A couple of times in the past few weeks, some of the members of the outreach team, along with others had lunch together. At the first of these lunches, we had a Jewish waitress serving us, who was already known to a few in our group. Throughout our time there, we witnessed to Y. who accepted both a set of Scriptures and several pieces of literature from us before happily leaving at the end of her shift with our gift bag.
The second time we met for lunch, we had a Czech waitress who made a gesture of “knocking on wood” as she spoke. We told B. that originally it was a reference to the cross of Messiah, which led straight into a lengthy conversation at the end of her shift on her Catholic background and salvation by faith alone. With tears in her eyes, she gratefully received a Bible in English as well as some literature which has our contact information.
May both servers be drawn into the service of the One who gave us the greatest example of serving, Messiah Yeshua who came for both Jews and Gentiles.
Montreal, July 25 Walk and Talk
Despite the hot and humid weather, four members of the team came out to do an outreach in the park. One of the members played the guitar, and we sang praise songs to the Lord, lending a beautiful atmosphere to our time there. We knew a great prayer team was behind us from their homes. We could see that the Lord was with us, because even though not many were in the park, we had quite a few great conversations!
We just had arrived and got our material ready, when a young man who looked Jewish turned up. He described himself as Catholic who irregularly attends church, most often on Christmas. He also identified himself as an atheist and a university student. He claimed he was looking for the truth through his studies in political science, but admitted he was disillusioned. As he listened to us share about the truth in Messiah, his childhood faith in the Lord seemed to have resurfaced. More of this kind of exchange encouraged him to accept a Bible from us. When we left, he was pensive as he heard verses from the gospel of John motivating him to bring the Lord in his life for true peace through faith in the atoning death of Jesus.
We spoke with a Jewish Sephardic man from Spain who was surprised that we were witnessing to Jews about Yeshua. We told him that we weren’t making any mythical claims as many religious sects did, with their false prophets like Joseph Smith or Mohamed but were presenting what the Jewish prophets said about Messiah. We left him with the anti-Semitism pamphlet. He heard us read the Messianic verses contained on the bookmark and in Isaiah 53. He claimed that there were many good Jewish religious men that had good lives. We responded that all men were made in God’s image, giving them the desire for goodness. But the Jewish Messiah had to atone for sinners because the law was transgressed. This, we explained was the work of the Lord God of Israel, who is the only Redeemer. We shared how we as men, cannot accomplish atonement for ourselves. Surprisingly, he agreed.
We then shared with a Holocaust survivor who was so happy to see people supporting Israel in their unending suffering. He listened to us share how the Jewish Messiah was a blessing for us Gentiles who received Him. We expressed appreciation for the Jewish people who are an integral part of this spiritual battle. We explained that this nation’s suffering was in part attributed to the fact that the seed of Messiah came through this nation, His people, Israel. He was so glad to have met us and was grateful for the full set of Scriptures and the literature that he happily accepted!
We then encountered an elderly Jewish woman with her middle-aged daughter. They were happy to hear us express the reason for our coming out to meet with our Jewish neighbors but declined to receive any literature from us.
We met an elderly Jewish couple who conversed with us for half an hour but pushed back when we brought up Yeshua. They responded that Jesus was good for us but not for them. The lady however, did accept our anti-Semitism pamphlet since her husband had already received it from two ladies on our team in the past.
The last encounter we had before leaving was with a father and child playing ping pong at a table, however they expressed no interest in hearing us speak about the Jewish Messiah.
Praise the Lord for the uplifting day we had in His presence, as we were privileged to share with our neighbors in the park.
Shalom!