Tom Lin

Just over a year ago, we noticed some clear planting and apostolic gifts in Adam, a young Asian American staff from Wash U.  He began planting a new IV chapter at Missouri’s flagship school, U of Missouri-Columbia, and has seen over 30 students join IV and incredible fruit.  He’s also seen students come to Christ in the most unique places…

“A really quick but great story to tell you all!  Joey has been dating Emily, one of our student leaders, for a few months now.  Emily has really had a heart to tell Joey about Jesus and this year he’s been a semi-regular to ACF.  Joey described himself as someone who is generally open to the idea of Christianity, but not sold on it yet.  Emily convinced Joey that it would be a good idea for him to join us at Fall Conference.

During the Saturday night session of Fall Conference, I was up on stage with the worship team.  I looked at my Mizzou students and saw Joey was just sitting there with a stone blank look on his face.  I wasn’t sure of what to make of it, but something wasn’t quite right.  I talked to Emily about it on Sunday morning at breakfast and she said that Joey was in shock that night more than anything else.  I decided to have lunch with Joey on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Joey, Emily, and I went to the McDonald’s on campus, which is Joey’s favorite place to eat.  I asked him how FC was, and he said that it was a great time.  The Saturday night session hit him like a ton of bricks and that look on his face was because he was in shock.  He described it as moving from level 1 straight to level 100 on the spirituality scale.  An invitation to follow Jesus for the first time was made on Saturday night, but he was so dumbstruck that he felt paralyzed.  After a few days to process it, he said that really what it came down to was that that feeling of God’s presence scared him.  He didn’t want to go straight to level 100.

I asked him what he would do if he was given the opportunity to accept Jesus again.  He said that he wanted to, but he didn’t know if he was ready.  We talked a little about what following Jesus really means, about how it is a process and about how when we decide to follow Jesus it is the beginning of the journey, not the end.  That really resonated with him and he said that he wanted to take the plunge.  So, right there in the McDonald’s Joey prayed and asked Jesus to come into his life and be his Lord and Savior!  Hooray!!!

The moral of the story?  Follow up is awesome and Jesus works at McDonald’s.  =0) ”
— Adam, October 15th

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[A few weeks later...]

“I have another exciting story from the great University of Missouri!  Andy is an international student I’ve known since last year.  When I first met Andy his interesting in ACF was purely intellectual.  He was studying in America and Americans did Christian things, so he would do Christians things.  He really didn’t have any interest in becoming a Christian.

Over the course of last year, Andy participated more and more in ACF events… he had some really deep and tough conversations with Julie, one of our leaders from last year.  He also had Nancy, another student, constantly reminding him that she wanted him to become a Christian… Fast forward to this semester.  Andy hasn’t been too regular at ACF because of class conflict, but Nancy has continued to invite him and he was a part of our International Student Bible Study.  Two weeks ago, at our next to last ISBS, I felt God calling me to make a gospel presentation, which we were going to do at our last ISBS.  I asked if anyone wanted to become a Christian but no one raised their hands.  However, after bible study was over, Andy asked if he could talk to me sometime.

So yesterday we met at the Starbucks on campus and we talked for about an hour and a half.  He had a lot of great questions about what it means to follow Jesus and how someone does that.  I explained to him the best that I could and he said that he understood.  I’m telling you guys, I used every gospel presentation I knew.  There were bridge diagrams and questions about eternity and the whole 9 yards.  =0).  He wasn’t ready to become a Christian, but he was ready for dinner.  He busted his ankle playing basketball a few weeks ago, so he was on crutches and didn’t want to walk very far.  Thankfully, there is a McDonald’s on campus really close to where we were.  (do you see where this is going?)

I was really excited when we sat down to eat becaus I know that Jesus works at McDonalds.  While we were eating I asked him one more time if he wanted to become a Christian.  He said he wasn’t ready yet, but when he was ready, would I mind if he called me so I could help him do it.  I said sure.  I asked him what his barrier to following Jesus was and he said that he wanted to see an example of someone who is a Christian sacrificing themselves for the good of a bunch of people.  Once he saw that, he would be ready.  I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, so I left it alone and after dinner we went our separate ways.

Fast forward to tonight.  My church small group was about to get started when Andy sent me a text message saying that he was ready to make a decision and if I could come over to help him.  It didn’t take me long to head out of small group and meet Andy at his place.  When I got their, his roommates were cooking dinner and he didn’t want to disturb them, but he was hungry.  Well, about a quarter mile from Andy’s apartment is a Burger King so we decided to have dinner there.

While we were waiting for our food I asked him if he was ready to pray with me to invite Jesus into his heart.  He said yes, and we prayed together.  Andy is now a brother in the Kingdom!  I asked him how he found what he was looking for and he said he just Googled it.  I learned that what he really meant was that he wanted to find Christians FROM HIS COUNTRY who did good things.  His country is not totally open to religion, so he wanted to make sure that being a Christian didn’t mean that he was completely isolating himself if he ever returned.  Once he found those stories, he was ready to commit.

The moral of this story: Jesus also works at Burger King.  For those of you keeping score in the “McVangelism Home Game,” next on my list are the Taco Bell and the Hardee’s.  =0) ”

— Adam, November 17th