Freedom for Captives

As I reflect on what God did as a result of our V-Week outreach, I am reminded again and again of these sweet verses from Isaiah 61:1-3

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion--to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.

This was the message that we were hoping to convey through our evening program, and let me just say that our speaker did an incredible, God-honoring job of doing just that. She communicated her own story of pain and healing in a very real and accessible way to a group of 30 women. There was something in her story and the way that she communicated it that made it very accessible to everyone in the room.

We knew that one thing we did not want to do with the evening was have anyone feel like we pulled a "bait and switch" move on them by inviting them to an event where they would feel trapped by someone sharing the Gospel with them. So, we took a break partway through our speaker's story, letting everyone know that the second part of the evening would be primarily about how Jesus entered into her healing process. We let the women know that if they weren't comfortable listening to that part of the story, they were free to leave at the break, judgment-free. We simply wanted to honor to women wherever they happened to be in their spiritual journeys.

I was shocked to look around the room after the break and see that NO ONE left. And after the program was done, the majority of the women lingered in groups talking quietly with one another. An hour after the program was done, I looked across the room to see my teammate, Amie, sitting next to a young student named Amanda and holding open a familiar booklet and sharing about how she could know God personally. Amie came up to me later and told me what the freshman had said to her, "That part about God knocking at the door of my heart: well, He's doing that. I just don't know how to open the door. Can you tell me how to open the door?"

Wow. That's a "pinch-me" sort of moment in campus ministry. This particular student comes from an LDS background and said that she really needed to think through and process what Amie shared with her about Jesus. Please pray for Amanda. Pray that she would come to know the Truth and that the Truth would, indeed, set her free.