God'sHeart

This post is about this past weeks red-light district outreach. It was amazing for me to see how much God cares about this one man I have been praying for, even when my own heart towards him was not as open as it should have been.

The Discipleship Training School girls and I felt like we should make encouraging cards for the girls for that nights outreach. After intercession and making the cards, we headed out to meet up with our ministry leaders. While walking to our ministry place, I chuckled to myself and thought, "Ha, we should buy Chuckie (our drunk guy from Tunisia) a flower this week since we don't have a card for him." I laughed about it, until I felt God lay it on my heart~ "Buy Chuckie a flower." I laughed again, "Um, no, Jesus. You cannot be serious." I kept walking. Again, I heard~ "Buy Chuckie a flower." Now I got frustrated. "No, God. Not Chuckie." Last week he had called me crazy for believing Jesus was the Son of God, so I felt that this week, when he would see me, he would very likely throw the flower in my face. Why try? We had prayed for Chuckie during the week and at our small group, and I did not realize God was wanting to show me something through this- not only show me, but show Chuckie as well. Once more, I hear~ "Buy him a flower." I relented and asked my leader if I could stop to buy a flower. To my dismay, she said yes. So I walked into the market and stood before the flower display. I prayed, "Okay, God, what color flower do you want Chuckie to have?" Clearly I heard~ "Red." I thought, "Oh no, Lord, not red. When I gave him a white flower last week, he wanted to kiss me! What will he do when I hand him a red flower?!" Nevertheless, the direction was clear. So three red carnations I bought (they didn't sell single stem and those were the only red flowers they had. Quite beautiful though.) I cut the stems shorter and we were on our way again.

Us girls split up into two's and three's and walked the block praying. When we arrived, Chuckie wasn't present. This was not normal, as he is always at that block, with a beer or wine, ready for conversation. We noticed four policemen in the nearby area and our Mr. Purple guy who is always agitated seemed evermore so tonight. The atmosphere was not good. We all walked around the block again, praying for God to pour out his peace on Mr. Purple and the block, the right words to share with the girls and for Chuckie to show up.

We came around the block, and I was greeted with a beautiful hello from none other than Chuckie. Not just any Chuckie, but a sober Chukie. I had never seen him sober, every week he seemed more drunk. Yet this week, he was stone sober and happy to see me. I told him I had something for him. I reached in my bag and handed him the flowers, telling him, "God told me to give this to you on our way here. These are just for you." He accepted them with smiles and smelled them, gently placing them in his own bag. He said he had to go to his house but he would be back because he wanted to talk to me. Before he left, I asked, "Chuckie, do you like this color red? The flowers?" His eyes lit up as he grabbed the flowers and placed them next to his heart, "I live this color, it is my favorite!" he hurried away, promising to come back. I stood still.

God had told me his favorite color.

God had TOLD me his favorite color.

God told ME his favorite color.

I started jumping up and down in the middle of the sidewalk, grabbing hold of Kim and Bryn's arms~ "I'm so excited! God told me Chuckie's favorite color! Oh my gosh, He told me!!! Wow, I'm so excited! Am I excited?! I am SO excited!" People walked by and looked at the strange American with joy on her face. Oh well. Americans. Kim and Bryn started laughing and we all started singing praise songs and thanking God for revealing that. He cared so much for Chuckie, that not just any flower would do. He wanted Chuckie to have his favorite color flower. God cares just as much for Chuckie as he does for the girls. This scripture has become very real to me the past two weeks~

2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

ALL. God's heart is for all of us to come. From the innocent girls, to political men, from victims to predators. They are all God's children, and He wishes all to come. So to all we must reach out.

Friday, our SOW:School of Worship students presented their creative worship project they had been working on. All of the students presentations were beautiful and well-done, proclaiming who God is. One that resonated with this past week for me though, for Chuckie, was Johnny's project. The main title was, "You belong to God's Heart." As I watched it, I was reminded of God's love and plan for each of our lives. He has so much more for us (bad English, I know). A destiny, a purpose and a legacy for each of us to leave.

When Chuckie came back, he said he wanted to do something for me. I shook my head and told him that was not necessary. He insisted and Bryn and I went with him to Seven Eleven where he bought us some juices and we could talk. He told us about his week (someone had ripped him off) and then began to show us what he had done that day. This kind Muslim man had went to a local church called "The Vine" and participated in the Alpha course, a study designed for evangelism or new Christians. It is very good and easy to understand- and Chuckie was excited to show me the literature and handed Bryn and I the free hand sanitizer he had gotten as well. We talked at least half an hour to an hour, and he invited one of his friends (a jamaican who has a school in the a mainland that teaches English) to also come and talk with us. It was an amazing night of seeing God's heart for people. Oh! As for Mr. Purple, God's peace did come over him and he stopped cursing everyone out that night and instead had a lovely conversation with Kim and our ministry leaders. Calmly. For the first time. Also, there had been four fights in that area that night, which explained the police presence nearby and the difficult atmosphere when arrived. After our prayers around the block, there were no more fights that night. Praise God~ He hears!!!

~*~Leave a Legacy that will Make a Difference in the World Around You.~*~

HonorShame & TempleStreet

Peace and greetings! Another week has passed and I am here to tell all of you a little more of what has been going on.

This week we had lectures on evangelism, giving testimonies and the honor & shame culture throughout Asia. It was really great to be encouraged in how to share the gospel and our own stories of how Christ has walked with us through life. We were prayed for by the staff and God spoke to each of us!

Honor and Shame is a cultural concept most widely seen in the 10-40 window. The characteristics is that anything that brings shame on the family is shunned. People are often rejected by their families because of their deeds and on the rare occasions of a person returning back to their family afterwards, the deed is ignored as if nothing ever happened. However, because of the shame, most people never return home again. They feel the shame deeply, not only against their families, but as their own guilt and shame. The honor part of society is closely guarded during the growing up years. Academic intelligence brings honor, since you will then be awarded the opportunity to go to university, which will then lead to a good job, resulting in you being able to provide for your family, since that is your responsibility as soon as you are old enough to get a job. We learned that using the Prodigal Son story in the New Testament is one of the best ways to present the gospel to cultures like this, because it shows how God covers our shame with His own honor. They are beautiful cultures and it was a blessing to learn how to identify with them in a way we all could understand!

Now for the outreach! We had our first outreach as a Discipleship Training School team this past Friday, at Temple Street Market. It was a street ministry, meaning that we brought our sound equipment and set up. We did an island dance, a drama, combined with powerful testimonies and the gospel that has the power to change our lives of we let it. Afterwards, we all would go out into the crowd that had gathered and just share about the love of God. I had the pleasure of speaking with several ladies. He led two women from Malaysia, who are Roman Catholic, to come speak with me about what we were doing there on Temple Street. I shared with them my own testimony, story, of how I came to have a relationship with God and how much He loves each of us. It seemed to visibly encourage the women, who asked for a picture with me and thanked me for sharing. I asked to pray for the English speaking Malaysian, Bernadette, who asked for happiness and prayer for family. Her sister, Elisabeth, who did not speak very much English, used Bernadette as a translator to ask if I would pray for her and several of her children who refused to go to church/acknowledge God in their lives. I prayed with them and said goodbye, hoping that they would come to a deeper revelation of who God wants to be in their lives. Soon after that, I had the chance to speak with two young women from the Philippines, Esther and Vergie. Vergie seemed more open to hearing about the Fathers heart for her, but both were close to tears. Unfortunately, neither agreed to accept salvation but did allow me to pray for them before they had to catch a bus. Overall, many people heard the gospel, many were prayed for, and there was a couple salvations that night throughout the team! God truly moved and opened hearts to hear the message. The location has many people of Nepali, Muslim and Hindi backgrounds, so the fact so many were willing to stop and listen was a blessing and miracle. Sweet people and awesome ministry time!

So, this coming week we have a guest speaker, Bill Payne, who will be speaking on the Character of God. Also, Wednesday will begin our team doing outreaches with local ministries. We have food distribution, Shanti (tutoring with ethnic minority children, and the mentally disabled), community connections (outreaches into our village, visitation and helping with a farm) and Chung King Mansion (red light district outreach to prostitutes). This week I will be at Chung King Mansion with a couple of the other girls from the Discipleship Training School and staff. We will just share love with the girls and minister to them as much as we can!

Prayer requests:
The health of our base has been getting better, praise God! Keep praying!
Unity
Blessing on all of the outreach locations
Salvation for those who heard the message at Temple Street
Strength for the new Christians
Anointing and understanding on the lectures this week
God's presence and speaking to each of us

Much love to you all, until next week! As always, would love to hear from any of you, whether questions, encouragement, prayer, or support. My address is on a previous post for those of you who wish to send me a post card or anything! Blessings!

~*~Leave a Legacy that will Make a Difference in the World Around You.~*~