"Through sin, Satan made this whole world his personal playground, but not forever and not for long,” said 17-year-old Pono Lopez during his four-week evangelistic presentation from April 8 to 23 at the Honolulu Central church.

Lopez was part of the Hawaii Conference thrust for evangelism in every church during this year. He has accepted the challenge to choose evangelism as a lifestyle. As Morris Venden points out in his most recent book entitled, Why Didn’t They Tell Me?, “Sharing Jesus isn’t something we do. It’s who we are.”

During the last five years, approximately 200 young people have shared the gospel each year by participating in the annual “He’s Alive!” series during Passion Week. This year, young people are uniting with their local churches to do child evangelism as well as the much longer “sowing and reaping” adult meetings. Lopez was one of the first to respond to the call.

Lopez had some specific goals in mind for the meetings. “I felt inspired to give messages that were not only for non-Christians, but to Christians as well,” he said. “Therefore, each night I touched on specific topics normally found in evangelistic meetings, but I also wanted to remind all Christians of future events and how we should prepare ourselves for the return of Jesus.”

Sharing God’s Word was a learning and spiritual experience for Lopez. As he prepared for each sermon, Lopez acquired both knowledge and insights. “I could hardly wait to share it with the people who came each night,” he said.

Several years ago it didn’t seem possible that Lopez would one day be asked to do an evangelistic series entitled “Explore the Prophetic Seminar.” This recent graduate of Kamehameha schools grew up not knowing Jesus. He got to know Jesus while participating in his family’s Ohana group. There he learned how to study the Bible and become a disciple of Jesus while enjoying fellowship with the other members of his group.

As a young man of only 14, Lopez grew to love the Lord more each day. He decided to be baptized on a Sabbath afternoon in 2001 at his Ohana after Pastor Walt Nelson of the Honolulu Central church shared a brief gospel message.

“Ever since then, Pono has dedicated his life to working for the Lord,” said Nelson. “He is involved in many church-related activities and feels that it is his privilege to be His disciple. I wish every church member was as totally committed to service as this young man.”

To have the chance to preach God’s Word is only the beginning for Lopez. “I know it is a big challenge to reach many people in Hawaii who do not know Jesus,” he said, “but I am willing to take on this challenge because of my love for God.”