Ideas For Evangelism - Way of Life Literature

came, sang hymns, listened, and returned to theirhomes. During the week we would visit them, furtherbefriend them, and share the gospel. Every Sundayevening a good group of adults would be crowdedtogether in our home to hear the gospel. But nobodyresponded. Nobody was moved by it. None showedany evidence of conviction, let alone of repentanceor faith. The bands of wickedness were tightlyfastened. Week after week there was no fruit for ourlabors. Finally, my husband suggested we fast andpray one day each week. This seemed to be the key,as immediately after we began fasting people beganresponding to the gospel. The bands of wickednesswere loosed in hearts (Isaiah 58:6) and people‘turned to God from idols to serve the living and trueGod.’ A church was begun!“A couple of years later, when our little churchnumbered in the twenties, we held a ladies retreat ata primitive ‘hotel’ on top of a nearby mountain.During the retreat, I encouraged our ladies tocounsel together and agree on a certain number ofwomen that they would ask the Lord to add to ournumber during the next year. After talking it over andpraying about it, they agreed they should ask theLord for 10 ladies to be added. That would doublethe size of the ladies’ group. During the followingyear, we often prayed together towards this goal. Wehad times of fasting as we continued to witness,pray, and hope. Nearly one year later the churchheld a baptismal service during which one man andexactly ten ladies were baptized!“A friend of mine says, ‘Fasting makes me weak thatHis spiritual strength might work’” (Linda Cloud).There is a practical study on biblical fasting in the OneYear Discipleship Course.The book Effective Evangelistic Churches is the productof a survey of 576 fruitful soul-winning churches. AuthorThom Rainer observes that intercessory prayer is acrucial component. Following are some of the statementson this topic: