While many people may anticipate jump-starting their weekend on Friday afternoon, we at the Project see this as a golden opportunity for the spiritual harvest of souls--the Spiritual Care Practicuum. During this three-hour period at various hospitals, fourteen pairs of students talk with patients. With each student team reaching an average of three to five patients, up to seventy patients are ministered to every Friday.

Conversations with each patient are guided by a progression of questions, referred to as the Spiritual History, through which the patient can express emotional and spiritual as-pects of his or her experience and the interviewer can survey any spiritual needs. Then, if the opportunity arises and the patient consents, the interviewer shares the basics of the Gospel.

Not every patient is ready or willing to hear the Gospel, of course, but there always seems to be multiple testimonies of how a patient prayed to receive Christ or how a fellow Christian was given encouragement and reassured of his salvation.

However, it is not just the patients who benefit from this experience. Students themselves have grown in their faith through witnessing the power of the Holy Spirit, and some have been convicted of attitudes that need to be surrendered to God. Others have even found themselves being ministered to by the patient!

My personal favorite story unfolded on the afternoon that my partner, Jessica Vanden Bosch, and I met Mr. P. As we went through this Vietnam War Veteran's spiritual history, he described the fear and desperation he experienced when he was diagnosed with cancer-the seriousness of which was illustrated by the physicians' amazement that he was still alive. With a lump in his throat and tears welling up in his eyes, he admitted, "I wasn't a very religious man before, but I know that God saved me for a purpose..." While I listened to Mr. P's story, I saw how the Holy Spirit had been working to prepare him for this very moment. Without any reservations, I shared the Gospel, and he sincerely prayed to accept Christ into his heart.

It was such a privilege to take part in the harvest that afternoon! And what excitement there is in knowing that as long as we continue to sow, there will be abundantly more to reap. :: John 4:35-38 ::