"You Will Be My Witnesses"

Acts 1:8 says: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."  This week we saw what this means for us as Christians wherever we are, even in Abbotsford.  We have had a few different speakers come talk to us this past week about Evangelism and Witnessing.  Yesterday afternoon we put to "practice" what we learned.  Something that we learned about witnessing is that it is not about how well we do it, what we say, or how many people become believers.  It is about how we say what we say and it is about obeying and being open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.  Sometimes we may be blessed to see God use us to bring someone into relationship with Him, sometimes we may only be used to plant a seed in that person's life that someone else will get to see the fruit of.  Either way when we obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit we can be at peace that God will use us in some way, witnessing is all about obedience.  So yesterday at 3 o'clock all of us TREKKERS piled into vehicles and headed to the mail to have conversations with people and share the Gospel in whatever way we felt God prompting us.  I was quite nervous to go and do this.  Starting conversations with strangers is stepping way out of my comfort zone.  As soon as I stepped into the mall I was asked by a group of four UVF students if they could interview me for a school project they were doing on bullying and suicide.  I said yes, something that I normally would probably not have done.  They asked me their questions and I started to talk to them a little bit.  I told them that I was a CBC student and went to church.  Then I asked them if they had any research on how churches are responding or getting involved in this issue.    They told me that that was a really good idea and that they might check into that.  They also said that they really appreciated that I took the time to stop and talk to them.  I don't know what God will do with that encounter but I believe that He will use it for some good. 

Another conversation that I had was with a older gentleman named Paul.  He was charging his Moby at the Mall and was very talkative.  After talking to him for a while I found out a little bit about him and asked him if he was connected to a church.  He said, "Oh no, if you want to get robbed, that's where you go, to church."  I was quite surprised by his answer and asked him why he said that.  It turns out that he had some bad experiences in his life with church.  I talked with him some more, telling him that not all churches are like that, he mostly had experience in the Catholic church. I found out that he believed in God and Jesus, but his faith seemed very much based on being a good person and doing good things.  I talked with him some more but didn't seem to get very far.  I asked if I could pray for him and he said, "oh sure, I pray for people sometimes too and they don't even know it."  I asked him if I could pray for him right there out loud and he said, "oh no, not out loud".  I pray that Paul really does have a relationship with Jesus and I also pray that God will send more people to him that will be able to help him heal of the times he has been hurt by the church.  Please join me in praying for Paul as well.  As difficult as yesterday was, I believe that God used me and the other TREKKERS to plant some seeds in the lives of the people that we connected with yesterday. 

Yesterday night was also MB Mission's "All Night Prayer for the Nations"  From 8pm until 5:30am we gathered together to hear about what God is doing in various countries and then spend time in prayer for the leaders, the missionaries, the locals, and various ministries and things going on in each country.  The night was split into one hour blocks that focused on a different country each hour.  We also had times of worship throughout the night.  I have to admit that I was hesitant going into it because I am a big fan of sleeping and I was concerned that I would have trouble staying awake and focused.  We started with worship though, and God just filled my heart and I became so excited to spend time hearing and praying about various countries.  It was a night of great encouragement and fellowship with other believers.  We even Skyped Peru and had an opportunity to pray with the missionaries there from thousands of miles away.  The later is got the harder it was to focus but I believe that God gave us the energy to make it through the night!  It was a time of encouragement and blessing for all who participated.  God hears our prayers and answers us and I feel confident that He was in our presence last night and will be faithful in answering our prayers!

Here are some pictures from the evening:

Thank you all for your prayers as I continue training!