England Week 3

England

Week 3 

With little rest and only one day off since we arrived 3 weeks ago, we have continued ministry in street outreaches in Andover and additionally in Newbury and London, commenced after school kids programs and school assemblies. Although, the crowds on the streets have not been huge like we get on the boardwalk in Maryland, Pastor Don so rightly said, “It’s not quantity, but quality that counts.” And quality it has most certainly been with many divine appointments anywhere from, “I’m not good enough for heaven.” to “How can I be saved?” One lady said that she had recently had some deaths in her family and she knew they had gone to heaven. She said she had been thinking about going to church, but was afraid of going because she didn’t want to hear the truth that she wasn’t good enough to go to heaven. Upon hearing the Gospel, she exclaimed, “I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear this. This is such Good News!” - CA

 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." Romans 1:16 

Rejoice in the God Given Strength and Courage

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5:16-18‬ ‭

This trip has brought so many unexpected challenges and our last week here is in no way an exception. But God has been sovereign through it all and I’ve been continually amazed watching Him carry me through every challenge He brings. The strength I have can only be found in Him. “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.” Ephesians‬ 6:10 This last week we had somewhat of an unexpected heat wave, so most of us were very tired and worn out. On one of the hottest days in the mid afternoon, we decided to walk around and do one on one conversation. Trying to avoid the heat, my partner and I went inside. This is where we found an elderly couple sitting down, also trying to escape the heat, so we decided to talk with them. Their names were Mick and Mo. They were so genuine and kind that they let us share the Gospel with them. They were a part of the Church of England, and believed that good works were what saved them. What stood out the most to me was the struggles and trials these people had gone through. Mo is battling cancer and as she spoke she couldn’t keep her hands steady. As we spoke, she kept making mention as to how she could never forgive people who hurt children. The reason was because their daughter, unbeknownst to them, was abused by a family member throughout her entire childhood.  For the entirety of the conversation my heart just went out to these people. I wanted to sit there and hold their hands and tell them that everything would be okay. My partner and I left that conversation very heavy hearted, but just as we were leaving Andover center, Mick and Mo sought us out to ask for our names so they could remember us. It was such a blessing to talk to these people and I pray that God will work in their hearts. Another encouraging conversation that I had was with a young man named Noah. He had stayed after a sketchboard message, so we decided to talk to him. He believed that we were just going through life and fully admitted that he hadn’t given it much thought, a common theme you see among people. After sharing the Gospel with him, though, we could clearly see his mentality change and it was obvious that God was keeping him there for a reason. In the end, he said he would read the book of John and look into it more. It’s been such a blessing to see God so clearly working in our conversations. This trip has really shown me how evident God is and how ultimately my strength and courage can only be found in Him. - Julia Key 

The Need for the Gospel

As we are approaching the end of the trip, I have come to realize the overwhelming need for true Gospel proclamation. A large number of people we talk to are professing believers, but when asked the question, “Why do you think you deserve to go to heaven?” the vast majority of people respond with, “Because I am a good person.” Almost no one I asked this question to answered with a Biblically correct response. For example, I spoke with a satanist named Criz on Thursday that didn’t believe in God, Satan, Heaven, or Hell, but told me that if she was wrong that it wouldn’t matter because she thought she’d done enough good to go to heaven anyways. The saddest part was that she had gone to church for 18 years and never heard that the Gospel was about what God has done for us, not what we have to do for God and because of this, she left the church and became a satanist. It goes to show that the responsibility of true believers is to share the true Gospel of Christ that is found in the Bible. It doesn’t matter whether or not the person says they are a believer because what I’ve learned from this trip is that even if they say they’re a believer, chances are they actually haven’t ever come to true faith in Christ. - Andrew West

 

 

God's never ending faithfulness 

There was a Chinese woman that stood behind me during the whole sketchboard message. Daniel and I turned to talk to her, and she asked us what "turn and trust" meant. We explained the Gospel and that you must turn from your sin and trust in Jesus to be saved. The message really interested her and she had a lot of questions. She is originally from China and was raised non-religious, but she is rethinking what she believes. She is staying by herself in a cottage she and her husband own. She was lonely and depressed so she decided to go on a walk to a place she never walks and ended up at our sketchboard. That was God's glorious providence that unfolded right before my eyes. She told us she didn't believe in God, but that this was no accident that she ran into us. She has felt that there was something more recently, and wants to believe in God, but she just doesn't. We told her the only way to believe something is to hear about it. Romans 10:14 "How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching." The best way for someone to believe is through hearing God's very own words. So, Daniel, the woman, and I sat at a coffee shop and I opened to Genesis 1:1 and began to read. She loved it and was listening so intently! She kept asking me to keep reading to her. I jumped through specific passages and kept reading. We got to the book of John and she realized she was late for her paid parking spot. I don't even know how to describe it, but it was so clearly the work of the Lord. Our God, the God of the universe, the Name above every name, the One to whom every knee will bow, has powers beyond our fragile minds. How great is our God! She was so excited, took pictures of some pages in my Bible to read later, and said she will try to come to church this Sunday. Please pray for her salvation and that she will come to church this Sunday. I am so unworthy to have this experience, yet I will praise my Father for blessing me with this gift. My heart is full and my soul rejoices because he is a good, good Father. Thank you Jesus! - Rieleigh Dunn

 

How Great Thou Art

Psalm 115

“Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and faithfulness” 

Psalm 113 

“ praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord!  Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore!  From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised!  The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens!  Who is like the Lord our God who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?  He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes of his people, he gives the barren woman a home making her a joyous mother of children, praise the Lord” 

The Lord has shown us so many things in these past few weeks of being in service to Him through missions and evangelism.  One of the bigger things recently, is just how the Lord is sovereign over salvation.  He is faithful in His steadfast love toward sinners and has shown His glory by bringing children of wrath to Himself.  

A man named Oakley approached the sketchboard this past week and when I walked over to him he inquired about its purpose.  Turns out the Lord had scheduled this divine appointment to show himself to this man.  He had never really thought about eternity or God or where he would spend eternity - all he knew was that he was searching and he was at a low point in his life which he shared with us. He had heard of the Bible - matter of fact, he liked the verse that says, “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil” so much that he even got it tattooed on his arm.  I used it as an opportunity to explain the gospel.  We only have no evil to fear if we are in Christ and trust in what He has done for us and that He has power over evil and death.  Oakley was receptive. We proceeded to spend the next hour and a half speaking to him and answering his questions about God.  His questions were mainly related to the existence of God and topics such as abortion, homosexuality, and trying to grasp the idea of a loving, yet just God.  He admitted he was at the point in his life where he needed to make a decision and that he would be open-minded to reading the Bible and the booklets we gave him. We replied with, "Don’t just be open-minded, search for the truth, search for the way, and search for the life."  Jesus says, “I am the way, the Truth, and the Life and no man will come to the father but by me."  Something in me was leading me to call Mr. Adams over to share his testimony with Oakley.  In detail, he shared how the Lord saved him and the circumstances which surrounded it.  It was amazing how the Lord worked in this instance because some of the exact circumstances around which the Lord saved Paul, Oakley was dealing with right then.  You could see that he was being convicted of his sin!  We exchanged contact information to keep in touch and answer questions.  All of that to say that the Lord worked sovereignly in so many ways from Oakley tattooing a verse in the Bible on his arm to having similar to exact circumstances as Paul’s testimony. The Lord was working in Oakley’s life way before our talk with him.  This conversation was so encouraging and made us joyful and want to lift up our voices in song to the Lord who deserves our praise.  All we could say was that this conversation was not our doing, but all the glory had to go to name of the Lord alone.  He guided our words and blessed this conversation.  

Another instance where God was making himself known.  We have preached multiple times in the town of Andover in the exact same spot each time.  There was a homeless couple about 50 feet away from the sketchboard. They had heard the Gospel on day one and then on day two they walked up to watch us do the drama skit and stayed to listen to Will preach the Gospel.  Once he was finished, two of our team mates turned to them to begin a conversation with them and I walked over about 10 minutes into the conversation.  Their names were Aaron and Lola.  They walked up out of curiosity with the question, “Why, no matter what happens in life, are Christians so happy?” Again, the Lord had scheduled a divine appointment to reveal himself to these particular people.  We talked about the Gospel and they had so many questions mainly about why there is suffering in the world.  We spoke for maybe about 20 min then gave them both the Gospel of John to read with the preface of telling them to not just believe what we are saying, but test it against the word of God and see for themselves that what we are saying is true and worthy of their trust.  We gave them tracts to read as well.  They went back to their spot and about 10 minutes later we looked over there and they were reading the Gospel of John together and smiling and talking about it with each other. 

Upon seeing this, leaders went to a store to buy full Bibles and Rieleigh and I wrote notes of encouragement in them, outlining the Gospel as well as underlining verses in the Bible that are helpful for answering the specific questions they had.  When we walked over and gave them the Bibles, we showed them how to use a Bible and they were so grateful.  We proceeded to talk with them for the next few hours about their lives.  

Two things stuck out to me. One of the first things Aaron said in response to the Gospel was that he and Lola always felt so lost and hopeless and without purpose.  They openly shared that they have lived difficult lives from the time they were young dealing with rape, abortion, drugs, alcohol, abuse, broken families, and betrayal.  Like anyone else, hearing this moved my heart to grieve for them in their lost state.  To think that these people whom I had just met and become close with struggled through these things without Christ as their hope. I was moved to tear - but there is hope!!  Mainly, it stuck out to me because though they may not see their trying experiences as a good thing, the first thing I thought of was that the Lord was calling them.  He was bringing them down to a low point in life to make Himself the only thing they could cling to.  The suffering they were experiencing was showing them their weakness and inability to do things themselves.  

The second thing was that they said they knew a friend who professed to be a Christian and that they both always talked about and wondered why their friend had such joy in the midst of suffering and they desired that joy and wanted it to be their own!  This was such an encouragement to my heart to hear that the joy and light of Christ didn’t stay under a basket, but was put on display in the midst of troubling times. Aaron and Lola noticed it and were now seeing His good works and glorifying the One from whom the joy had come.  By the time we needed to go, we had talked through a lot of the New Testament and the questions kept flooding!  The Lord laid it on my heart to share my testimony with them as well as to call over another leader to share hers which includes very similar life experiences to them.  Again, God was there.  God was guiding the conversation, and His majesty was evident in the course of the time we spent with Aaron and Lola.  God has the power to lift the poor and needy make them alive and sit them in the heavenly places by his side. We have been back to Andover numerous times and have always found them searching the scriptures and in the word of God. 

How joyous and encouraged our souls were to see God glorified through this day of evangelism in the town of Andover.  How sovereign is our God?!   All we could do was praise Him for his goodness and sing to the Lord who is above every nation.  As we walked back to our bus the hymn “How Great Thou Art” was on our tongues.  Two verses and the chorus of the song was on our hearts.  

“Oh Lord, my God

When I, in awesome wonder

Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made

I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder

Thy power throughout the universe displayed

When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation

And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart

Then I shall bow, in humble adoration

And then proclaim, my God, how great Thou art

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee

How great Thou art, how great Thou art

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee

How great Thou art, how great Thou art”

London

Andover Town Center