LIVING AS CHRISTIANS: Week of June 26 to July 2, 2023, "Don't be afraid to start conversations", Video: "Iron sharpens iron": How to start conversations, Analysis and Answers.

LIVING AS CHRISTIANS: June 26-July 2023, "Don't be afraid to start conversations", Video: "Iron sharpens iron": How to start conversations, Analysis and Answers.

“Don't be afraid to start conversations” (15 min.): Analysis with the audience and video.

How can these tools help you to preach informally when the opportunity arises?

These tools can help us informally when the opportunity arises:

Contact card: For example, the contact card, And we say this because it is very practical to carry in our wallets, So we can load it several times, wherever we go, whether we are shopping or anywhere.

jw.org website: I think that today the vast majority of people have access to the internet, and we all always carry our mobile phones everywhere, so we can take any opportunity to talk about jw.org and what's more, we can show you to people How they can Navigate this page, which contains all our publications.

The tracts: The booklets are really a great help, because they are practical to carry in our bag, they do not take up any space, and they contain very specific topics, with questions that we can ask people to start giving testimony.

What three steps will help you start conversations?

The first thing we should do is be a friend, greet the person very kindly, and comment something related to the circumstances we are in, like maybe about the family, about the long line at the store, about the weather, the next step is to let the conversation flow naturally, not force it, and then we can make a simple comment about our beliefs.

ANALYSIS OF OTHER ADDITIONAL POINTS OF THE VIDEO.

Today we are going to see how to start conversations that later allow us to preach. For many, doing this is terrifying. Why? Because when we see someone with whom we would like to talk, perhaps we start to think, and what am I going to say to him, how am I going to preach to him, how is he going to react and in the end we worry so much, we get so nervous thinking about how the conversation will end that we didn't even start it.

If that happens to us, let's remember something, our goal is simply to start a conversation. So if we start a conversation, perfect, we've achieved the goal, now we can relax and see if the opportunity to preach arises.

In our September 2018 Activity Guide, we talked about this topic and explained how we can start conversations by copying what Jesus did with the Samaritan woman from John chapter 4. So when we see someone we want to talk to, try to remember these three steps:

FIRST STEP.   Be friendly as easy as that, be friendly, if we are nervous, let's say a short prayer to Jehovah to ask for courage, and greet the person kindly, then we can comment on something that is happening at that moment that perhaps it is going to rain, that there is a very long line at the store, that your car is very nice, or any other nice thing. When Jesus started talking to the Samaritan woman in verse 7 he simply said and no doubt he meant it in a friendly way give me a drink. 

SECOND STEP. Let the conversation flow naturally, don't force it, if the conversation ends before you can preach, no problem, we meet the goal, start a conversation, and we can try again. But if the conversation goes ahead, we can look for an opportunity to give 

STEP THREE: Make a simple comment about our beliefs. Seven verses after Jesus began the conversation with the Samaritan woman, we read that he preached to her and told her that she had water that gave eternal life. But between those two points he let her speak and express herself and listened to what he had to say.

With those three points in mind, now it's our turn to practice starting a conversation that might allow us to preach. To help us, we have Carolina and Thais here with us who are going to do a demonstration to put us in context, where will they have this conversation? We are in a supermarket, we are from a Portuguese congregation and when we go shopping it is normal to find people speaking Portuguese. Very good. You've already heard the three steps we want to test, but first let's see what would happen if we force the conversation:

Thais: Hi, all good. I heard you speaking Portuguese, where are you from? 

Carolina: I'm from Rio de Janeiro Brazil 

Thais: I am from São Paulo. How long have you been here?

Carolina. Only three months

Thais: The first months are difficult, right? When I arrived from Brazil something that helped me a lot was reading the Bible. But look, I don't want to take up any more time, you can read the Bible in Portuguese on our website jw.org and you will also find articles that can help you.

We stopped for a moment, well Thais you forced things a bit right, how did you feel doing it like that? I did feel that it was too soon to preach and I realized that she was not expecting it. And you, Carolina, how did you feel? The conversation started off well but then got a little weird.

It's true. Well now you can show us what the conversation would be like, if you let it flow more naturally:

Thais: Hi, all good, I heard you speaking Portuguese. Where are you from? 

Carolina: I am from Rio de Janeiro Brazil. 

Thais: How well I imagined it because of your accent, I come from Sao Paulo My name is Thais

Carolina: I am Carolina, nice to meet you.

Thais: Also, how long have you been here?

Carolina: Only three months.

Thais: I have been here for 3 years now, and the first one was the most difficult.

Carolina: Yes, at least we have a job, but we are still looking for a house and getting the papers has become more difficult than we thought. 

Thais: And did you come alone or with your family?

Carolina: With my husband, but our son had to stay with my mom, I miss him so much.

Thais: Oh, that's difficult. Trusting in God helped me a lot. That gave me the strength to get ahead. 

Carolina: I know sometimes I wonder when he's going to do something to help us

Okay we stopped again, it went very well thanks Thais, how did you feel the conversation was going? This time now I felt that the moment to talk about God came naturally and Ella was able to say how she felt.

Carolina: And you, Carolina, how did you feel? We were having a nice conversation, so when I talk about God I didn't find it weird.

Thank you both so much for helping us with this conversation. I found it very practical and I hope you will too. Make it a goal to start conversations by following these three steps: be friendly talk naturally and find a good time to talk about your beliefs, practice at home or with a friend and see for yourself that iron sharpens iron.