Today was our last official day of ministry. We had an early breakfast (6:30), then said our goodbyes to Mary, Florian, Esther, Efraim, Tabea, and Priscilla. Sam and Heiko came with us for today’s ministry in Valenciennes. We met up with a few people at a small church in Valenciennes, had a snack and prayed for a productive day of ministry. We headed out to perform in a square where there are usually hundreds of people, but due to rain, we had maybe twenty over the course of our short (maybe 45 minute) time there. It didn’t help that we had no sound there, either… that draws a crowd more than anything else. We then went back to the church for lunch, rather discouraged, but Andre and the other pastors were still hopeful that God would move in our second ministry outing. After lunch we went out to a different area nearby, a sort of outdoor mall (much like our Horton Plaza). Because of the rain we congregated in a large covered hallway between stores and began our performance there. Due to limited space and no sound, we stuck to songs only for this outing, while the pastors with us talked with those who stopped to watch and offered them the gospel of Luke. Honestly, my hopes for this area were not very high… but people did stop to watch. And gospels were given out. Two stories in particular (related to us later) were very encouraging:
Judy, a young woman around our age, stopped to watch and ended up talking with three different pastors of ours over the course of her stay to watch. Through her interactions with all of them, she ended up hearing the whole gospel message, and she gladly took the gospel of Luke with her when she left. Be praying that she reads and accepts it!
An older woman whose name we don’t know thought our performance was from some religious cult, so though she watched for a few minutes, she soon left. However, something (or Someone?) drew her back to watch again, and this time one of our pastors explained that we weren’t a cult, and that Christianity is about a relationship with God, not a religion. She listened with interest, and she agreed to take a gospel
because, according to her, she was born on St. Luke’s Day and would have been named Luke if she were a boy. Coincidence? Or God-incident?
After we finally finished up and went back to the church, we ate dinner and chatted with the group we found there, then attended a small prayer meeting in the same building. Among prayer requests and such, we had the opportunity to hear from the pastors (including Sam) about their perspective on our input. Over the course of our ministry, they were able to pass out 50 or 60 gospels, which is far more than they are ordinarily able to get people to take. They all marveled and thanked God for the work that He did through us over this past week. Although 50 or 60 may not seem like a big number to Americans, that is a HUGE deal in France. Praise God for what He is doing there!
Around 9:30 we left to go back to the flat in Feignies, got some packing in, hung out as a team, etc. Late breakfast tomorrow, so tonight is party time! Whoo roommate chats and guy talk and such! We probably got to bed around 1:30 with all of our shenanigans. :)
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