On The Red Box (With Pictures!)

One of the first things I did with YWAM this month was an evangelism workshop and then we got to put it into practice and I kind of loved it. The specific ministry is called “On the Red Box.” The founder of this ministry was going around sharing the gospel with people on the street. He would stand on a red box and preach using just his voice and maybe some props. While the name of the ministry is “On the Red Box” because that was literally what he was standing on, the most important thing was that he was sharing the Truth with the people who stopped to listen to him. 

So, we sat in the workshop, were given pointers on how to evangelize and they taught us the four pillars they use in all their illustrated messages. They use an object to grasp attention and then connect it to: The Law, Eternity, The Cross and The Call. So every message they gives talks about morality (what is right and wrong), the consequences of sin and the offer of eternal life, how the work of the cross effects our lives today, and they end with inviting people to repent and accept Jesus. 

After the pastors’ 10 year old son showed us an example of a message he gives when he stands on the red box, he opened up an opportunity for us to practice with just our teammates before hitting the streets. After I got up and shared a message with my team, I sat back down and was praying about what I would say if they asked me to stand on the box out in the city. I was pretty nervous about the idea of doing this, and I didn’t love what I shared when I was just practicing (although my team was very encouraging). Anyway, I prayed about it and God reminded me about something from my childhood that I could totally use to illustrate the gospel. After I remembered this I was actually really excited  to get up on the box and share. 

Here I am practicing during the workshop 🙂 

While I did get on the box, I only shared my 2 minute testimony and not a full message about the gospel. (See the photo collage below to see pictures of the group in action) Anyway, I didn’t actually get to share the story God reminded me of and I’d like to share it with all of you now. 

So when I was little, my best friend (Sarah – I miss you!) and I loved playing outside together. We would play on her trampoline with water on it and slide all around. We also would play in the mud that this water created under and around the trampoline. One of these days we had gotten completely covered in mud from head to toe. The swimsuits we had been wearing were brown and you couldn’t even see our faces any more. 

When we were done playing outside and decided we were ready to go in, we walked up to the back door and when her mom saw us she looked horrified and said “there is no way you’re coming into the house like that.” We had to hose of all of the mud before we could even think about going into the house again. 

What does this have to do with the gospel? Well, let me tell you. 

In this world, there are many things that we think are fun, but are actually very detrimental to our spiritual life. Things like getting drunk, sleeping around, gambling… these things are actually sins and they lead to death. Sure, you might have fun in the moment with some things, but there’s really no good in them at all. Just like how my friend and I were covered in mud after a fun time of playing, these things leave us covered in death, they separate us from God and stain our lives. In Romans 6:23, we’re told that the wages of these sins is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Just like Sarah and I could not go in the house covered in mud, we cannot go into Heaven covered in death and sin. BUT, the good news is that Jesus death on the cross is the hose that cleans the mud off us. Jesus died to make us clean and offer us eternal life with Him in heaven. 

This is incredible! I’ve been learning that everything God offers to us in an invitation. Like in my previous blog about not listening to secular music. God invited me into this, He didn’t force me, and it’s been wonderful. God invites us all to join Him in life. If you don’t know Jesus, if you have not accepted the gift of eternal life and allowed Him to cleanse you, I encourage you to seek Him further and enter into the amazing gift He has offered. And if you have any questions at all, please feel free to ask me.

Blessings! 

~Kaci