A Few Awkward Seconds...

Laurel (left) with Donald & her team mates.

Laurel Carter is one of those who plans to bring a new gospel intentionality to her campus this semester. She spent her summer serving in Rochester, New York, doing ministry in the community and helping a new church plant build relationships.

One day she and her team prayed God would give them someone to talk to, and a little later they started a conversation with a man named Donald who was crossing the street at the same time they were. He invited them to have coffee with him,which led to a nearly four-hour conversation about life and faith.  “We ended up meeting up with him every week,” Carter said.

But God didn’t stop with Donald. He introduced them to some friends, and one day he insisted on giving Carter’s team a monetary gift. After refusing the money at first, they accepted it reluctantly, and almost immediately met up with someone on the street who had come to a local church for food distribution and found it closed. “We gave him the money Donald had given us and found out the man had been to church one time when he was younger and hadn’t been in 52 years,” Carter said. “We got to talk to him and pray over him right there, and he ended up coming to church with us on Sunday. Now he’s joined the church.”

When Carter’s team arrived at the beginning of the summer, there were 10 to 15 people attending the church plant each week; when they left there were 30 to 35.  

Carter, who is a student at UAH, said she feels a burden to pursue friendships back at home the same way she did in Rochester. “It showed me how unintentional I was being back home in Alabama,” she explained. “I feel like a lot of people — they struggle with those awkward moments (of approaching someone to start a new friendship), but it only takes a few awkward seconds to change someone’s eternity.”

--Laurel Carter

True North Interns, Rochester, NY

(Excert from The Alabama Baptist,  8-26-21 edition)