Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Sharing the Gospel with the refugee

God opened up an amazing door for Amber and I with a couple of young refugee girls. We talked to them at a bus stop and sat with them on the bus ride a few months ago. We gave them each a Bible and some other materials. We exchanged emails with them and corresponded with the eldest (16) for a while through email. She asked us in her emails to come see her and teach her the Bible. We finally went to see her Sat., Sept. 5th, not sure if she would be home. We met at Sbucks and prayed and I brought some children's materials to help us share the gospel. Her English is not too great considering she moved here in May, but amazing at the same time. We found the apartment complex and parked. Trying to be discrete, (yeah right), Amber's car alarm decided to go off and she couldn't figure out how to turn it off for several minutes...so we made quite the entrance. After going to the wrong apartment (and being invited in), her brother helped us find their apartment. And he was home! Praise God! We were able to walk her through the gospel of Jesus Christ beginning with creation, she even had a Bible in Napli which she was able to read the first chapter of Genesis in out loud. We talked about who God is, creation and sin. We talked to her about our fallen nature and the fact that we deserve punishment in hell. We discussed Romans 3:23 and 6:23. Amber talked to her about Jesus, Who He is, what He did and the cross. We spent 2.5 hours with her and it went by so quickly. She told us she wanted to learn how to pray. Amber and I each prayed out loud with her and then she prayed a short prayer as well. It was an amazing time that we pray the Lord used to begin to open her eyes and take off the blinders on her heart.

I feel so blessed and unworthy to have had this opportunity to be used to spread the gospel. I pray that God will draw her to himself and use her to save more refugees. Amber and I are praying that we will be asked to come back and share more with her, at this point she has not emailed us. I have emailed her twice. We know the message of the gospel is offensive and it is veild to those who are perishing, but I pray God will draw her.

We did not lead her through a "sinner's prayer", we know the gospel is the power that saves a person.

Please Pray that we can go speak with her again
Please pray that God will save her by His mighty power
Pray that God will move among the refugees in Tucson by saving those in the communities

May the Lamb that was slain receive His due reward! It is all for the Glory of Christ and God the Father and not for the sake of any man that we pray for the salvation of helpless souls!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Ted

We continue to pray for Ted. We met him a few weeks ago sitting in front of McDonald's reading the paper and sipping coffee. We pleaded with him to believe, but he would rather be apathetic and just see what happens when he dies. We have talked to him a few more times, he is smiley and makes jokes, but doesn't really want to worry about the afterlife. He figures he'll worry about that then.

"I am a good person, God will let me in"

So everyone thinks Amber and I are in High School, or maybe college if we are lucky. It is funny. We saw Connie (age 17) again this morning. She is pregnant, due this December, living in a group home and was sleeping with a man to get drugs from him, and her mom is pregnant by the same man. We have shared the gospel with her and talked to her about the Lord. She is very agreeable and says she believes. We continue to see her every Thursday and talk about the arrival of her baby, school and her goals and plans for the future.

We talked to a guy named Dan who was on his way to the airport to go see U2 in concert in Chicago. He politely listened to us share about sin, hell, the forgiveness through Christ. He just smiled and basically didn't care. He figured he was a good enough person that God would let him off the hook for any wrong he committed. I kept telling him that no one is "good enough" to go to heaven. He acted as if it didn't phase him.

Vanessa (17) also thinks that she is a pretty good person, I mean better then a lot of people. I focused on the sin in our hearts, that even hating your brother is considered like murder to God. I shared with her that believing in Christ as the sacrifice for her sin is the only way to heaven. We were able to give her a Bible.

5 Months later!

So it has been five months that Amber and I have been going to bus stops and (used to) ride the bus too. It has been a very eye-opening and revealing time for me.