Living With Purpose: Field Trip to DC

On Friday we took an FPO field trip to DC with the intent was to spend the day observing, aiding, and witnessing to internationals. My 3-man team represented 3 different continents even though most teams consisted of people who will work with the same people group, country, region, etc. (probably because the latter was what we were supposed to do).

We started off the day at Union Station and spent about a half hour doing observation. We then rode the Metro over to Chinatown, walked around and got some good Chinese food for lunch. After eating we rode the Metro to the Pentagon and back (part of our assignment was to ride the Metro, and we figured the two stops from Union Station to Chinatown probably wasn't enough to really count) and then decided to head over to the area around the National Mall to see if we could meet some internationals there.

As we got a couple blocks away from the White House, however, one of the team members suggested we spend the afternoon riding the Metro instead. After all, it's pretty easy and natural to start up a conversation while riding on the subway, plus you have at least a minute or two until the next stop in which the person can't get away from you :). So ride the Metro we did.

And it wasn't a bad strategy. After all, that morning we were able to strike up pretty good conversations with someone each way to the Pentagon and back. One was a banquet chef at a hotel in Virginia and the other a Peruvian architect who had just moved to DC about a month and a half ago. We didn't get to share the gospel with either, the chef for our failure to bring the conversation to that point and the Peruvian because his stop came just a couple sentences before I got to it, but nonetheless the prospects seemed great.

The problem, however, was less in strategy and more in tactics. We didn't really know what lines to ride or the directions in which to ride them, so even though we had been on nothing but packed trains in the morning the trains we rode in the afternoon were almost all empty. The only good conversation we were able to strike up was with a Japanese guy who was heading to the Smithsonian, which was the next stop. We failed there in that had we gotten off with him we probably would have had a good chance to talk to him for at least half an hour before having to head back to Union Station. But we stayed on the train.

Though we failed to share the gospel with an international, there was much to learn from the situation. A big step for me was starting up conversations with a handful of random strangers throughout the day. Having either been shy or struggled with shyness most of my life, that really took some stepping out of my comfort zone, and it was very reassuring to see the conversations go well each time. It was also reassuring to find out that we weren't the only team to have not shared, so that means we aren't necessarily bad missionaries.

The biggest lesson, though, was seeing what it is like to live an entire day intentionally seeking to share the gospel. Friday was a day with purpose, and as much as we ought to live every day with such a purpose, rarely do I and rarely do even most of the people here at FPO. How often do we go about our day passing up opportunities to share the gospel with people left and right, failing to share the good news of how they can come to know Christ. "Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders;" Paul wrote, "make the most of every opportunity" (Colossians 4:5). The days are few and so we ought to live them out with purpose, making the most of every opportunity. I pray that I'll be able to live in such a way while overseas or back home or wherever I may be. And I challenge you to do the same.