FEAR Extinguishers (DAY 27) - "Church on Wheels" (Week #4)
Today is Good Friday and once again our community chose to go out and do another week of "Church on Wheels". And like all the other weeks, God opened unprecedented doors to minister to dozens of people. I was with one of the members of our Church and in a 2.5 hr. period us two were able to minister to well over 50 people.
In some cases it was one or two on the street, in other cases, it was 6-8 employees in a McDonalds (actually 2 McDonalds today!).
For the Christians we ministered to, and we met Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and Evangelical Protestants, it was a time to do "mini Good Friday services". We reminded them of the death of Jesus and His forgiveness of our sins. The response was remarkable. So many expressed their gratitude and one woman literally started to cry. This has been such a fearful and emotional time for these guest workers in this Muslim-majority country. They fear for their families, they fear for their jobs and of course, they fear the Coronavirus! We got to be "FEAR Extinguishers" once again.
A common prayer I prayed was that since Jesus is the "Prince of Peace" that He would exchange their fear with His peace! That was a popular prayer today!
The opportunity to minister to Ethiopian Orthodox and Coptic Egyptian Orthodox Christians was also a highlight of the day. The Coptic guys even insisted to have pictures taken with us. Their Easter celebration is in another week, but we were all able to celebrate together the fact that Jesus rose from the dead!
We met with and prayed for Egyptians, Filipinos, Syrians, Indians, Ethiopians, Nepalese, Europeans and even spent a long time with a group of Gulf Arabs who insisted we drink tea with them and who invited us to eat with them when this whole crisis is over!! So many divine appointments.
Many of the non-Christians (mostly Muslims but also some Hindus) had no idea that this was Easter Week and so we got to share about that with them. What a privilege to pray that God would send His angels to protect them and their families. We also prayed many times for people's salaries to be paid in full.
We were so encouraged by the way God worked - by the doors He opened - the incredible receptivity by nearly every single person we reached out to. And I haven't even heard a single report back from the other teams that went out today. I can't wait to hear about all the other people God touched as the "Church on Wheels" took church today to the people at a time when they can't go to church themselves.
May every person who is reading this take risks in the coming days to reach out with the message of hope, the message of the Cross, the message of living "fear-free" because Jesus is the Prince of Peace!
...for such a time as this!
In some cases it was one or two on the street, in other cases, it was 6-8 employees in a McDonalds (actually 2 McDonalds today!).
For the Christians we ministered to, and we met Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and Evangelical Protestants, it was a time to do "mini Good Friday services". We reminded them of the death of Jesus and His forgiveness of our sins. The response was remarkable. So many expressed their gratitude and one woman literally started to cry. This has been such a fearful and emotional time for these guest workers in this Muslim-majority country. They fear for their families, they fear for their jobs and of course, they fear the Coronavirus! We got to be "FEAR Extinguishers" once again.
A common prayer I prayed was that since Jesus is the "Prince of Peace" that He would exchange their fear with His peace! That was a popular prayer today!
The opportunity to minister to Ethiopian Orthodox and Coptic Egyptian Orthodox Christians was also a highlight of the day. The Coptic guys even insisted to have pictures taken with us. Their Easter celebration is in another week, but we were all able to celebrate together the fact that Jesus rose from the dead!
We met with and prayed for Egyptians, Filipinos, Syrians, Indians, Ethiopians, Nepalese, Europeans and even spent a long time with a group of Gulf Arabs who insisted we drink tea with them and who invited us to eat with them when this whole crisis is over!! So many divine appointments.
Many of the non-Christians (mostly Muslims but also some Hindus) had no idea that this was Easter Week and so we got to share about that with them. What a privilege to pray that God would send His angels to protect them and their families. We also prayed many times for people's salaries to be paid in full.
We were so encouraged by the way God worked - by the doors He opened - the incredible receptivity by nearly every single person we reached out to. And I haven't even heard a single report back from the other teams that went out today. I can't wait to hear about all the other people God touched as the "Church on Wheels" took church today to the people at a time when they can't go to church themselves.
May every person who is reading this take risks in the coming days to reach out with the message of hope, the message of the Cross, the message of living "fear-free" because Jesus is the Prince of Peace!
...for such a time as this!
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