you know i'm a person of few words :) but i wanted to share praises over dearborn. (i'm really going to try to keep this brief )
1. vision of spiritual need/opportunity was off the charts there for everyone. please continue to pray this for me!
2. rest in the finished work of Christ. i floated through everything except for almost losing my temper with the chief of security and a spot of spiritual static the last night we were there when i became I, instead of i, for a bit.
3. love of Jesus in my heart. saw plenty of demonstration of this within our group and by our group, praise God for the opportunity to share His love.
4.open doors. many more than i could recount for myself and a multitude for the group. lazaro (the one in our group that God lead me to witness with at the festival) and i kept getting kicked out of different places to where the Lord wanted us and thus, a full block away from the festival, we ended up shared the gospel with thousands of people. lazaro brought a large banner (~4' x6') which i was privileged to hold. God enabled us to interact with a number of people, pass out a large amount of literature but the banner attracted awe-inspiring attention. we saw real spiritual hunger in so many eyes!!! what a blessed place to be...where the Lord puts you! it felt like looking down and seeing the 53 large, squirming fish in the net after all night fishing for none...and that was just the first afternoon/evening at the festival! the whole trip was worthwhile just seeing the response and sensing God's spirit sowing seed in many precious hearts.
5.boldness of speech. YES, everywhere. in one yemenese restaurant i just followed another guy in the group, ed from the washington d.c. area, around as he shared the gospel with everyone there! God gave great liberty in speech but i was just a servant-boy learning as much as i could from the others.
6. clarity in proclamation. many there were longtime workers with muslim people. the first two days we had tremendous apologetical training. check out sam shamoun (i think i spelled it right). he is tremendous. straight from the Bible and the koran to confute what islam teaches about christianity and itself! i had been praying for insight and although many others debated i was led away from this to share a simple gospel...'you remember the innocent little lamb whose throat had to be slit for the sin of the one bringing it in old testament times. you love Jesus. you believe He is a prophet of God. but i believe He IS GOD who came to earth as a man for one purpose and that was to die for your sin and mine!!! ( this of course is abbreviated a bit but not by much. there was a lot of action, chaos at times etc. so i just shared briefly as i could the essentials of the good news!) then they would start arguing and i would say with a smile, i know you and i believe differently. i really appreciate the opportunity you gave me to share what i believe about Jesus with you. i encourage you, if you ever become burdened by your sin and long to be clean and forgiven and know you have eternal life ..i encourage you to just call out to Jesus. He sees you and He will reveal Himself to You. He will cleanse and forgive you and give you Himself!...praise God for His good news. nobody refused me when i asked if i could share the good news of Jesus. it was awesome. how good God was in response to prayer!
7. stand in Christ's victory. THE WHOLE BLESSED TIME, HALLELUJAH!!!!
8. open hearts. oh may eternity show that God opened the heart of many of these precious people. oh Jesus lead them to count the cost and come to You.
9. Jesus dvd's one little girl became my assistant! she kept coming back on her bike asking for more and then taking them to more friends and relatives. please pray that the thousands we gave out will find their way to countless people.
10. hunger and thirst for righteousness. one story..no two of many. God leads me to call out a greeting to a single man leaving the festival. God leads rabia over to where i am holding a banner proclaiming the Gospel. when we begin talking i think he is muslim..then i think he is maybe not muslim but definitely infected by works-righteousness..we talk intensely back and forth for quite a while and finally we are able to understand each other..i realize he is a babe in Christ who does not yet speak clearly!! we then have a long 'discipleship discussion' with the result that rabia went away realizing he must find a Bible believing fellowship and not continue 'out there' on his own. 7 months from his eyes being opened with life and he is encouraging me from the Word as intensely as i him..what a blessing! precious fellowship!! i gave him the address and phone # of a local church, the arab christian fellowship in dearborn. many decisions for Christ in the group..the most striking is when one man from our group, moses who is from egypt (i'm not kiddin!), is led to go up to a particular man among many in line for the ferris wheel. they talk. the man prays right in line to trust Christ. later he tells moses that he was intending to get on the ferris wheel and jump from the top.
11. unity. there was much sweet fellowship. God blessed us on friday with a Holy Spirit time of worship in a public park near the festival grounds and saturday and sunday mornings with beseeching prayer meetings. lazaro's banner, with the 10 commandments and the statement 'condemned by the law' on the bottom on one side and the dominant (beautiful!) cross with it's narrow door and the wide road leading to the flames of hell in the lower corner with appropriate scripture on the other caused a bit of a row in the group (i take it) and widespread rapt attention outside the group. several people in the group had made comments that there were some people upset by it (no reason being given) and i just said 'oh'. saturday night several from the group came up and said that they thought it would be a good idea not to display it (no reason given) and hand out literature instead. i simply said that was not the way God was leading me but encouraged them to follow His leading for them...and that was the only indication whatsoever of even a ripple in our unity as a group. it never came up again, thank God.
12. logistics and organization..'somehow we got there' and God helped us would sum up this area.. God kept my mouth shut and it was cool to see how He made up for what sometimes seemed a bit chaotic.
13. God gave us a good audience at the mosque. many seeds were planted in the men with whom we interacted.
14. law enforcement. we were denied free speech rights to pass out our literature in the festival area. george saieg, the leader of the group, brought a lawsuit against the city of dearborn and sought an emegency restraining order to enable us to do so. this was denied. we were given a free booth (normally $500) at the far end of the festival grounds and restricted to giving literature well beyond the barriers that marked the end of the festival area. we had some difficulties with security (fortunately in our case God put His hook in my rebellious nose and led lazaro and i to very green pastures He had prepared for us). the case is still in progress with the hope that free speech rights will return for next year's festival.
15. safety. i had successfully avoided flying in planes, other than the small ones on mission in canada, to this point. not a qualm for which i thank God. as we took off for dearborn i was meditating through romans 3 at the time and as the wheels left the ground i was saying verse 10 -for whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. thrilling tie in with the purpose of taking that plane and nothing but peace. the whole trip God's peace surrounded us.
16. follow ups. just got denny barger's newsletter in which he reports 20 decisions so may we pray for these, but i'm thinking also of many more people whose eyes said 'God is speaking to me right now'. please pray for these dear people that God's people would cultivate and water the seed planted.
17. muslim evangelism by the Church around the world. just saw an old movie about st. francis of assisi who won the heart of the muslim chief as a friend by his love. you and i can be the answer to this prayer request by showing the same love and consideration for each muslim we meet and seeking them out to share the Gospel. check out islamicfinder.org to find muslims you may not know yet who live near you.
18. abundant fruit. may God give us all a continual prayer, vision and actions for the soon to be one quarter of the world's population who are of the muslim belief. Jesus' love through us can woo them, Jesus' truth through us can set them free.
thank you so much for any God-inspired prayer you have raised and may continue to raise as God leads for dearborn. God will bless you for your part in what He did and is continuing to do there and...who knows where by now!
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