Impact Report May 2014
Jordan Newhouse has been participating in JFA Seat Work and Feet Work events for years in Arizona. Recently, she was inspired to start a conversation with a total stranger without the aid of JFA events or JFA mentors. In this Impact Report, you’ll hear about what motivated Jordan to take this next step of ministry that we call “Repeat Work.”
Jordan has also decided to take an additional next step of serving as a one-year intern with JFA in Kansas. We’re elated. Please pray with us for her safe journey next month. Pray that God will use the year ahead to help her grow in her ability to pass on to others the skills of dialogue and the heart for people that she expresses in the story below. - Stephen Wagner, Director of Training
Jordan Newhouse, a JFA volunteer in Tucson, Arizona recently sent me this email message:
Jordan helps a student at Arizona State University (ASU) learn to use the JFA Exhibit Brochure to change hearts.
Tonight I saw [a] movie...that made me ask myself the question, “If I believe God’s not dead, but the people around me will be sooner or later, what am I doing about it?” This question made me think of the one you posed to your colleagues at Beefy’s. I had read all three newsletters some time ago, but went back and reread them tonight. [See www.jfaweb.org/Beefy to read the story.]
I believe I need to talk to someone tomorrow—start a conversation with a stranger and see where God leads it. Tim, in his newsletter...suggested Starbucks. You suggested not going alone. My friend and I are going out tomorrow, and she suggested Starbucks.
So all that to say, would you please pray for me and my friend, that we would be bold to follow God’s leading? I’m asking you in writing because if I do, then I’ll have to update you—so it’s for accountability.
I read Jordan’s email with interest. The story about our impromptu evangelism at Beefy’s on the Green was special to me. I was glad to hear that the story inspired Jordan to think that she, too, could reach out to a stranger in her own neighborhood. But here’s something that’s even more exciting: Jordan followed through! She reported:
My friend and I did go to Starbucks, and I talked with two people. The first conversation lasted only a couple of minutes, but the second was longer—about a half hour!
While another JFA volunteer listens, Jordan visits with a student at ASU in February. Jordan is coming to JFA’s Kansas office next month to begin a one-year internship!
I asked Kristen...if I could sit with her, and she said I could. To dive into the conversation, I said, “Last night I went to see a movie with a couple of friends, and it got me thinking. I wanted to ask a complete stranger a question, just to get a different perspective. The movie was called God’s Not Dead. What do you think of that idea—is God dead?”
Basically, her answer was that it depends on what you believe. You can choose what to believe, and it will affect your life, but it can be different from what someone else believes, and “it’s all good.” That’s the sort of thing she kept coming back to as we talked about everything from how things were created to what happens after you die. It was a very interesting conversation with good give and take. I left her my email, so maybe it will continue. She did say she thought it was cool that I was crazy enough to start the conversation!
Engaging friends, family members, and total strangers in conversation about the things that matter most is a challenge. It’s the sort of boundary that the Jordan River was to the Israelites. It feels impassable, for emotional and spiritual reasons. Whether we’re discussing abortion or what happens after death, we don’t want to mess things up, so we often don’t start the conversation at all. We also don’t want to bother people, and as a result, our politeness helps them only to languish in a life without God, in a life without truth.
How was Jordan able to cross this Jordan River into a Promised Land of seeking to save the lost? While it’s not apparent on the surface of her two emails, Jordan and her community worked hard to prepare the way for this seemingly simple moment. Jordan took part in many Seat Work and Feet Work events with JFA in Tucson and Phoenix. Faithful JFA supporters Paul and Cheryl Wilson encouraged her and created frequent opportunities for additional local outreach where she could continue to practice. Because Jordan invested her time wisely in the right kinds of training activities, Repeat Work became more than possible—it became her next natural step as an ambassador for Christ.
Note: Jordan’s poem “I can agree...with him?” illustrates the heart of JFA’s approach to dialogue, and the poem synthesizes two influences especially important to Jordan in her formation as an ambassador for Christ: the Bible and outreach. Find it here: www.jfaweb.org/Jordan-Poem.