By Andrew Colpitts

“Door-to-door evangelism”. For some Christians, this might be one of the most frightening phrases to hear. A close second might be “street evangelism”. To knock on a stranger’s door as they are eating dinner or to approach someone walking to their bus stop with the intention of sharing a message that the world calls foolish and naive is not an attractive prospect for anyone. Yet this is exactly what the 2016 LEAP team was called to do. LEAP (London Evangelism and Prayer) week is a program put on each year by the Serge team of missionaries in London. It is a week of street and door-to-door evangelism, and intentional, directed prayer. At the end of this week I found myself exhausted, convicted, encouraged, and in awe of our great God.

The New Life LEAP team was comprised of 11 senior high students and five adults. As one of those adults, it was easy to feel like a chaperone as we navigated airports and public transport in a foreign nation. When the work started, however, I was among peers; brothers and sisters entrusted with the same gospel message as I am. It was incredibly encouraging to see these teens, who were just as nervous as I was, embrace the charge given to them and by the end of the first day of ministry hear things like: “Do we have to stop?” “Let’s do another street.” While I yearned for a bed (and some serious introvert time), some of these kids yearned to love this community of foreigners by sharing the life-giving news of Jesus Christ. This is not to say that they are all enthusiastic all the time. Make no mistake, getting rejected time and time again takes its toll. But even in our weakness, we got to share in the challenges and joys of evangelism as fellow citizens in the Kingdom of God.

I’d like to say that we had stories of dramatic conversions and revival, but the fact is our week was mostly filled with “no thank you”s and “not interested”s. The great news is we have a God who does not fail in his mission. Even in what might seem to be failure, God is working for victory. So this week in London, our senior high students got to experience hours of hard work on the streets followed by hours of prayer and worship to the God who promises that our work is not in vain.

“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice,“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”” Revelation 7:9-10