God's blessings on project.
In the past few weeks on project, without staff, we have had a lot of fun and have grown together. I should have been blogging all along, because we have been doing outreach at the Gay Games, having a Bible Study at Kennedy King College, and having fun with lots of Muskie visitors. I have also been loving working at Jimmy John's. We have been learning a lot about loving, serving, and praying for one another, depending totally on God.
All that has been great, and something even more exciting happened this past Sunday:
Sunday is one of our two main outreach days. Ususally we do initiative evangelism in the city. But today we were partnering with the Chicago Here's Life Inner City project to have a volleyball "party" on campus with people living at IIT with us. I was excited about the outreach because I thought we could form some new relationships--I had no idea what God had plannned.
Outside the student center we had pop and snacks and lots of volleyball fun. Lots of people came, including a large number of Asian students (all Chinese or Korean) who had come in for a month to improve their English.
The volleyball was going great--we were having fun and forming some friendships. I thought that it would be good to have some tracts (a little booklet that has a CLEAR and UNCLUTTERED explanation of the Gospel) available just in case a conversation went in that direction. So I asked Maggie (our outreach leader) if she had any on her, and she said she'd go get some. She brought down a couple dozen and set them on the table. I put a couple in my pocket and sat down with a group of students.
About two minutes later, a guy named Ivan (English name) from China sat down next to me. We had been on the same team for volleyball and I had been thinking that it'd be great to get to talk to him. Well, within two mintues, everyone else had gotten up and left, and it was just Ivan and I talking. Within a couple minutes I was going through the Gospel, explaining who Jesus is and what Christians believe. He had never heard anything like this before.
As I was sharing with Ivan (it took a long time because his English is limited), I glanced around and saw that students were sharing the Gospel literally EVERYWHERE around me. I knew from that and just from the way that things were going with Ivan that all of us were being totally controlled by the Holy Spirit. I offered Ivan and chance to respond the gospel, and he prayed to recieve Jesus into his heart! Praise God! His sins, past, present, future, are forgiven forever because he is trusting in Jesus for his life and salvation, instead of in "himself," as he said most Chinese people do.
We ate dinner together, and as Ivan, Shannon, myself, and two other Chinese men ate together, Shannon shared the gospel with one of them! Later the three of them visited us in our lounge and I was able to share the gospel again! Wow!! Friday night we will be watching the Jesus Film in Chinese at 7 pm. Pray that the Holy Spirit is manifested once again in all of our lives.
My plan is to hang out with Ivan as much as possible between now and the time we leave, so that he can be rooted and built up in his faith. Please pray for Ivan, that God would make himself forever real to him.
All of these events were to the glory of God, because none of us could have guessed what was to have happened on Sunday. Thank you for all of your prayers, and please, double up on them... We've only got two weeks left on project, but lots of loving and sharing to do.
All that has been great, and something even more exciting happened this past Sunday:
Sunday is one of our two main outreach days. Ususally we do initiative evangelism in the city. But today we were partnering with the Chicago Here's Life Inner City project to have a volleyball "party" on campus with people living at IIT with us. I was excited about the outreach because I thought we could form some new relationships--I had no idea what God had plannned.
Outside the student center we had pop and snacks and lots of volleyball fun. Lots of people came, including a large number of Asian students (all Chinese or Korean) who had come in for a month to improve their English.
The volleyball was going great--we were having fun and forming some friendships. I thought that it would be good to have some tracts (a little booklet that has a CLEAR and UNCLUTTERED explanation of the Gospel) available just in case a conversation went in that direction. So I asked Maggie (our outreach leader) if she had any on her, and she said she'd go get some. She brought down a couple dozen and set them on the table. I put a couple in my pocket and sat down with a group of students.
About two minutes later, a guy named Ivan (English name) from China sat down next to me. We had been on the same team for volleyball and I had been thinking that it'd be great to get to talk to him. Well, within two mintues, everyone else had gotten up and left, and it was just Ivan and I talking. Within a couple minutes I was going through the Gospel, explaining who Jesus is and what Christians believe. He had never heard anything like this before.
As I was sharing with Ivan (it took a long time because his English is limited), I glanced around and saw that students were sharing the Gospel literally EVERYWHERE around me. I knew from that and just from the way that things were going with Ivan that all of us were being totally controlled by the Holy Spirit. I offered Ivan and chance to respond the gospel, and he prayed to recieve Jesus into his heart! Praise God! His sins, past, present, future, are forgiven forever because he is trusting in Jesus for his life and salvation, instead of in "himself," as he said most Chinese people do.
We ate dinner together, and as Ivan, Shannon, myself, and two other Chinese men ate together, Shannon shared the gospel with one of them! Later the three of them visited us in our lounge and I was able to share the gospel again! Wow!! Friday night we will be watching the Jesus Film in Chinese at 7 pm. Pray that the Holy Spirit is manifested once again in all of our lives.
My plan is to hang out with Ivan as much as possible between now and the time we leave, so that he can be rooted and built up in his faith. Please pray for Ivan, that God would make himself forever real to him.
All of these events were to the glory of God, because none of us could have guessed what was to have happened on Sunday. Thank you for all of your prayers, and please, double up on them... We've only got two weeks left on project, but lots of loving and sharing to do.
posted by J. Arthur Ellis at 11:25 AM
2 comments
