On a recent flight from Sydney to America, Chris and I were watching a movie when my screen suddenly went blank. The flight attendant tried resetting it a couple of times, but nothing worked.

The man sitting behind us overheard what was happening and kindly offered us the empty seats beside him so we could use his screen. We thanked him for his thoughtfulness.

As Chris stood up to talk with him, she noticed he was reading a Bible. They started chatting and Chris quickly discovered Jacob was traveling to Portland to meet with some church planters. Chris suggested rearranging seats so that Jacob and I could share insights about planting new churches.

We quickly discovered a lot of overlap.  We were both trying to start small churches -- about 10 people that meet in homes.  Some of them will grow larger, and others will stay at that size.

Then we turned our attention to evangelism.

I asked Jacob, “How do you decide who to share the Gospel with?”

He said, “We pray and ask God for direction.”

That was a good answer. But I wanted to understand more clearly how that worked in practice. So I asked if I could show him a tool that has been helpful to us: the Daisy.

I drew the centre circle and then added the petals. I asked him, “What are the normal social groups you are already part of?”

He mentioned family, church and work. Then he told me he was also part of a surf club.

That caught my attention. Suddenly I could picture a whole community of people he already knew and saw regularly. The Daisy helped move the conversation from a general desire to evangelise to a more focused question: Who has God already placed in your life?

That is one of the great strengths of the Daisy. It helps us focus our prayers and evangelism.

But we also need to rely on the Holy Spirit to help us notice opportunities to share with people who are not on our Daisy. God wants everyone to come to a saving knowledge of Christ.

If you have not yet drawn your Daisy, let me encourage you to download and start filling it in now.  Here this a video which might help you get started.

Then take a few minutes to pray:

Lord Jesus, who do you want me to notice this week? Who do you want me to pray for? How do you want me to focus my time?

Evangelism does not have to begin with a stranger. It often begins by noticing the people God has already placed around us.

P.S. Who do you think would be encouraged by this email? Forward it to them and let them know they can walk alongside experienced cross-cultural evangelists by visiting: https://hereslife.com/encouragement

You can also view back issues at https://hereslife.com/back-issues

(This reflection was written from my own experience and edited with the help of AI.)