Wales Week 1

Wales

Week 1

We have arrived safely in the United Kingdom; a land that although speaks English, is a land very foreign in culture, looks, language and rain. However, despite these barriers God has delivered us though it all. For a week that was forecast for rain everyday, God has indeed held back the rain where our ministry has totally been able to continue without any delays or cancellations. We have taken the Good News of the Gospel in the streets of Cardiff, Pontypridd and Parken, Children's Sunday School, kid's Clubs and youth groups and have had many divine appointments and countless open conversions where hearts have been open to hear God's word. It is exciting to see God at work in this land and we are overjoyed to be a part of it. - CA

"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edgedsword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account." Hebrews 4:12-13

Boldness to proclaim the Gospel

Boldness has always been something I struggled with because besides the obvious reason of being sinful and not naturally inclined to God, I am also a people pleaser. I have never been willing to put myself in uncomfortable situations for the sake of the gospel. I would always wait till the opportunity came to me to share of the work on the cross instead of seeking and creating opportunities to witness. The entire plane ride here all I could think about was, “I’m not prepared for this.”, or even, “I haven’t completed everything I need to.” and maybe it was the turbulence on the plane that really accelerated this thought, or the fact that it was my first plane ride, but I was very anxious. I was encouraged by a team mate that was sitting in front of me to pray. Philippians 4:4-7, “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

My prayer and supplication over the past week has been that God would give me boldness and strength to not shrink from proclaiming the whole counsel of God even through being physically fatigued from the busyness of the day. And he did just that. After a sketchboard message presentation on the streets of Cardiff, everyone turned to their neighbor and began gospel conversations. I turned to my neighbor and started a conversation as well. A man named Nathan was on his way to an interview, but stopped to listen to the message. We spoke for a while about the gospel. I talked about how this would be the most important decision he would make, far more important than any job he would accept, or what he would eat for dinner. Life will end and we will face God in judgement. God was there and I know he was guiding my words because I was able to answer questions that I had never heard before with scripture that I don’t normally use. At this point I could see that God was convicting him. He needed to leave to be on time for his interview, but we are praying that he reads the Bible we gave him and that God will bless the seed we planted. All of that to say that following God’s will is never easy, intimidating at times, but always fruitful even in ways that we don’t see. Praise be to God. He has continued to strengthen our team and give us boldness to proclaim his word clearly and firmly to the people in Cardiff, Wales. - Emma Haskins

Praise God for He is Good

“ Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations , his marvelous works among all the peoples.” -Psalm 96:1-3. Praise God for all that He is. He has taught me to trust Him and He will guide me and my words. All the praise belongs to Him. Though I would love to share all the fruitful conversations, I can not, so I will share this one. On Wednesday my team went to Cardiff shopping center to preach. This is the most populated area we had preached in all week. About an hour in it began to rain so we took shelter. It was still drizzling when I noticed a girl slightly older than myself eating her lunch on a bench right in front of me. I couldn’t ignore the opportunity and I sat next to her and asked her what she believed in. She was raised by Atheists and is one herself. She knew very little, if not anything of the Bible. She told me she had to go when she finished her lunch, so I had about ten minutes to explain the whole Bible. But God was there, He guided that conversation the way He wanted it to go. Praise the Lord she was interested and explained that she wanted to believe there was something more, but just didn’t. I encouraged her to read the book of John and look into having a relationship with the Lord. “Faith comes through hearing, and hearing comes through the word of God.” The best way to know God is by reading his word. I am so overjoyed that I was blessed with the opportunity to see God working so evidently in someone’s heart and his providence of bringing her to that moment. “The ultimate goal of missions is worship.” -John Piper. Please pray for the people of Wales that heard any part of what we preached. The Lord will use the smallest seed to work in someone’s life. Praise God for the work he is doing. - Rieleigh Dunn

God's Consistent Love Displayed

I talked at length with a Muslim man named Ali who began our conversation by insisting that our religions are the same. He said, "We believe all the same things, I just don't think Jesus is God." He also believed that God is too loving and good to kill an innocent man for our sins, especially if that man was fully God. I shared the gospel with him and Steve Harris argued that Christ's willing, sacrificial death is the greatest example of God's love there is. Ali didn't believe that Christ is God and insisted that if God is all-powerful then He could create a perfect prophet to bear our sins. He kept mentioning that the "Spirit" in John 16:13-14 is defined as a physical being in the original language. When we disagreed, he said, "If you can prove that the Spirit is a heavenly, divine being in the original language, I'll become a Christian Right now." We, with help from Paul's Greek Bible showed Ali the word Pneuma and how it's defined. Against his word, Ali expressed doubts over the accuracy of scripture. After more debate and discussion, I offered a mutual promise: I will consider, with an open mind, his view on the divinity of Christ if he would lay aside his presuppositions and consider our view. He agreed and I ended the conversation by saying that regardless of similarities in our religions, the divinity of Christ is fundamental to our beliefs and our religion, thus to us he is unsaved and our religions are radically different. I discussed the conversation with my host, Owen (who's the pastor of a nearby church and an "Old Testament fanboy", in his own words). He walked me through the proof of the trinity and Christ's divinity in the Old Testament, namely the angel of the Lord described in the first 5 books and the furnishings in the tabernacle (bread, lamp stand, ark). We read exodus 32-34, where Moses talks face-to-face with the Lord (Jesus), then is told that no one has seen the Lord (God) face-to-face. This information was new to me and has been added to my 'database' of scripture for use in evangelism. I was greatly encouraged at the consistency of Scripture - from the first two books, Christ was leading and connecting God's people to God. From the first two books, God was gracious and forgiving of idolatry and sin. God is and always has been loving and good and despite Ali's misgivings, this is proved to the utmost by Christ's death on the cross - a single sacrificial act that connected us with God and pardoned our sins, removing the veil between the incense of His people and the ark of His glory, for all eternity. - Stephen Reverski

New Friends

Our time in Cardiff so far has been a real adventure, with meeting a lot of new people, both those we are evangelizing to and people we have been working alongside. I'll tell you all about one of each. Firstly, one girl we met while evangelizing. Her name is Amy. Our first encounter with Amy was her skipping along singing "Bohemian Rhapsody." She later came back during my message on the first day, walked right up to me midway through, and offered me her hat. Very confusing, but Daniel and I (mostly Daniel) talked to her after the message. She seemed very off, and was probably on drugs, or off drugs she should be on. So that was difficult to get through. She came back every day since, but she hasn't been much for conversation. I pray that she will be open to more conversation and that God will work in her heart.

As for people we have been working alongside, most of them are from our host church, NewLife, but Some of the team were not from around here. One of them is Mickey. Mickey lives in Dublin but traveled to Cardiff for this ministry. He has been doing evangelism on the same street corner in Dublin for 38 years and told us stories of people searching for him decades later at the same street corner. In fact, his ministry partner, Tony, was one of the first people Mickey ever evangelized to who came to Christ. We met him on Monday and instantly loved him. He has such a passion for evangelism and a wonderful sense of humor as well. After all of our sketchboard messages, he would give us great constructive criticism about them. In only two days, he has given me great advice about my messages that really helped. He has two Harley Davidsons, and is part of a Christian motorcycle group that travels around Ireland. Mickey left to go back home today, and some of us took a picture with him. We would love to go visit him in Dublin sometime and he said that if we ask anyone in Dublin for "that preacher with the beard", they will point us in his direction. I'll end with a quote from him: "I love God, my wife, kids and grandkids; I like my Harleys." Mickey was a great example of passion and right priorities in our walk with God and an incredible example of how Christ can unite strangers who have little in common. If all we have in common with someone is Christ, then we have everything in common and they are beloved brothers and sisters in Christ. - Brady Dunn

A big thanks to Steve and Becky Harris for all the hard work and sacrifices they have made this week and the weeks leading up to it for the ministry of the Gospel. They sorted countless things from accommodation and meals to ministry opportunities and scheduling. We so much appreciate them and their partnership in the Gospel. We praise God for them!