This post has been adapted from an article by Yaasha Moriah that first appeared in the newsletter Incorruptible Beauty. Click here to learn more.

“I had my abortion yesterday.”

Hearing these words over the phone from a woman I had counseled just a week earlier, I felt as if my body had deflated. I had seen the statistics, I had done the research, I had personally heard the stories straight from the lips of post-abortive women. I knew what this woman’s future could look like. And for her child…there was no future. I immediately wondered: What could I have done to spare both mother and child from the painful consequences of abortion?

Somehow when I had become a counselor at the local crisis pregnancy center, I had never thought much about this aspect of ministry. In order to offer hope and healing, I had to be ready to bear another woman’s burden and to pray for her as earnestly as I would pray for a dear friend.

Recently, my church has been making evangelism a priority, by hosting an Evangelism Seminar and by continuing discussions about evangelism in our home groups. Although we all agree on the importance of evangelism, everyone admits that witnessing is often something awkward, uncomfortable, or even nerve-wracking. So how do we best go about sharing our faith with others?

To be clear, evangelism is not my spiritual gifting. That said, as I learn, I would like to share what I find to be effective. Today's idea is simply this: Pray with people.

My illness was one of the best gifts God ever gave to me.

Of course, I didn't see it that way at first, nor for a long time. Even if you consider yourself fairly healthy, take a moment to review my journey with me. I'd be willing to bet that what I have gone through is not so different from a number of things that you have experienced. And what I have learned--maybe they're things that you are learning too, in your own way.

"Do you know who is going to be most sad when Yaasha marries someday?"

When my mother asked this of my father, I sat up straighter in the back seat of the car and tried to pretend that I wasn't listening with all my might.

"Who?" Daddy asked. Yes, who? My mind echoed.

"Asher. Those two are always doing something together, and he seems to really enjoy the time she spends with him, and to listen when she talks to him."

A wiggle of pure delight danced in my chest. My brother Asher is almost 11 years my junior. So while I'm in my mid-20s, he's in his mid-teens. That age gap is often a huge hurdle for siblings. For my brother and I, it's just another reason to spend more time getting to know each other.

Sometimes we're afraid to serve someone because we think that what we have to offer is too little. I cannot count the numerous times when I have done nothing simply because I felt that, if I was going to bless someone, I had to do so when I could offer a lot of time or commitment. So I failed to reach out to others in Christ-like love because I felt inadequate.

And I missed so many opportunities.

Single women and married women tend to move in different circles. The married women want to chat about their husbands and their babies with each other, and the single women form their own cliques around hobbies, school, ministries, or the single lifestyle itself.

I think that’s wrong. 

Just. Plain. Wrong.