Outreach is about reaching out to those who are lost. It is not necessarily going out there and preaching the word of God, evangelizing to everyone you see, but showing love to people who have never experienced it and through that they will begin to understand the love of God.

Besides helping others this is a time that you are able to find out more about yourself. There are times when you are alone, away from society and people that you know. It is time time to dig a little deeper and hear what God is saying to you. It is not intentional that you are able to find out more about yourselves here, but it just happens that way.

Sometimes at home we are so caught up in our environment we don’t have time to deal what is really going on and it is good to take some time out once in a while and go on an outreach. Obviously serving yourself should not be your first intent, but you do come back refreshed from an outreach.I found this out on an outreach in Brazil.

When an African says hello to someone they know and asks them how they are they receive a genuine answer. It won’t be I’m good or I’m not bad like most of us Westerners do, but probably go in the direction of for example “Well, my back is sore, I’m tired, but the children are doing well in school”.

How are you today? If someone were to ask you, If you were to bump into someone you knew at the store, would you  tell them you are fine, but in actual fact you are not feeling that fine at all. So why do we do this? We don’t have to spend time talking about problems or is it to put on a brave front for everyone else or maybe we think people just won’t be interested. Maybe we don’t have the courage to speak to a cancer sufferer.

Parrot fashion style conversation is not good for society, it’s not what we should be teaching our children. Conversation should flow and we shouldn’t have to be told what to say next. When asking someone how they are be genuine about it, be interested otherwise life will just pass us by. It is not possible for people to be fine all the time and if there is a slight hesitation, such as “I can’t complain”, tell them to complain, or “I’m not bad” why ask them why they are not good.

Maybe some people are just too scared to ask a cancer patient how they are because of what the response might be. Maybe the next time you see someone who you know is worse off than you are, instead of ducking behind someone else in order to avoid the vital question get out of your comfort zone because this is what they want, caring, genuine people who are interested.

Outreach in Brazil

Why you should do an outreach