Day 4 & 5

On the fourth day Jared, Phani, Tom, and Richard finished up there training.

On the 5^th day, they went to a new city of 10 million people. The M who they are working with took them to a popular city park. There they shared the good news with merchants selling shawls and handicrafts. Tom had success in talking to a seller named Ankit. The man talked about his family creating marble masterpieces to sell. Tom then used the masterpiece theme to talk about how God wanted to create a masterpiece within him.  After a 45-minute discussion, Ankit accepted JC.

Richard talked with another merchant, Javed, from Kashmir. Richard explained the good news to him by drawing a simple picture showing how we are all separated from our creator by sin.  The only way back was through JC. Then the translator gave a fuller explanation.  Javed seemed to be open to a follow-up visit.

Please pray that Ankit will hold true to the faith and Javed will be interested in learning more when revisited.

Day 2

Day two began with a training session on how to enter a new area and present the good news. In the afternoon, the group was divided into several teams of 2-3 to go out into different areas of the city. 

The group of 3 of which Richard was a part ended up walking down a street in a poorer section of town. Asking to buy a bottle of water led to an invitation to visit a local resident's home. Once there, aunts, uncles, cousins, mothers, brothers, and sisters suddenly appeared to see the strange foreign visitors. But this turned out to be an opportunity to share the good news with this large family.  Everyone listened politely and smiled but did not respond. Later, the 3 discovered that one member of the family had seen JC in a vision! She became quite excited when telling her story. Since having that experience, she has prayed for healing from various physical problems. The miraculous cures even surprised her doctors! 

After spending almost 3 hours at the home, the team posed with the family for several pictures. We thanked them for their warm, generous hospitality and returned to our hotel thankful for such a great experience.

Day 1

Day 1:  Tom and Richard arrived in South Asia on Tuesday morning at 2:30 AM. Phani and Jared arrived an hour and a half later.

With not much sleep, everyone was up by 8 to eat breakfast. After eating, they took off to visit a Botanical garden. Traffic was terrible as their driver weaved in and out of traffic like a Nascar race driver. But they arrived safely. 

At 4 PM they had their first meeting with the local M's. Time worship followed. The highlight of the meeting was when Phani stood up and gave his testimony of how Christ had changed his life back when he was a university student in his native country.  More training will take place tomorrow. Then on the streets to practice what they learn.

Day 3

DAY 3:  The day began with a training session in what to do after a person believes. They also learned stories to use in teaching those who had newly accepted JC.

In the afternoon, the group was divided into teams. The 3-person team that Richard was on went into a park. They talked to several people. The first was a threesome relaxing on a bench. Richard was able to tell the story of the prodigal son. After hearing the story, no one responded. Then a man walked up and began talking about a concert for followers of JC.  Surprisingly, the man was not even a follower. When asked his religion, the man responded that he believed in all of them. He had no preference.  Richard asked, “If facing a crisis, which god would you call upon?” He had no answer. Then Richard suggested that he call upon the creator of the universe. Next, Richard told the man 2 stories: Jesus calms the storm and the expelling of demons. Each story showed the power and might that he could call upon when facing problems in life. Another team member explained the reason for the cross. The man listened intently. Though making no decision, telephone numbers were exchanged. The local M will follow up on the young man. In the meantime, you can pray for Vinod who was very open to learning more.

Sightseeing

Monday, April 10,  we got to go to see some sights!  We chose the Tower of London in the morning. On our way to the Tower, Richard and I found 2 Thais who had come to London on vacation. When speaking to them it was quite a shock. They did not expect westerners in the middle of London to be able to communicate with them in Thai.  After a brief conversation, we gave them Thai Christian literature. 

At the Tower, we had a lively tour guide who helped to make the place come alive. Afterwards, the guys on the team split with the girls and went to see the armory. Meanwhile, the girls went to view the crown jewels of Queen Elizabeth. 

After lunch we went to see the British Library and then the British Museum.  WOW! It's a great place with so many things to see from around the world.  Impossible to see everything in one day.

We are so grateful that each of you prayed for us.  We ended up working with 2 local pastors and 4 IMB missionaries. It was an experience of diversity in 3 different areas of London.  It made us appreciate the work of missionaries in this atheistic city and to understand a little better just how hard it is to reach the people of London with the salvation message of Jesus. Only 1% of the population claim to be believers.

We will sleep for about 5 hours and get up to start our journey back to the USA.  Please pray for our safety in travel,  and not to have any problems.

Chiswick Baptist Worship

Sunday, April 9th, we went back to Chiswick Baptist Church.  They're worship service was first with Pastor Steve preaching. Afterwards, there was a tea and coffee break with cookies.  Then Pastor Jared gave an introductory Sunday School lesson.  Afterwards, we broke up into small groups to discuss the topic of obeying God to go and witness as Philip did with the Ethiopian treasurer.  

During the worship service 2 Iranian men and an Iranian woman came in.  After the service, Richard engaged them in conversation.  He felt prompted to present the Creation to Christ story because the woman didn't know very much at all about Jesus or stories from the Bible.  We found out that the lady had lost a child and had been depressed.  She had made a profession of faith the week before, yet didn't know much about the Gospel story.  After Sunday School her brother came up and told Richard how much he appreciated him telling his sister the overall story.  Richard suggested that they start reading the Gospel of Mark.  Pray that the 2 new Iranian Christians will read the Bible and grow in their new faith.

After eating lunch at an English Pub, we went on the street and did a survey finding out about what people thought about Christians, religion and Christ.  Unfortunately most of the people we met were atheists and not opened to the gospel story.  The last people we talked to were Catholics.  When the 16 year old daughter found out that we were Christians, she spoke up proudly that she had begun  to read the book of Matthew.  Pray that God will work in the lives of those we met and  that they will think about God in a positive way.  

Uxbridge Bible Distribution

On Saturday, April 8th,  we went to Uxbridge to pass out Christian Bibles and literature in NW London.  Riding the bus about 50 minutes to work with missionary Scott.  Scott set up a table outside in a busy shopping district.

  

One man Richard spoke to was a young Hungarian named Frange.  He had been in England for a month.  He couldn't make a living in Hungary, so he became an economic migrant.  He loved his country and family and missed them very much.  He was deeply hurt by the fact that his younger brother had died 2 months earlier in an automobile accident in Hungry. This made him wonder how a good God would allow all the suffering and death in the world.  He was angry and refused to believe in God.

Linda spoke to an Indian Hindu man, who had studied lots of different religions and was an atheist of sorts.  They discussed different questions from which was the oldest religion to forgiveness.  He couldn't understand how you could forgive someone who had done absolutely horrible things to you or your family.  In the end he did take a tract and Linda's prayer was that he would believe.

It was a fast morning and afternoon talking to people with the basic questions of life and prejudice.