Dear praying friends,
It’s 70 degrees today as I write this blog post. Clearly Spring has finally showed up!
And that means that my team and I are transitioning to ministry opportunities in the streets, and not so much down in the subway.
Honestly, I’ll miss the subway. Ministering down there is one of the favorite things I do all year, and that’s because God always seems to work so amazingly in the subway.
I trust that, whether on the streets, or underground, at the beach, or in a housing complex, God will work wherever His Gospel is faithfully preached. And for that, I am grateful!
I want to keep you updated on some of the neat things God has down underground over the past few months. Very exciting stuff!
I’ll let the following photos do the explaining of some of what went on recently.
Please pray for us and those we meet!
https://picasaweb.google.com/113832164166152309192/201604Subway
In addition to the people in the photos, some other people who stood out are:
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Ahmed: Ahmed is an 18-year-old young man from a Muslim family. But he’s confused what to believe. Thankfully he took a Gospel of Luke in Arabic from us, and a “Jesus” DVD that has options for multiple languages spoken in the Middle East!
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Andrea: Andrea is a new Christian from Cape Verde. She shared with us her remarkable testimony. She told us that she was demon possessed, and a total mess. Just one week before we met her, a Pastor came over to pray for her, and she cried out to Jesus and claims that the demons are 100% gone! She’s memorizing Scripture, and is completely changed.
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Azizah: Azizah is a young lady in her 20’s from Morocco. We sat next to one another on the train ride out of the city. She took a gospel tract from me, and we had a good discussion. Like most Muslims, she thinks that just about everyone in America is a Christian, and she’s not impressed with the immorality she sees. I told her that not everyone who says they believe in Jesus actually are followers of Jesus. She was very friendly.
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Johnny: Johnny is a young man involved with a dangerous Cult called the “International Church of Christ (ICOC).” They actually go by a number of different names. He said he grew up in the ICOC. And he challenged me to give him one example of a person who was saved without being baptized in water. So I gave him the example of Cornelius, from Acts 10:44-48. Then he changed the subject and told us that we can’t know for certain that we can have eternal life. “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). For more information on the International Church of Christ, please see the free resources at: http://luke-15.org/resources/#ICOC.
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Channing: One of our volunteers, Joshua, is very good at talking with people who are down and out. He spent over an hour talking with Channing, an 18-year-old homeless drug addict. Channing was very open to the gospel, and open to getting in touch with Teen Challenge, a ministry that is very good at helping people like Channing.
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Josh: Josh is a young man who doesn’t go to church because he says he doesn’t trust the people there. He listens to sermons online. My co-worker, Ray, encouraged him to get involved with a local church because it’s the Biblical thing to do, and trust Jesus, not people there.
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Caroline: When I was handing out gospel tracts, I was approached by an older, Roman Catholic woman named Caroline. She said that she wanted a Bible, so I gave her one, and she wanted me to pray for her, so I prayed for her on the spot. She said, “God sent you to me.” Wow! I pray that Caroline comes to Jesus through repentance and faith in Him alone.
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Man from Honduras: This might be a bit complicated to explain, but I’ll give it a shot. I was in the subway, and I was approached by a Christian woman named Jillian. I know her and the church she attends well. She came up to me very excited and said she’s been wanting to see me to tell me a neat story. She said that last time she saw me in the subway, a week or so earlier, she got on the train and noticed a man from Honduras reading the gospel tract that my team and I were giving out. So she asked him what he thought, and he said he had just come to the Country and was looking for a good church. She invited this man to her church, and he came the next Sunday! Jillian told me to be encouraged, because we never know how God uses those thousands of gospel tracts given out. I hope that encourages you too!!!
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Linda: Linda is a middle-aged woman who had some sort of intellectual impairment, yet she was very kind. When she saw that we were doing God’s work, she came up and asked for prayer. She told me, “God had me run into you.” Linda is very sweet and was a great encouragement.
We love you and thank Jesus for you!
Thank you so much for your prayers, financial support, and notes of encouragement, without which we would not be able to reach the Lost for Jesus Christ!
Please contact us anytime and let us know how we can pray for you!
And please feel free to forward this to anyone you think would be blessed by it!
For Christ and His gospel,
Mark, Shelby, Vivienne, Juliana, Caleb, and Gabriella
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