A Cru staff mom and a former drug user share Jesus
As Sonya, a Cru staff mom, watched the students fan out across the Rockwood apartment complex in pairs, she turned to her co-leader.
This was his neighborhood.
This was where he’d done drugs.
This was where he’d met Jesus a year ago.
Now he was volunteering with the second year of Rockwood Knocks – in which the students would attempt to knock on every door and gather information through a survey about the needs and demographics of the neighborhood for the Rockwood Community Development Corporation.
Earlier, Brad Ketch, President and CEO of Rockwood CDC, had told the students about the neighborhood.
“Rockwood isn’t very far away,” Ketch said. “It’s just four or five miles, but it’s a world away because it’s Oregon’s poorest, least evangelized, most violent community.”
This was the Cru Conference “Day of Faith.” The last survey question asked about religious practice, and gave the students a launching point to engage the person in a spiritual conversation – putting into practice what they were learning at this very conference.
But no one answered Sonya and Ricky’s first door, so, waiting for their group of students, Sonya asked Ricky about his story.
“Would you tell me how you met Jesus?” Sonya asked.
He told her about his kids and described his former connections to the drug scene right here in Rockwood. And then he’d trusted Christ last January, and his life had changed. He’d gotten involved with a local church plant.
As they talked, standing on the sidewalk, a young man approached Ricky and asked why he hadn’t been around lately.
“What are you doing?” He asked.
Ricky told him about Rockwood Knocks, and asked him if he’d take the survey. The last question asked if he’d been to a church service in the last week.
“No,” he said. “What about you, man?”
“I have,” Ricky said, but then froze, unsure of what to say next.
Sonya stepped in and helped Ricky share his story with the young man, down to the details of his prayer for salvation.
“Wow, a lot has changed, man” was all the young man said when Ricky finished, then headed back inside.
But Ricky turned to Sonya, excited.
“I think that is the first time I have shared my story quite like that,” he said.
“That is what we call a testimony, and it’s a great tool to share with friends and seekers,” Sonya explained.
They talked to several people he knew that day, and each time, his boldness grew as he shared his story of God’s work in his life.
Please pray for Ricky as he continues to spread the light of the gospel in his own dark neighborhood.
Ten local pastors are working together to follow up on the 35 gospel conversations our students were able to initiate, including the six people who indicated decisions for Christ. Additionally, 67 people said they wanted to be contacted by a pastor.
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