Ernest & Carmen

Evangelism in the City
I also mentioned in two posts about the various opportunities I have for evangelism.

Unfortunately, this week Stuart, Justine and Mary didn't come to CBF. Stuart was away for training that day; Justine was feeling unwell and had a doctor's appointment; and Mary didn't want to lose most of her lunch hour at the talk.

The last one's a bit disappointing, but I'll keep working on all 3 of them. Stuart and Justine have both said they'll come next week, so please keep praying for them.

And as for the cold-turkey street evangelism with my new trainee (Martin), that went quite well. Martin seemed very comfortable talking to people (me included, since that was the first time we met).

We had a good long conversation with a guy called Rick. He had some Christian/Catholic background. Seems like he was dragged to church occasionally by his wife. We stumbling around a bit working out the best approach and somehow got most of the gospel out along the way. I certainly felt lost for words at times, but somehow by God's grace managed to carry the conversation along. We left him with an invitation to CBF and for him to try and read the Bible for himself when he gets home.

The rest of the hour was unfruitful, but a good experience for Martin and myself.

<< Please pray for Stuart, Justine and Mary that they will be able/willing to come to CBF next week, or perhaps have other opportunities for me to tell them the gospel.

Thank God for the opportunity to go out with Martin and giving us the boldness to proclaim the message of the gospel. Pray that we can both continue to faithfully reachout in the future.

Pray also for Rick that the seeds we planted in his heart will one day sprout and bear fruit for God. Pray that God will bring other Christians in his life to continually challenge him in his beliefs. >>

The last two days has been full of things I've blogged about and asked people to pray for. So I think an update is in order...

Saltlight Productions - This Way Up
I mentioned the other week that I'm organising an information night for a few of the Sydney south churches, which happened last night.

From Saltlight, we had Vron, Diana, AK and Alice come and tell us about who they are and what they do and what This Way Up is. We had 29 people from 4 different churches in the area turn up. There weren't as many people as I'd hope, but I trust that people will bring the news back to their home church and tell people about it there as well.

I met Vinh and James from Vietnamese Kingsgrove Alliance church. They were both quite keen on going to Bible college somewhere down the track and serving God in full time paid ministry. I told them about Club 5 and they're interested in coming along. We also talked about about joint ventures with each other and also other Alliance churches and/or chinese churches. It was good meeting some like-minded people. :)

I was also very pleased with the way the people from my church were serving on the night. Everyone helped out in bringing & preparing supper. Some came early to set up as well, and others stayed behind to help clean up. When asked, people were happy to volunteer to welcome people as they arrive. It really is a joy when you see everyone working together for one purpose. Yay!

<< Thank God for the people from different churches who got to hear about the ministry of Saltlight Productions. Pray that the CD will be used by Christians everyone to spread the gospel. Pray particularly for the team as they go about the final stages of producing the CD and the launch. Pray that they'll continue to remain focused on the reason & purpose for their task and that ultimately God will be gloified.

Thank God also for the conversation I had with Vinh and James. Pray that they will be able to come along to Club 5 and be challenged by the conference to think more clearly about their future in ministry. Pray also for future discussions I'll have with them regarding inter-church ministry.

And a BIG pat on the back for my church members in the way they helped out and served on the night. Thank God for their enthusiasm and selflessness. >>

More to come...

Believe it or not, there's another evangelistic opportunity I didn't mention last week.

On Thursday I was on my way out to lunch. One of my colleagues, Justine, happen to get catch the elevator with me at the same time. We've chit-chatted in the past but never had a chance to talk about her beliefs or Christianity. But on that day, she asked me almost right away about CBF. She had seen someone handing out the flyers/postcards in the city earlier, and also noticed that I had them pinned up on my wall at work. So I told her a bit about it, and before I could even invite her along, she asked to come along the following week!

So now, I have Stuart and Justine coming along this week, and possibly Mary as well.

<< Thank God for giving me so many opportunities to evangelise at work. I'm a bit flustered facing such a big task, but pray that I will rely on God to work in and through me. Pray also that their hearts may be softened and prepared to received the good news of the gospel and respond with faith and repentence. >>

Evangelism is definitely on my menu for the next few months.

Aside from all the things I mentioned the other day, I'm now also going to be helping to train someone in street evangelism. I was just thinking how little I said on the day and how I want to give it a better go next time. Then before I knew it, I was asked to take a new Two ways to Live trainee on some "industrial" training.

Now, I knew I could've quite easily have said no, but I've chickened out a few times already when it comes to talking to strangers about Jesus. So I figured that this will be one way of pushing myself to actually do it. Taking someone new with me means that I'll have to take the lead and do most of the talking. Scary!

<< Pray that I may be bold in proclaiming the message of Christ to people in the city. Pray that God will give me the words to say, and that my trainee and I will be able to work well as a team. But pray especially that concentrate on being faithful - faithful with the truth of the gospel and faithful in our service to God, trusting that God will use it to bring about His purposes in the lives of those we meet. >>

The other thing is evangelism in the workplace. It's been pretty quiet on this front, partly because it's been much busier at work and I've been overseas. But also 'cause I haven't made use of all the opportunities.

I've been talking to Stuart and he doesn't mind hearing me going on about Christianity. I've told him my testimony and some of the things I do at church. He's even come along to CBF (a weekly Bible talk in the city with Al Stewart) with me a few times. But when I went to HK and came back, it sorta died and I kinda left it.

But today I finally made an effort to go ask him to come along again, and he said he'll be there next week. :) There's also another girl at work, Mary, who is a nominal "Christian". She came along to CBF for the first time today, but I wasn't sure how to challenge her about her faith in a loving way. But I hope that both of them will keep coming and I'll have more opportunities to share the gospel with them.

<< Thank God for the opportunity to refresh my relationship with Stuart and to invite him to CBF. Thank God also that Mary came along for the first time. Pray that they will both keep coming and be challenged and rebuked by the Word of God so that it may lead them to faith and repentence. And pray that God will somehow use me to that purpose somewhere along the way. >>

Yay, photos are up finally!

It's so hard to find somewhere to store your photos online for free (hey, I'm asian - something for nothing is good). Most places have only a 10MB limit. Yahoo gave a whopping 30MB. But I finally decided on Shutterfly, which so far seems to have no limit. I've uploaded almost 250 photos and I haven't reach any limits. Sure, it doesn't have all the functions like a commenting system or separate folders. But hey, storage space is the key here!

There's a link on the side to all my photo albums. But here they are again:

Hong Kong July 2003

Jac's No-More-Exams-Ever-Again Party

Jenny's Farewell

Sorry if you are using dial-up. Be patient! ;D

"So little time and so little to do." ~ Oscar Levant ~

Now, if only I could say that for myself! *sigh*

The past week hasn't slowed down at all, but I'm finally getting on top of some of this work. I spent tonight sending out stacks of emails and typing up a few bits and pieces. So I figured I might as type for a bit longer on my blog before I got to bed. At least I feel I've done a fair bit today.

I've spent my first 1.5 years at this church focussing on training people and teaching them to read the Bible properly. There's still a long way to go, but I think it's time that I start doing some evangelism stuff with them. Had a couple of meetings recently for both my high school (TG) and for my uni age youth group (EYF). In EYF, we've decided to do a series of evangelism topics, culminating at a dialogue dinner at the end of the year. We'll cover topics like apologetics, other religions, presenting the gospel, starting evangelistic conversations, and sharing our testimonies. There's lots of work to be done, but I'm looking forward to a change in program.

In TG, we've started our new program this term. We've merged our TG and Sunday School time so that the kids have an opportunity to mingle and get to know each other. Not only is Sunday not so intensive, it'll hopefully foster relationships that will make people feel welcome and encourage them to bring non-Christian friends along. We have plans to run an evangelistic Coffeeshop or something like that next year. But seeing we're just starting this new program, we thought it'd best wait a bit before we organise something big like that.

But that's not all for evangelism. I'm organising an information night for Saltlight Productions in a few weeks. I'm inviting people from churches all over the Sydney south area. Hopefully many of them will come along to hear about this exciting ministry and be supportive of it. There's more that Saltlight is doing to promote their CD, but more about that in the days to come...

And last but not least, I finally went out street evangelism this week at lunch time - after about a 2 month break (due to various interruptions). I was rather looking foward to it despite the butterflies in my stomach. I didn't say all that much, but we (I went with a guy called George Mallos) did manage to have 2 good conversations. I'm definitely going to give it a better shot next fornight when I go again.

<< Thank God for giving me strength to get through lots of work and to handle all the stress. Thank God for the opportunity to serve Him and to proclaim the gospel through my church, through Saltlight, and through street evangelism. Pray for the various things we're doing in each group and pray that God will use it to bring His people into His kingdom. Pray also for John and Daniel whom we spoke to and ask that God will soften their hearts and use those seeds we planted in their hearts to bear fruit.>>