A Natural Evangelist

I remember when I first met Ginger. It was in the first week of my ninth grade year. She was hanging around with a lot of cute girls in the school lunch room. She had a strong presence based on personality not looks. Please don’t get me wrong, she was pleasant looking but she was neither cute nor gorgeous. She was plain and muscular. She was strong in body and had a great personality. She was one of those girls who could have sulked off to a shy corner and been left to finish high school below most of our radar screens. But this was not Ginger. She did not seem to be bothered by the fact that most of the girls she hung out with were cuter than her. She did not seem to be bothered by her strong, less that dainty hips and legs. She was Ginger and she was there and you were going to feel her presence and you were really going to like her. She had confidence in herself and it was fun being around her.

During that first year of High School Ginger decided to be a cheerleader. Trust me on this; she did not fit the mold. Never the less, she got on the squad and by her senior year she was captain of the team. She had a voice that you could hear over any crowd noise. She was always the base of the stunts. She was the one who stood strong holding other girls as they stood on her shoulders. She was the one who was strong enough to launch the other cheerleaders in the air. She was also the one who never missed when it came to catching another girl during a stunt. She was strong and dependable.

During our senior year while at one of the football games, I decided to go to the concession stand for some popcorn. The game was in progress and the cheerleaders had just finished leading a cheer. As I passed by I noticed a group of four younger girls, probably seventh or eighth graders, sitting right in front of the cheerleaders. It was obvious that these girls were enamored with the thought of being cheerleaders someday. As I returned ginger as kneeling down next to the fence talking to the four girls who were on the other side of the fence. Ginger was making there day. As I passed by I heard Ginger encouraging them to become cheerleaders and telling them what they needed to do to get on the squad. I don’t remember what advice she gave them but I do remember the picture. Here was the captain of the squad taking time during a game to bless four little girls while the rest of the high school cheerleaders were twenty feel away, huddled around the pom-poms talking to themselves. They were oblivious to the little girls and to what Ginger was doing. They were confining themselves to their own little world while Ginger was casting a vision and instilling hope in the lives others.

Isn’t that a lot like evangelism? Ginger was an evangelist for cheerleading. Ginger has become for me an example of how God can take someone who does not have everything going for them as the world views things, and using them to be successful for the cause of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is great to know that no matter whom we are, God can use us to bring others to salvation. Sometime all it takes is for us to put our confidence and trust in the Lord, look up from our little world, and encourage those who God brings into our lives. Jesus said, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into the fields.” (Luke 10:2 NLT) Lord, please let those workers be us!

David Sundeen
Director of Evangelism
Minnesota Wisconsin Baptist Convention