Impressions on EE

The other week, my Evangelism Explosion trainer was asking me who had told me to join the course. "Uhhhh... God did." That or I have a sick fixation with pain. Before January, I didn't know anything about the course other than the fact that it existed and had something to do with evangelism (and thing that explode). One night, I was sitting in church early minding my own business- let that be a lesson to you. Never mind your own business. And never come to church early; for one, you might have to actually talk to people or two, have God tell you to do something you don't want to do*. The latter is what happened on this occasion. OK God, if this is the path You want me to take, I'll give it a chance and see if You confirm it.

I started the year off thinking that this winter would be pretty uneventful. Compared with the crazy fall season anyway. I made myself available and my life filled up pretty quickly. In fact, by last Wednesday I estimated that I was three days away from a total burnout. Fortunately, before those three days ended, I got some rest. I know the question may beg itself, if I'm so busy, why am I up this late writing all this?

Two reasons. First, if I don't take the time to mull over everything that's gone on I won't learn anything from it. And writing my thoughts down helps me sort them out. Maybe I'm prone to over think things, but if I don't take some time, I'll have difficulty sleeping. That's the second reason; if I leave uncompressed thoughts piling up in the back of my mind for too long, I will feel anxious as though something is lurking always beyond the edge of my vision.

EE has been a lot of work thus far. And that doesn't even begin to outline the shape of it. All I can say is that it's a good thing I didn't know this ahead of time, for I might have resisted the idea a bit more. Basically, you're looking at a 30 to 40 minute presentation that has to be completely memorized and made your own, plus reading assignments and homework. All I can say is it's a good thing that I have a pretty decent memory...

EE contains a practical component which means actually going into the community and sharing the gospel with people. We go out in groups of three, mixed gender. The idea is to have a trainer, an assistant-trainer learning to be a trainer, and a trainee. Supposedly, the trainee (that's me) is supposed to mainly sit there and listen for the first eight weeks or so. Supposedly - which is to say, that is what they told me and that is what other trainees are experiencing.

My trainer runs things a little bit differently. Right from week one, she would throw the presentation to me and see how far I'd go. This past week was the fourth week out, and she got me to talk for more than half the presentation - none of which I'd been required to prepare for according to the course outline. One of my classmates was telling me she'd only said two phrases the same evening. In any case, it all turned out well - it seems God really can take my nothing and make it something. This week, we presented the gospel to someone and I was able to witness a profession of faith! We were there so late and the drive back was so long, the church was locked up by the time we got back. And I really had to go to the washroom. I felt like Forrest Gump when he met the president:

President Kennedy: Congratulations. How do you feel?
Forrest: I gotta pee.
President Kennedy: I believe he said he had to go pee.

In any case, my trainer is great and she is really good at setting up appointments with people she knows. But it didn't take me long to realize that we are complete opposites in personality. Sometimes I don't know how to take her. She keeps telling me that people at church call her a fanatic. I'm given to ask myself if that's what I'm training to be**.

Anyway, my impressions of the course thus far are pretty mixed. I never want to become one of the people who sit there and obliquely judge everyone else for not being in the course. Also, while my trainer gives me a pretty loose reign to express myself in my own way, the course is pretty rigid. Sometimes I don't entirely agree with the approach they teach and last week I took a concern to the teacher. He told me that he also would do as I said, but that the textbook says otherwise. The structure always helps me to keep in mind that this course is a tool, not an end. I now have words when before I didn't have a ready explanation for the hope I have. God has given me a new sense of urgency through the program, and a new awareness of people in my life He is calling you to witness to.

*I'm being facetious here, I promise!
**Assuming I'm not a fanatic already.