Happy
Veteran’s Day, or Commemoration Sunday, as they call it here. We had special
services today at the churches we are working at in honour of those who served
and lost their lives in the World Wars, and we had a Commemoration Service
yesterday afternoon at St. James for people in the community to come and grieve
someone that they have lost this past year. It breaks my heart to see the
people crying over loved ones that they had to say goodbye to, but yet at the
same time, it was neat to see so many people in church! It definitely isn’t a
sight that you see every Sunday morning.
Tomorrow we
are hosting a program called “Friends of St. James.” Robby, Jarred, and I have
all prepared Powerpoint presentations to show people from the church what life
in America is like and just a little bit about ourselves. Good smells have also
been wafting from the kitchen all afternoon, as we have all been busy preparing
good ol’ apple pies, chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies, and my favourite—pumpkin
pie—to take to the service tomorrow. Hopefully it will be an enjoyable service
for everyone—pray that we will be able to form even better relationships with
the people there and pour our hearts into the ministry here!!
Yesterday,
before we had to get ready for the Commemoration Service at St. James, Katie
and I bussed into City Centre to pick up a few things. When we were walking
around Market Street, there was a man standing next to a sign with Romans 6:23
written on it. (“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”) And he was yelling. I don’t know about
you, but every time I hear people standing on a street corner yelling, “REPENT!!
REPENT!! GOD CAME TO SAVE YOU! YOU ARE CONDEMNED TO HELL!!” It makes me SO
ANGRY. While I do realise that there is more
than one way to evangelize, I strongly disagree with yelling on a street corner.
You wouldn’t do that to your non-Christian friends, so why would you do it to
strangers? Why would they want to be part of a religion like that? I felt like
I couldn’t just walk away without saying anything, so Katie and I went over to
talk to them. I won’t go into details because so much was said and my space is
limited, but pray for them. This is such a dark area already, and condemning
people by yelling at them isn’t the way to reach them. That’s why we’re here
for a year, which really doesn’t even seem to be enough time—to pour into them,
to show them that we’re not just here to “collect followers”, but to truly,
deeply, and unconditionally love them—and make
disciples.
Pray for our
ministry this week—we’ve got a busy week ahead of us. It’s going to be a good
one, though. God is faithful, and His mercies are new every morning. I pray
that He reveals Himself more to all of us this week. 🙂
Blessings and Peace!
