On Saturday, October 15th around a hundred of us joined together at Christ Church, Bala under the leadership of Michael Ots to be trained and challenged to evangelise in our own social circles, at school, college and at work. God’s Word in John 20:19-23 challenged us to follow in Jesus’ footsteps and continue in his work following His ascension.

During the day we listened to talks about how Jesus came into the world to share the Gospel: “Purposefully, Personally, Peacefully and Powerfully”. We learnt to go out purposefully and full of confidence in God’s ability to speak through us to our friends and even to complete strangers. Michael emphasised regularly that our confidence comes from God. One particular sentence resonated with me: “I can’t, He can, I can through Him”.

The most important thing when evangelising according to Michael Ots is to ensure that our friendship with the individual is always at the forefront of our minds. For one thing, it enables us to get to know the individual, it also reflects upon the fact that Christianity is a relationship and not a set of rules to follow. We were encouraged to try and reach friends and people we would never have thought to reach before. It was amazing to hear stories about Michael’s journeys around Europe as he spoke at lunch meetings, mission weeks and fresher’s weeks at various Universities.

An opportunity to discuss questions was given in the afternoon, some were easy to answer and others presented great challenges to the ordinary Christian. Afterwards, we were invited to ask these questions to Michael and listened to how he, as someone who answers difficult questions for a living, copes with answering life’s big questions.

The poignant point for me as regards the training on Saturday was that we should always be sensitive to the feelings and ideas of the individual: “Feel where the other person is at”. That is, ask questions in order to get to know the person, and then as the Gospel is universal and applicable to every situation, it is then easier for us to make it accessible to the individual.