! Fritz and Bravo had arrived just at the right time. The three Christians prayed together, praising God for His perfect timing and asking to be ready for His second coming.

This past summer 67 teens and young adults went door-to-door through neighborhoods in cities and towns with armloads of literature. Each day is a new adventure. “I’m always amazed at how God can do so many things at once,” says Heidi Bryant, a leader in Central California Conference’s summer student literature evangelist program. “During summers of canvassing, I have seen Him not only perform out-of-this-world things at doors with people in the community, but I’ve seen Him change the lives of my students.”

Like Sally. From the start, it was obvious that she didn’t want to be there. “Week after week the inner struggle between her old life and accepting a new life with Jesus was written all over her face,” Bryant says. The leaders prayed frequently for Sally.

Finally, during worship one Sabbath evening, Sally raised her hand during testimony time. “When I first came here I thought you guys were weird. But now I can say that this is really what Christians are like,” she shared. “And I want to get baptized.”

Sally was baptized on August 16, 2007 along with two other student LEs. “What I’ve learned is that God uses ministry to change us,” says Bryant. “God isn’t going to settle for only reaching the lost. He desires to transform us too!”




 

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