by Norm Miller
HELEN, Ga. (TMCNews)–Working with Georgia Mountain Resort Ministries, 25 Truett-McConnell College students shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ and his love with hundreds of people celebrating Helen, Ga.’s, Oktoberfest, Sept. 15.
In addition to sharing the Gospel and distributing tracts, students engaged children with face-painting and balloon animals.
Nathan Welsh told TMCNews he volunteered for the event “to have an opportunity to share the Gospel. While there, I handed out Gospel tracts to as many people as I could.”
“It’s difficult to walk up to random people and share the Gospel with them,” Welsh added. “I believe this was a great opportunity to get used to that. I would most certainly like to do something like this again.”
After approaching a man whose feet had been amputated, TMCer Garrett Erath discovered the man was already a Christian: “Seth was a very encouraging man whose faith in God kept him going each day, and he has used his circumstance to share the Gospel and to help non-believers in similar circumstances.”
“I was able to sit and talk with Seth for a long time, provide his choice lunch of a slaw dog and Coca-Cola, and before I left I gave him my phone number so that he can share prayer requests and hopefully I will be able to help him in other ways, too,” Erath said.
“God blessed me by showing me how to be ready and active to share my faith at any point,” concluded Erath. “He has blessings to provide through us to others and for us if we are willing to obey His voice.”
Ruth Dennis said she worked at the event “because I enjoy working with and getting to know other like-minded students while engaging in opportunities to serve people and reach out to them with the Gospel.”
“The children loved getting their faces painted,” she said. “We who were painting faces had the opportunity to talk to the children and plant gospel seeds in them and their parents. Some of the designs that were most popular were rainbows, puppy dogs, and the cross with a heart over it.
“As I painted a rainbow on a child’s face, I would ask them if they had ever heard the story of Noah and would tell them about the very first rainbow that God put in the sky.
“While painting a puppy dog, I would talk to them about their own pets and how God made all the animals in the world.
“The cross with the heart on it was an even further open door to the Gospel. When I asked one young girl if she knew what the cross stood for she told me, ‘Jesus died on it.’ I then asked her if she knew why there was a heart over it, which presented me with the opportunity to share God’s love for her.
“Every chance to share the Gospel is a blessing to me. God is worthy of everything I have and so much more. The least I can do is offer Him a few hours during the weekend to reach out to the people at Oktoberfest while I try to live out my life in a way that would be pleasing to my Savior,” Dennis said.
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