For 10 years, the younger generation of Burgos Mennonite Church in Spain watched their parents preach, sing and pray on Sunday afternoons at a busy promenade in the middle of the city.
As young adults in 2011, the young people of the church (now merged with another congregation and called United Anabaptist Communities) wanted to take the message of Christ’s love to the streets in Burgos. But they didn’t feel that preaching on a street corner was what they were called to do. They needed their own way to minister to people.
“I think it’s easier in another city, where you don’t know anyone,” says Vanesa Moreno, one of the young adults, “but we wanted to do it here, in our own city.”
A Youth With a Mission group who came to visit Burgos gave them an idea for a different, relational approach, and the young people decided to try it. They set up a table with a box for prayer requests and offered “free hugs” to whoever wanted one.
Each Friday, right before their Bible study, the young adults carried out their new street evangelism plan. They got many questions about why they were there, and they used the opportunity to talk about their faith. By the third week, people began to remember them and submit prayer requests.
“People are getting to know them, and a couple of women are attending church as a result, one of whom is also a first-year English student of mine,” says Connie Byler, who is a long-term Mennonite Mission Network worker in Burgos. “The youth are very excited and have the sense that the Holy Spirit is doing new and wonderful things in their lives.”
“In the three months that we have been doing this, about three people have started to come to our church,” says Moreno, “and three guys don’t come to church, but they hang out with us on Saturdays because they just want to be with us.”
After spending a few hours taking prayer requests and giving hugs, the youth take their box back to Bible study. They read each slip aloud and pray for the requests individually.
Pastor Agustin Melguizo says that the young people at United Anabaptist Communities are an example of God’s work in the church.
“The youth and young adults are not content to simply have their own experiences with God,” he says. “They want to share those experiences with their peers.”
After a few months of meeting people of all ages, the young adults decided to add a new element to their street evangelism. They wanted to reach their friends and people their own age. So they took a chair out at midnight on a Friday, when the streets of Burgos are packed with young people, and took turns standing on the chair and sharing their testimonies.
The next Sunday at church they continued to share testimonies, this time with their congregation.
“They were so full of joy on Sunday during sharing time,” Byler says. “I can’t believe that about 10 of the teenagers each took three-minute turns to speak up in front of friends and classmates in those crowds.”
Others are noticing, too. Moreno was interviewed on a local radio station and asked to explain why she and the other youth have chosen to do street evangelism.
“[The radio host asked] why we are doing this, and I said that we are not trying to ‘convert’ anyone to any religion but sharing the love of God with others,” Moreno says.
“We think, more than ever, that the people need a lot of love and someone who listens to them.”
Moreno says that people who hear about the young adults’ activity seem to like what they’re doing—even the local police said it’s a better option than what other young people might do on weekends.
She sees it as planting seeds.“I pray that we can see the fruits of all of this,” Moreno says, “but even if we don’t, … this is what God is calling us to do—not only as an activity one day per week but also living every day talking about the amazing God that we have and his love for people.”
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Mennonite Mission Network, the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA, leads, mobilizes and equips the church to participate in holistic witness to Jesus Christ in a broken world. Media may contact Andrew Clouse at andrewc@mmnworld.net, 574-523-3024 or 866-866-2872, ext. 23024.
