That's how you got crabs
You'd share your faith if you realized what Jesus has done in your life.
They didn’t let many teenagers go on a mission trip to Hungary to teach English reading and conversation using easy-to-read Bible stories with explanations. But a chance to travel, teach, and help a small church in Eastern Europe?
I was in!
As I’ve written about before, this was my first chance at freedom. But it was also my first chance at missions in a more technical sense.
Since my calling in the courtyard corner in sixth grade, where my atheist friend said he saw no reason to believe, I had certainly been the local preacher—sometimes, I must admit, the fire-and-brimstone preacher. Yet, in reality, I ended up doing more preaching to fellow Christians to get them to buy into my particular set of beliefs, or at least to have more enthusiasm. Later, in middle school, someone would call me the “evolution guy,” and I would realize my initial project had failed—I was more known for what I was against than what I was for.
My preaching hadn’t stirred hearts to repentance; it had annoyed minds into debate.
So Hungary felt like a chance to do what I truly wanted to do: seek and save the lost! I wanted to share my faith! I wanted to make a difference in the wider world. Teaching English as a way to have spiritual conversations sounded like a great way to do that.
When I arrived, I was paired with both young and old, each at a different level of English understanding and each a unique person. Szabo was a grandmotherly type, timid at English. Lazlo (which seemed to be one of the most popular names in the country) was middle-aged and more confident. I also had a high school student named Daniel who had excellent English—and to this day, we still follow each other on Instagram and talk maybe once a year.
But I also remember working with a young twentysomething student, though I’ve forgotten his name. He was a decent reader but didn’t have an extensive vocabulary. Many times, when we got to the question portions, he didn’t know how to answer.
On one particular occasion, we had read Genesis 3, often dubbed “The Fall.” A summary after the text described all the bad things that came into a good creation. “Cancer” was listed as one of the bad things resulting from Adam and Eve’s cosmic uh-oh. He asked for the meaning of the word “cancer.” A bit of a complicated subject. Having trouble describing cancer in basic English, I pulled out my phone and brought up Google Translate. I had it translate “cancer” to Hungarian.
He viewed my screen, nodded a kind of understanding, and then drew a simple drawing in the margin of the booklet. As he pulled his pencil away, I saw he had drawn a crab—a little Sebastian, a stereotypical crustacean.
It turns out, as I would realize later, the Hungarian word “rák” can be translated as both “cancer” and “crab,” probably because the astrological sign Cancer is traditionally associated with a crab!
Unintentionally, I had taught my student that as a result of The Fall, sin came into the world and caused such evil and horror as... crabs. That’s how you got crabs!
Well, close enough.
Cross-cultural ministry is filled with such silly moments where things are lost in translation. Even if everyone speaks the same language, there are still issues in evangelism. It’s not always easy! Sometimes it's the fault of the evangelist, sometimes the fault of the hearer. Sometimes it’s just complicated to get someone to buy into a whole new set of beliefs that comes with moral expectations!
I fear, however, that the complicated nature of evangelism leads many people to just not do it. Perhaps we overthink doing evangelism “right,” and in the end, it just never gets done. Sure, we might give money to a missionary. We might nod when the preacher quotes Matthew 28. We might “technically” be all for telling the world about Jesus…
…but then we just don’t do it.
Thus, I think it’s beneficial to stop and look at one primary reason WHY we should all participate in evangelism. Beyond “Jesus says so”… why do we tell other people about what Jesus does in our life?
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The answer to “why evangelize” could be framed with a snarky reply: “why not?”
Because what the New Testament witnesses to time and time again is that a part of what it means to be a Christian and to follow Christ is to tell other people about it! There’s no conception of a silent Christian. No one imagines this thing to be a “personal relationship” between you and God that doesn’t concern anyone else.
Ignoring political ramifications here, I found it fascinating to hear Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz recently say in response to a reporter’s question about talking more about his religion. In a video of the incident, he says: “We’re Lutherans, we don't talk about religion much.” Such statements seem to betray a growing sensibility in our culture that treats faith as something as private as our social security number.
Instead, the Scriptural witness points in a different direction. Christians should VERY MUCH talk about their religion!
When Jesus has an intense conversation with a Samaritan woman at a well, she runs off and tells the whole village, “He told me everything I ever did” (John 4:39). Crowds run to Jesus and end up believing because of her testimony, and then eventually the testimony of Jesus himself.
When close disciples of Jesus himself, Peter and John, are arrested for healing a man on the Sabbath, they are warned to stop speaking or teaching in the name of Jesus—or else they could be in more trouble. Ignoring the threat, they answer: “Whether it’s right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide; for we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19-20).
When Paul is confronted by Jesus on the road to Damascus and has his conversion, he wastes little time after his healing and baptism to start preaching. “Immediately he began proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues: ‘He is the Son of God’” (Acts 9:20). People are quite taken aback by his switcheroo, and it seems it isn’t long before he’s confounding the Jews and proving Jesus is the Messiah.
Here’s the kicker: people who have an encounter with Jesus can’t shut up about Jesus!
Yes, there are explicit commands and suggestions to go into all the world preaching, sharing, and discipling. But we shouldn’t need to be told: it should flow right from us if we are empowered by the Holy Spirit and living right with God! It should be natural because of our supernatural relationship with Christ. We have a cure, why wouldn’t we share it?
Evangelism isn’t a project we can get out of with a doctor’s note! Sure, some people may be more gifted than others. Yeah, not everyone is called to become a missionary to Poland, Peru, or Pakistan. Practically speaking, not everyone should be! Because the most gifted evangelist isn’t going to have the same pull in the accounting office, local police station, or factory. You are already there, doing the job you have with the people you know. You are best positioned to tell that community about Jesus.
But if evangelism is an outpouring of our recognition for what God has done for us, that means if we aren’t doing this, there is likely something blocking us from recognizing the power of our testimony.
Of course, we see clearly that the recent convert is one of the most passionate evangelists—they have so recently turned from their old ways to become a new creation. They see where they came from and are so thankful for their new way of life. They tell everyone about it!
Yet, I realize that many of us don’t have “dramatic” testimonies. We don’t have much of a conversion story because we were raised in the Church, didn’t commit too many big sins, and overall had a decent life. This group can so easily forget about evangelism because to them, Christianity is so normal, and they didn’t taste what it’s like on the “other side.”
This too is an amazing testimony, however! A missionary friend of mine recently reminded me that an uneventful life is a dramatic testimony to the providence of God. So you were raised by two Christian parents who loved you and provided all your basic needs? Praise God for blessing you! Tell the world that such a picturesque childhood existed because your parents took their faith seriously. Generations of believers are a wonderful witness to the steadfast love of the Lord.
That’ll preach.
You don’t need to have been a drugged-up prostitute before coming to Christ to tell a powerful story. But if you were, then that’s also a great story to tell!
Whether you know it or not, God has done something amazing in your life. I guarantee divine fingerprints are everywhere if you look. Jesus has spoken into some area of your life and saved you from yourself—whether that’s an addiction to alcohol or an addiction to Instagram. We have salvation. We were saved from something (sin) and for something (Jesus), even if we never did any crazy wild living.
We need to search for this drive inside ourselves, the drive that prompted the Samaritan woman, Peter, John, and Paul to all preach Christ unashamedly because they understood the importance of Jesus. They knew what Jesus did for them could be done for others, so they wanted to introduce others to Jesus!
Listen: it’s okay to think critically about the best approach unless that stops us from any action. Things can be awkward—you could talk about crabs! But of the three outcomes of evangelism, all of them are good. You are either going to win someone over with the Gospel and gain a new sibling in Christ, plant a seed that may one day be watered by another into a full faith, or get flat-out rejected and praise God for persecution! Win-win-win.
The “why” of our evangelism is rooted in our being. We were dead in sin, and now we are alive in Christ. We were lost, but now are found. We have a meaning, a purpose, a path. Yeah, this is a cause for celebration!
This is why we go teach English in Hungary, have a spiritual conversation at the water cooler, or tell our testimony to the guy next to us on the plane.
Because it’s who we are.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…”
–Romans 1:16
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