Here’s some highlights from Tom, Dan, James and Erina who spent the week in Mittagong. If you are reading this in time, please be praying for the big family event being hosted by the church today (Saturday)!
Tom went door-knocking with the Steve, one of the Assistant Ministers, on Monday. After a number of closed doors they met Jason and Grey wrapping cigarettes on their balcony. Jason’s mum is a JW and Grey’s son in law is a Mormon, and both were pretty anti-religion. They asked Steve and Tom who they though “Jesus is”, giving them the opportunity to share about Jesus being more about relationship than religion. Jason took a church flier – please pray he will come and visit the church. Pray for God to open the hearts of these men to see their need for a relationship with God.
Tom joined the faithful volunteers to teach Scripture in two schools, explaining the concept sin from Genesis 3 to a small Year 6 class, and Jesus calming the storm to Kindy-Year 1. Pray for these classes as they face opposition and hurdles – some parents have removed kids from Scripture, one of the longstanding Scripture volunteers is facing charges for disciplining a student, and there are more schools in town where Scripture isn’t being taught because a lack of volunteers.
The team hosted a weekly Tuesday kids club on the theme of danger (complete with a lion’s den and fire-fighting equipment). Erina gave a talk on the resurrection, aided by a “mute drama” and a game of “stuck in the darkness” (instead of mud). Dan encouraged the kids to bring their friends and family to a family event this Saturday, and they were sent home with an Easter-themed craft to share the Easter message with their family. Pray and thank God the kids had a great time and learned the resurrection of Jesus saved us from sin, pray that non-Christian families would come along to Church this Easter, especially to the Saturday family event.
The team also took part in 2 nursing home services, where Tom shared his testimony and gave a talk on “Jesus is the ultimate leader”. It was encouraging to see the residents singing old hymns with great gusto and to experience the real joy of many of these saints whose hope for eternal life outweighs their current struggles with sickness and frailty. The gatherings were small – please pray for the continued joy of these precious children of God, and for the salvation of the many residents who did not attend, as its never be too late to accept the gift of salvation in Jesus.
The team also joined in a dinner and board game night on Wednesday. James shared his testimony, touching on the historical truth of Jesus’ resurrection, which sparked the interest of an 18year old first-timer, who spent the rest of the night challenging James with philosophical arguments against Christianity. He showed interest in joining regular Bible studies and perhaps coming on Saturday. Pray that he will come this Saturday to continue this discussion, and will find some answers that lead him to look at the Bible for himself.
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