Dn. Raphael She was a great American, I will tell you that.
She risked her life to save slaves in Antebellum America. (Antebellum means before the Civil War.)
Her first mission was all about saving her family from being split up. She was about to lose them. The owner of the plantation was going to split them up by selling family members, never to see each other again. Can you imagine anything so heinous? Neither could she, so she engineered their successful escape to freedom.
This was dangerous work. If she was captured she could have been beaten and even murdered—legal according to U.S. law at the time. Can you believe it? Good thing that is over 150 years behind us!
Reports vary, but she made at least seventeen trips, leading over 750 slaves to freedom!
Slave owners were furious. They put up a $40,000 reward for her capture. That’s two million dollars in today’s economy! They desperately wanted to stop her but never did.
One day she was close to capture. She was sitting near a wanted poster of her. Two men started reading it out loud. “She cain’t read…” she heard one man say. She was a quick thinker. She picked up a book that just happened to be there on the bench she was resting on. She was illiterate but knew the proper direction to hold a book. The men saw her but thought she was reading. Whew! That was close.
Tubman led slaves to freedom on a variety of paths to Canada called The Underground Railroad. Others did this, others did more, but she is the only one to have never lost an escapee. It earned her the nickname, Moses, after the man who led the Children of Israel out of Egypt. She also aided the famous abolitionist, John Brown. He gave her another nickname, General Tubman.
After the Civil War she bought a house in upstate New York. There she helped former slaves establish themselves with an education and a trade.
You can see how important she was before and after the Civil War. Her dedication and service meant so much to so many. To this day she is remembered and admired. Expect to see her on the $20 bill soon. Her image will replace Andrew Jackson’s.
Why do I mention Harriet Tubman? It’s because she risked her life to help the enslaved. And isn’t that what evangelists do? We help slaves of sin, the world, and sinister spiritual forces. In some places in the world, evangelists risk their lives to speak about Christ.
Most evangelists, like most conductors of the Underground Railroad, are unsung heros, known only by a few. But to those helped by them, the evangelist is like a life preserver, the person who saved their life. Actually it is Christ who saves, but you know what I mean. They’d have never known Christ without the messenger who delivered the words that saved.
Why wouldn’t you want to become an evangelist? Someone who brings great joy to slaves. Someone who leads sinners to safety in Christ. Someone who leads them to their freedom. Why not be that person who is doing what Christ asked all His disciples to do?
You may have good reasons to shy away from evangelism. But no longer when you learn from Evangelist Basic Training (EBT). You will spend about five minutes a day reading emails from your home. With this training it will no longer be an intimidating experience for you or the people you talk to.
It’s so easy to sign up. Click here. A new session starts every other month.