I was in school and scheduled to meet with my discipleship group leader. It was nearing finals and I was actually the only one in my group who turned up for that meeting.

As there were only two of us, my leader then suggested that we should go around campus to share the Gospel instead. At first, I was pretty hesitant as street evangelism was not something that I did often – I hardly, if ever, spoke to strangers about my faith.

Honestly, I was pretty afraid of how people in school would perceive me if I were to share the Gospel on campus. But I took up the challenge and after praying, we set off believing God would bring us to whoever He wanted us to speak to.

The first girl we came across was a Year 3 student from the School of Social Sciences. We asked if she had time to talk to us and to my surprise, she welcomed us with a friendly “Yes!”.

I found her willingness to converse with us strange, us Singaporeans would usually not be this open to talking to strangers without a negative impression from the get-go.

But before I knew it, we were sharing about our aspirations and struggles in life. In fact, she was pretty open talking about God and religion. My leader then asked how she felt about her Christian friends sharing the Gospel with her.

Her answer to this question shocked me: “Who would wanna stand around and approach different people just to share about their faith? Christians have such joy in their lives and they want others to have it too.

“It can’t be anything but pure love.”

Christians have such joy in their lives and they want others to have it too; it can’t be anything but pure love.

Wow. I had never thought non-believers ever saw us in a positive light for sharing the Gospel. I’d assumed we always came across as slightly bothersome, zealous people enforcing our ideology on others.

Although the girl was not ready to receive Jesus Christ as her Lord and Saviour, I was so encouraged by what she said, and this really changed my perception of street evangelism too.

It reminded me of how we are sharing the Gospel because we have received this love from God. We love because God first loved us and we have the responsibility to share this love with the people around us. They don’t always get saved immediately, that is their choice, but it is up to us to ensure they always get loved.

Also, I learnt that it is really a joy to share the good news of Jesus, especially in this Christmas season. Prior to this encounter, I was still wondering if I should go for discipleship group meetings as I had many things on hand and tests were all coming up.

But this really served as a reminder that even my time is not just my own, it is for others too. I’ve decided that one of the best gifts is to intentionally take time off and give my time to people who have yet to know about God and what was done for them on the Cross of Calvary.

This is a submission from a participant of our Christmas Gift Exchange. From now till the end of December 2017, we are giving away a limited edition Thir.st Tumbler in exchange for every story on the Christmas themes of love, joy, peace, hope and giving. Click here to find out more.